Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas vows to keep Gareth Bale after missing out on Champions League place The strongest suitors could be Real Madrid with suggestions from Spain that president Florentino Pérez has already promised the prospective new coach Carlo Ancelotti - who, as was confirmed on Sunday, is leaving Paris St-Germain - that he will try to sign Bale. But Bale enjoys a very strong relationship with Villas-Boas, who is determined to keep him, and also issued this warning to the Spurs board who he is urging to invest: "If you want to make it better next season then you hold on to your best assets." Villas-Boas reiterated his desire that Spurs spend quickly in the transfer window to try and challenge again next season. "We will have to raise the bar once again because our competitors will do the same," he said, adding that Liverpool would also be stronger. We got ever so close to them [Arsenal and Chelsea] and they will do their job in the window and we will do it. We will have to scout properly and look for good grabs in the summer transfer window to make it an even stronger squad. We will definitely be very, very competitive next season. There was a bizarre moment during the match at White Hart Lane when the home crowd thought that Newcastle had equalised, although this could have been due to an erroneous message posted on the social network site Twitter by Spurs former chairman Lord Sugar who, in a tweet, suggested the score was 1-1. Spurs captain Michael Dawson admitted: "Yeah, I thought that was it [Spurs in the top four] because of the celebrations around the ground from our fans. I didn't hear anything else, then towards the end after Gaz [Bale] scored I sort of picked things up that the fans weren't as lively as we would have liked if we had been in the top four, and you sort of got that feeling towards the end of the game. Wenger said that Arsenal would also spend, having turned around the seven-point deficit they trailed Spurs by at the beginning of March, after losing at White Hart Lane, to finish above them for the 18th consecutive year. Laurent Koscielny's goal also secured a 16th consecutive season of Champions League football under Wenger. "I'm proud of the character, spirit and all we had to deal with in the season," the manager said. These players are special and I told them that many times but they showed it. In the last two months they have been absolutely exceptional. It's a good base for the longer term, to go into next season on such a strong run and I'm very proud that we were very far behind Tottenham after the defeat there. Everyone ruled us out but we showed character and attitude to come back. We made 73 points and that is three points better than last season. Wenger's relief was palpable and although he has been in charge of title-winning - and Double-winning - sides he hailed his present squad at Arsenal. I had many groups in my life and the focus and desire in this one was exceptional. It is one of the best groups I've had in my life on that front," he said. The combination of quality and attitude has been great and that is why I always felt we would come back. Asked whether he felt, after eight barren years, Arsenal could now compete for trophies, Wenger added: "We want to do that next season but let's not forget the consistency we have shown over the years to again be in the Champions League, knowing everyone is desperate to get in there. Consistency is the most difficult thing and we had to be resilient as we knew we were playing against a very strong Tottenham and Everton team and it was really special to come back and get in front of them. Theo Walcott said that Arsenal had "proved people wrong" by finishing in fourth, claiming the Champions League win over Bayern Munich, albeit in losing the tie, was a turning point. "It was a disappointing result against Tottenham and it is not nice when you lose against them," he said. We bounced back well and if you can beat Bayern you can beat anyone - we went into every game believing. A lot of people thought we wouldn't make the Champions League today, we showed a lot of people up and I'm very proud of everyone in that dressing room. We didn't know the Tottenham score. They did their job. We knew it was in our hands and had to do our job. I'd like to say it is a shame but it's not.