For the last eight months, the Champions League has been Tottenham's bit on the side; a wealthy spinster mistress satisfying our long-standing lust for the big occasion.
Like all whirlwind romances, it was a great experience and yes there were some fantastic nights and some glorious moments but if Spurs want it to blossom into a serious relationship, then we have to learn some valuable lessons.
True, we had a great run, we went further than expected and we played some fantastic football along the way but we came up woefully short against Real Madrid and the two-legs against the nine-time European champions highlighted some shortcomings; namely in concentration and killer instinct.
Realisitcally we were never going to overturn a four-goal deficit last night but we were giving it a right good go and when the opportunity arises you can't go skying the ball out of the stadium like Roman Pavlyuchenko did when he ran unchallenged onto Aaron Lennon's first-half cutback.
Concentration has proven to be a bit of a bugbear all season and yes, Heurelho Gomes has the ability to save shots that no other keeper on earth could but he was arguably at fault for three of Real's five goals, without which, 2-0 would have been an entirely respectable result.
It's not just Gomes, our whole backline fell asleep for Adebayor's second header at the Bernabeu as they did at Wolves and Blackpool to name just two other games recently.
Luka Modric featured prominently in yesterday's press claiming that even if we didn't qualify for the Champions League next season, the team would stick together and build on what they've started.
Obviously this is a great relief to hear, especially after Gareth bale recently said he'd be happy to learn a foreign language if he moved abroad, but big players need a reason to stick about and if that reason isn't success then it has to be belief.
It must be very disheartening for a top player to put his all into a game only for a lack of concentration elsewhere on the field to undo everything.
That is why Spurs need not to move on totally from the Madrid game; to forget it entirely would be naive and dangerous. Instead they must admit their inadequacies and get to work on sorting them out.
Only if a wiser Tottenham team emerges from the ashes of our Champions League quarter-final can we look back on it as a truly invaluable experience.
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