Andre Villas-Boas has admitted there were "massive, massive" arguments during one transfer window in his time as Tottenham manager and it came down to data-led scouting.

Spurs have now pushed towards more data analysis with their recruitment with the triple arrival this month from Aston Villa of technical director Johan Lange, chief scout Rob Mackenzie and head of football insights and strategy Frederik Leth. The trio have plenty of history of data-led scouting and recruitment to help unearth future stars and those current top players who will be put forward to Ange Postecoglou as potential arrivals to choose from who will fit his system the best.

Villas-Boas, who led Tottenham to their then club record Premier League haul of 72 points in his only full season at the north London outfit in 2012/13, was speaking about his first summer transfer window at Spurs while at the Web Summit in Lisbon this week.

The Portuguese had wanted two midfielders during that transfer window. One was Mousa Dembele, who was top of technical director Franco Baldini's list, and the other was then Porto midfielder Joao Moutinho, who was Villas-Boas' top pick as one of his former players.

However, the Tottenham boss had arguments trying to push through the second transfer and by the time he had convinced the club's recruitment decision-makers to go for the move, the paperwork for a £24m deal was sent through minutes too late for the Premier League deadline.

Villas-Boas used that as an example this week of a player who was not high up on data lists going on to become a star in the game and in the Premier League, with five years at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

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"The most evident case I had when I was at Tottenham and I wanted to sign Joao Moutinho and he was sitting sixth on the list compiled by data people," said the 46-year-old.

"The first on the list was Dembele, we ended up signing him and we almost ended up signing Moutinho as well, but we lost it against the clock on the last day of the transfer window.

"But it drained me emotionally to the point where, here was a guy that the data was not showing all that he represented from the coach’s perspective, which is a player that knows your leadership, a player that knows your style, adaptability to your style. This can be quantified, but it must be done in the view of a coach and not a single view."

He added: "This was the problem in the beginning and we mad massive, massive arguments in the beginning because of this with Moutinho.

"We signed Dembele but missed out on Moutinho and it was unfortunate because we were going to build up a very strong midfield.

"This is precisely where you have to have that balance to understand, what is your coaching philosophy and how it should be integrated into the data that has been provided to you."

At least for Tottenham now they have Postecoglou, who has made it very clear that he will have the final say on the targets the club moves for as he must ensure they fit with his philosophy before any bids are made.