It’s taken a while, but we may have reached the point where Andre Villas-Boas’ 2013 summer spending spree after selling Gareth Bale from Tottenham to Real Madrid is finally starting to pay off.

The Portuguese is widely accused of wasting the £100-odd million war chest he received following the superstar Welshman’s move to the Bernabeu, but hindsight could paint a different picture.

True, Robert Soldado is still not looking like great value at £26m, while Ezekiel Fryers never did quite fulfil his potential and Vlad Chiriches will probably never be viewed as a White Hart Lane legend.

But none of this matters, because Christian Eriksen – who was always the best of the AVB bunch – is now almost certainly worth more money on his own than Bale, who continues to languish on the Madrid treatment table.

Which would be a nice, comforting fact for Spurs fans, if only it didn’t mean that Eriksen might now be sold to a La Liga giant too.

The Dane’s outstanding form so far this season (this weekend’s plodding display against West Brom aside) has officially propelled him into the Too Good For Spurs category – and Barcelona are the team tipped to snap him up.

READ MORE: LaLiga – Barca/Valencia classic, super Sevilla – and more

READ MORE: Five things we learned from the Premier League weekend

The Express says the Catalans have made Eriksen their “No1 January transfer target” and would rather sign him than Philippe Coutinho (surprisingly) or Mesut Ozil (less surprisingly).

Given that Barca were willing to spend £138m on Liverpool playmaker Coutinho, it seems any bid for Eriksen would also be north of £100m.

Then Spurs could splurge the money on a load of disappointing replacements and the whole cycle could start again. In fact, Nacer Chadli is actually available for transfer at the moment.

Bale going nowhere… yet

As for Bale, he will apparently be staying with Madrid at least until the summer. The Star claims the 28-year-old will “NOT” (in big letters) be leaving in January after Real coach Zinedine Zidane said there would be “no exits” in the winter transfer window.

Meanwhile, Manchester City will reportedly attempt to tighten their grip on the Premier League title race by signing the Real Sociedad defender Inigo Martinez in January. The Sun says Pep Guardiola has been “keeping tabs” on the 26-year-old centre-back, who could also provide cover at left-back for the suddenly world class Fabian Delph.

Elsewhere, Arsenal will consider “reasonable offers” for Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere and the aforementioned Mesut Ozil in January (Express), Liverpool midfielder Marko Grujic is set to leave Anfield on loan for “another English club” (Mirror) and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has urged the club’s board to “be decisive” in the upcoming transfer window (Mail). You can already smell the massive argument brewing…