André Villas-Boas says that the 19-year-old Harry Kane will be his third-choice striker at Tottenham Hotspur this season, as to have too many established players fighting for one starting position can be problematic.

The manager, who will play a 4-3-3 formation, has faith in Kane, whose six appearances and one goal for the club to date came in last season's Europa League. He involved him during pre-season.

Jermain Defoe is Villas-Boas' only senior striker at present and he will start at Newcastle United in the late kick-off on Saturday . Villas-Boas' plan to integrate Kane, though, suggests that he will sign no more than one more striker before the end of the month.

Tottenham have tried all summer to complete the permanent transfer of Emmanuel Adebayor from Manchester City but the Togolese, who spent last season on loan at White Hart Lane, remains in disagreement with City over a termination-of-contract payment. Villas-Boas has explored other options, including the Brazil and Internacional No9 Leandro Damião, but, on the eve of the season, he was happy to talk up Kane, who scored eight goals on loan at Championship Millwall last season, even if he admitted that the situation up front is not ideal.

"Kane is a young striker that we believe in and who we trust for the future," Villas-Boas said. "We are looking for another striker. What we can do in the market …it has been difficult to live with. We have been in touch with a couple of players for that position and for one reason or the other, it has stalled and hasn't happened. But that doesn't mean it can't happen in the next couple of days. It won't happen before the Newcastle game.

"Kane is in our plans and I can give you an example. Last year, I had two strikers at Chelsea [his former club] of great dimension and Tottenham had three strikers of great dimension – Adebayor, Defoe and [Roman] Pavlyuchenko. Normally there is one that doesn't get game time. That's not because you don't rotate enough but because when you play a system with one striker, it is very difficult to get the third one to play enough.

"Normally on my teams, I like to promote the third one as a young striker, who is competing for that place a bit more aggressively. Last season, with the way Tottenham played, Pavlyuchenko had to leave in January and the situation is more or less similar."

Defoe would not seem a natural fit for the lone striker role and the England international has been worried this summer about his Tottenham future and he has been linked with a move. Villas-Boas said that he had "spoken to Jermain and his agent about the situation" but he continues to see a part for him to play.

"Obviously, we are looking for one more striker because that is the reality of the Premier League," Villas-Boas said. "We can't have two strikers. Jermain scored 17 goals last season. He was a key player and will continue to be. He knows we are in the market looking for one striker more but I think competition is something that he is used to. It makes him tick."

Tottenham's visit to Newcastle will pit Villas-Boas against Alan Pardew, the manager with whom he argued last season after Chelsea's 3-0 win at St James' Park. But Villas-Boas said that the pair were friends and he was grateful to Pardew for his supportive public words after he was sacked by Chelsea.

"I have an excellent relationship with him," Villas-Boas said. "We were together at the Monaco Grand Prix and we spoke a little bit. We spoke regularly. He was one of the managers that showed respect to me when I left Chelsea and I appreciated his words. I made sure I thanked him for that."