Andre Villas-Boas Enters War of Words With Former Tottenham Chairman Lord Sugar

Tottenham Hotspur boss Andre Villas-Boas has responded to criticism from former club chairman Lord Sugar by accusing the business tycoon of leading calls to see him removed as manager at White Hart Lane.

Following Sunday's draw with Premier League champions Manchester United, Spurs trail leaders Arsenal by 10 points and last weekend lost 6-0 to Manchester City, their heaviest defeat for two decades.

Reports emerged in mid-week that the Tottenham hierarchy were considering Villas-Boas' future after a fourth league defeat of the campaign and Sugar, who was chairman at the club for 10 years from 1991-2001, claimed he wanted former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson to take over.

Michael Laudrup has been installed as the bookmakers favourite to replace Villas-Boas if the former FC Porto and Chelsea boss is indeed sacked by Tottenham but the manager says calls for his head are been driven by Sugar alone.

"I think it's a very driven agenda by somebody that doesn't honour the club, neither myself nor my players," Villas-Boas told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"It's their team, their passion and they don't trade it for anything else, not like Alan Sugar who trades it for money."

"We sit with the possibility of going into the semi-finals of the league cup, for a team that has not won a trophy since 2008, and have qualified for the next stage of the Europa League with 15 points from our group so to have that kind of driven agenda is not correct in my opinion," he added to BBC Sport.

"I don't know. You can probably tell me who. But that is my opinion at least and I think we have responded in great fashion today. So the unity is there and the organisation is there. We need to find the efficiency on our finishing situations and I think when that happens we will bounce back."

Sugar has been a constant critique of Villas-Boas's spell at Tottenham. The 36 year old has failed to manage the transition since Gareth Bale's departure to Real Madrid with much assurance and the club have suffered four league defeats already this season and scored just 10 goals in 13 matches.

Tottenham last season relinquished a seven-point lead over Arsenal in the final two months of last term in the race for the fourth Champions League place and a poor start to their season after spending over £100m in the summer has drawn questions over his position.