Dos Santos wants Tottenham exit despite Villas-Boas appointment

Giovani dos Santos is hoping to end his unhappy spell at Tottenham Hotspur and return to La Liga this summer.

The 23-year-old has scored three goals in 30 appearances for Spurs since moving from Barcelona to White Hart Lane in a €6m (£4.7m) deal in June 2008.

The Mexico international, who been capped 59 times, struggled to break into the first-team under former Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp and has spent loan spells at Ipswich Town, Galatasaray and Racing Santander over the past four seasons.

Andre Villas-Boas replaced Redknapp as Spurs manager earlier this week, and with the arrival of the Portuguese coach, Dos Santos is hoping he can finally complete a switch back to Spain.

“I want to return to Spain,” he told ESPN Radio. “There is a new coach at Tottenham, a new season is starting and it is clear to me that I want to return to Spanish football.

“I think that I will be able to announce the move soon.”

“Tottenham have always tried to sell me for double the price that they paid for me. There are offers, but nothing can be made public yet.”

Dos Santos’ sole season in the Barcelona first-team saw the Mexican striker score four goals in 37 appearances, winning the Spanish Super Cup with the Catalan club in 2008.

Andre Villas-Boas factfile

• An amateur player in his teens with Ramaldense and Clube Marechal Gomes da Costa, Villas-Boas never played professional football, laying the groundwork for a coaching career with a spell as a teenage talent scout during Sir Bobby Robson’s spell as coach of Porto in the mid-1990s.

• Still in his 20s, he took on a role as technical director with the British Virgin Islands in 2000, but was back working with Porto’s youth players by the time Jose Mourinho took him into his inner circle following his appointment as Porto coach in January 2002.

• Initially detailed to scout upcoming opponents, he followed ‘The Special One’ from success to success at Porto, Chelsea and Internazionale before striking out on his own as coach of Academica in October 2009.

• An 11th-placed finish in his only season in Coimbra was enough to persuade Porto to bring him in as Jesualdo Ferreira’s replacement; hired in June 2010, he became the club’s youngest ever coach aged just 32.

• Villas-Boas oversaw a memorable 2010-11 campaign at the Estádio do Dragão, becoming the first Portuguese to guide a side through a Liga campaign unbeaten, winning the Super Cup, national championship and Portuguese Cup as well as the Uefa Europa League after beating SC Braga in the Dublin final.

• He joined Chelsea on a three-year deal in June 2011 but was sacked in March 2012 following a poor string of results.