Andre Villas-Boas Reportedly on Brink at Tottenham as Odds Are Slashed on Exit

Andre Villas-Boas is nearing the exit door at Tottenham despite his £100 million summer outlay, according to multiple reports on Wednesday morning.

The abrasive Portuguese, who saw his team lose 6-0 at Manchester City on Sunday, has become the favourite to be the next Premier League manager out of a job, with SkyBet offering odds of 11/10 on his departure, per Oddschecker.

That trumps Fulham boss Martin Jol, who is available at 7/4 as the next manager to leave.

According to Matt Barlow of the Daily Mail, Villas-Boas is running out of friends at White Hart Lane, where few factions of the club remain behind his management:

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Manager Villas-Boas has slowly become isolated at Spurs, as his relationship cooled with supporters, players and technical director Franco Baldini.

What has become clear since Sunday's 6-0 thrashing at Manchester City is that friction has been developing for some time.

The capitulation at City, however, provided a catalyst for theories among the club's hierarchy that he may not be the manager to take them forward into the long-term.

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Barlow goes on to suggest that both the medical staff at Tottenham, and the playing staff, have also been angered by Villas-Boas’ attitude over recent weeks.

The former Porto boss said he was “ashamed” of his players’ performance at City, per BBC Sport, while he was clearly irritated that no medical figure helped defend his decision to keep the concussed Hugo Lloris on the pitch at Everton, per David Hytner of the Guardian.

Jan Vertonghen spoke in defence of his manager on Tuesday, replying “absolutely not” when asked about a problem between the players and Villas-Boas, as reported by Jamie Jackson of the Guardian.

However, the Spurs boss’ biggest problem, ultimately, is that Tottenham are faltering badly in their pursuit of a top-four finish this season, and they are playing pain-staking football along the way.

Having spent all of the cash raised by the sale of Gareth Bale to bring in big-money signings like Erik Lamela and Roberto Soldado, Tottenham have scored nine league goals in 12 games. They have netted only five in six home outings, barely justifying the price of a ticket.

The odd game has been laced in bad luck. Tim Krul’s once-in-a-lifetime display in the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle saw Spurs register 31 shots at goal.

However, more generally, the buildup play has been slow and predictable. Andros Townsend always cuts inside from the right; Gylfi Sigurdsson, Aaron Lennon or Nacer Chadli all narrow the pitch from the left, and nobody seems aware that Soldado is stood—albeit motionlessly—up front.

In fairness to Villas-Boas, such a plethora of new arrivals—including Paulinho, Christian Eriksen and Etienne Capoue—was always going to take time to blend together.

But Tottenham are already ninth in the table and face champions Manchester United next. A successful Europa League campaign means little in that context.

Villas-Boas is beginning to show similar traits displayed during his stormy spell at Chelsea, alienating himself to the media.

This was meant to be the season when Tottenham became the No. 1 team in North London and maybe even challenged for the title. The fact Arsenal are looking down on them from top spot only accentuates the gloom over White Hart Lane.