Selling Gareth Bale has made Tottenham Hotspur a better team, claims Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay

£110m worth of talent joined Spurs this summer as the Welshman departed for Real Madrid

Cardiff manager Malky Mackay shouts on from the touchline (GETTY IMAGES)

Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay claims that Tottenham are now better without Gareth Bale in their team and that with the new signings Spurs should qualify for the Champions League this season.

Mackay's Bluebirds take on Spurs at the Cardiff City Stadium on Sunday, and the Scot has reasoned that the £110m worth of talent brought in more than compensates the loss of Bale to Real Madrid for a world-record £86m. Seven players – Paulinho, Nacer Chadli, Roberto Soldado, Etienne Capoue, Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen signed on at White Hart Lane over the summer.

"The players they brought in everyone in football knew they were top talents," Mackay said. "We knew they were on the market but would cost a lot of money. Because of the extra amount of money the Bale deal actually made for the club, their squad looks like a Champions League squad."

Tottenham last qualified for the Champions League in 2010, but Mackay believes Andre Villas-Boas' new-look are more than capable to reach Europe’s elite club competition this season.

"It was a top-six Premier League squad [last season] but they have gone and strengthened in depth, their agenda this year I'm pretty sure is to be a Champions League team.

"They might have a big fixture schedule, but they have got a big squad as well, a squad full of quality.

"They have bought very well. To have such a match winner in Gareth Bale and the amount of individual goals he scored certainly made Spurs a different team at times.

"That is a huge hole to fill, but they have filled it very, very well."