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Andre Villas-Boas must turn his new Tottenham team into Premier League title ­challengers.

Spurs have smashed their transfer record three times this summer, taking the club’s spending past £100million.

And the White Hart Lane club will not be satisfied with just trying to finish above arch-rivals Arsenal.

The spending has been ­financed by Gareth Bale’s move to Real, but that will not ­prevent manager Villas-Boas facing increased pressure to deliver.

Tottenham bosses are prioritising Champions League qualification this term, but expect the club to be challenging for the title next season if they can’t force their way into the shake-up ­immediately.

There is an acceptance the new-look squad will need some time to get to know each other and ­settle, but Spurs ­chairman Daniel Levy is ­expecting big returns on the club’s huge investment.

Tottenham face Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday, and are desperate to beat their rivals to a top-four ­Premier League finish. But their ambition ­extends much further.

A source told Sunday Mirror Sport: “The top four is the priority this season and it will take the manager at least one month to get his new squad fully settled.

“But the club haven’t bought all these players just to try to finish above Arsenal every year. Once they settle in, the ­ambition is to challenge for the title.”

Tottenham have broken their transfer record on Paulinho, Roberto ­Soldado and Erik Lamela.

They have also signed Nacer Chadli, Etienne ­Capoue, Christian ­Eriksen and Vlad Chiriches to take their spending over the £100m mark.

The club have not ruled out doing even more ­business before Monday night’s transfer deadline, particularly if they ­receive any late ­encouragement on Real Betis forward Alvaro ­Vadillo, Real Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao or Zenit St Petersburg ­forward Hulk.

Villas-Boas, though, is now believed to be ­satisfied with his squad and Tottenham are ­delighted to have got their signings in before finally letting Bale go.

Our source added: “There were a number of reasons why it was ­important to sign the players before selling ­Gareth, the main one being that we needed time to replace him.

“But there was also the fear that clubs would push up transfer fees as soon as the Bale money had come in and the wage demands of players would also have increased.”