Tim Sherwood believes Tottenham Hotspur’s seven summer signings will be better next season after gaining experience of the Premier League

Spurs splashed out £110million bringing in players from other leagues last year but, with the exception of Christian Eriksen, none have arguably starred in what has been a difficult season for the club.

The re-investment of the world-record transfer fee gained from the sale of Gareth Bale last year led to some media speculation that Tottenham might challenge for the title this year.

But Sherwood said: “It was hyped, it was ridiculous. You’re talking about taking out the best player in the world, or one of, in Gareth Bale, and replacing him with seven players who’ve never played in this competition previously – how on Earth were we meant to be title challengers?

“If you don’t know the game you could think that they would just all hit the floor running but it doesn’t happen - they need time. This club will be better with those seven players next season because they will have had a season playing in this competition, and experience, and they’ll improve from that.”

Tottenham finished the season in sixth place and clinched the last Europa League spot with a 3-0 win over Villa in the final match.

And Sherwood believes the placing is a fair reflection of where the club is at after losing some of the league’s proven goal scorers.

He said: “To take out a real match winner – eight winning goals he (Bale) scored last season, 21 goals. Jermain Defoe, ten goals, Clint Dempsey, eight goals – look at all those goals you’re taking away.

“And what are you replacing them with? Adebayor, who wouldn’t kick a ball for the club until I took over and was the only proven goal scorer in the Premier League we had, and Soldado who’s coming in and going to take time to settle.

“So it was impossible to think about winning the championship or even the top four. As much as I don’t want to pour water over it, it’s a fact.

“We’ve qualified for the Champions League once – why do we have a divine right to finish there? Where we’ve finished in the Europa League, in sixth, is where we should be – that’s where we are.

“We all want to aspire to be winning championships but we’re not getting there at the moment with what we’ve got and to remove a match winner like Gareth Bale, we shouldn’t have expected it.”