Andre Villas-Boas says Tottenham can cope without Emmanuel Adebayor

The Portuguese is set to lose striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who is due to represent Togo at the African Cup of Nations.

The former Arsenal forward will play his last match for the White Hart Lane club tomorrow at QPR before departing to South Africa to link up with his international team-mates.

Tottenham had been linked with Brazil’s Damiao, who was top scorer at the Olympics last summer, but Villas-Boas said the transfer was unlikely, adding that he expects Clint Demsey, a summer acquisition from Fulham, to fill the void left by Adebayor.

“Leandro is a player that we have always appreciated at this club (but) it is extremely unlikely that he will play for Tottenham,” Villas-Boas told a press conference.

“I don’t think Adebayor’s decision will affect our transfer policy. We’ve been pretty happy with the options we have available.

“We understand that we can put ourselves in a difficult position if one of our strikers gets injured, but we’ve been in this situation before when Ade was injured, and we managed to go through it.

“I think we’re able to cope. We always believe in Dempsey as a striker.”

Nonetheless Adebayor could miss as many as five matches and, with Jermain Defoe the club’s only out-and-out striker, many fans will be surprised that Villas-Boas has, for the time being, decided not to add to his squad.

Adebayor’s decision to travel to South Africa hung in the balance for a long time and Villas-Boas denied that he was unhappy with the player.

He said: “The conversations that I had with the player are private and not for discussion.

“What I’ve told him is that we’ve been waiting for his decision patiently and if the players has to go, he goes, and if he stays he stays. That is the end of the story.”

Villas-Boas, who has bought young defender Zeki Fryers from Standard Liege and secured the Bosman signing of Lewis Holtby who will join from Schalke in June, said it was “very unlikely” he would sign any more players during the January transfer window.

In other transfer news, West Brom head coach Steve Clarke said today that central defender Jonas Olsson is “not for sale” after rejecting a bid — believed to be £5 million — from QPR.

But he admitted there is a buy-out clause in Olsson’s contract which could be activated this summer by one of six clubs he has stipulated in his terms.

Clarke said: “I can confirm a bid has been turned down and I don’t encourage any more bids because Jonas is not for sale.”