Roberto Soldado says Tottenham's decision to axe Andre Villas Boas sparked his slump

Troubled spell: Soldado scored 16 goals in 76 appearances while at Tottenham
GETTY
Tom Dutton10 October 2015

Former Tottenham striker Roberto Soldado has revealed Andre Villas-Boas's dismissal turned his world upside down in late 2013 .

The Spaniard, who scored just 16 goals in 76 appearance for Spurs, left White Hart Lane this summer for Villarreal after failing to recapture the form that first alerted the north London club to him two seasons ago.

But Soldado says his struggles in England were sparked by Tottenham's decision to axe Villas-Boas just four months after he moved to the club. The 30-year-old scored nine goals for Spurs under the Portuguese boss before a 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool in December spelt the end for the former Chelsea manager.

"I went [to London] with enthusiasm and excitement, it was a challenge for me, thinking that the Premier League was perfect football for me, but it was quite the opposite." Soldado told The Mirror.

Ranking Tottenham's summer signings so far

1/6

"Since the dismissal of Villas Boas, who was the one that wanted me, everything went upside down. I lost confidence and had a hard time.

"But I think that experience made me appreciate and enjoy more what I'm living."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in