Fanfare and fixtures

The same old certainties always arrive with the divisional diary: You play every team, you play them twice, club managers will claim they have a "tough start" and the national team boss will complain about not having enough time with the England squad.

For the last three years, Tottenham have been third at the turn of the year only to fall away and miss out narrowly on Champions League football, so it clearly makes no difference what order the games come in.

Significant points include an early north London derby, a Manchester double in November and a simple enough six-game run-in at the end of the season - although Arsenal have it equally simple.

Two of our first five games are newly promoted sides, plus Swansea and Norwich at home, so there is at least the opportunity to make a solid start.

Here is the fixture list in full...

Sat Aug 17 Crystal Palace A
Sat Aug 24 Swansea City H
Sat Aug 31 Arsenal A
Sat Sep 14 Norwich City H
Sat Sep 21 Cardiff City A
Sat Sep 28 Chelsea H
Sat Oct 5 West Ham United H
Sat Oct 19 Aston Villa A
Sat Oct 26 Hull City H
Sat Nov 2 Everton A
Sat Nov 9 Newcastle United H 
Sat Nov 23 Manchester City A
Sat Nov 30 Manchester United H
Wed Dec 4 Fulham A
Sat Dec 7 Sunderland A
Sat Dec 14 Liverpool H
Sat Dec 21 Southampton A
Thu Dec 26 West Bromwich Albion H
Sat Dec 28 Stoke City H
Wed Jan 1 Manchester United A
Sat Jan 11 Crystal Palace H
Sat Jan 18 Swansea City A
Wed Jan 29 Manchester City H
Sat Feb 1 Hull City A
Sat Feb 8 Everton H
Wed Feb 12 Newcastle United A
Sat Feb 22 Norwich City A
Sat Mar 1 Cardiff City H
Sat Mar 8 Chelsea A
Sat Mar 15 Arsenal H
Sat Mar 22 Southampton H
Sat Mar 29 Liverpool A
Sat Apr 5 Sunderland H
Sat Apr 12 West Bromwich Albion A
Sat Apr 19 Fulham H
Sat Apr 26 Stoke City A
Sat May 3 West Ham United A
Sun May 11 Aston Villa H

Does AVB owe it to Spurs to snub Paris Saint-Germain?

Rebuilding a damaged reputation was always part of the motive for Andre Villas-Boas' arrival at Tottenham. We all knew that.

What we did not realise was that Europe's juggernauts would be pounding on our door with a suitcase of cash and a pen calling for his signature after just one season. Especially when that season only just met expectations.

Oil-rich Paris Saint-German are looking for a replacement for their title-winning and seemingly Real-Madrid-bound coach Carlo Ancellotti and our man is top of their list.

Reports claim the Ligue 1 champs want him on a short-term contract until Arsene Wenger becomes available to serve out a footballing dotage in his home country.

But are Spurs within their rights to expect a level of loyalty from AVB? Of course we are, but it works both ways. 

This time last year, the acronym AVB raised a smirk throughout football, so great was the debacle of his eight-month Chelsea reign.

Fresh from winning the title and the Europa League with FC Porto, he arrived on our shores heralded as a footballing Sherlock Holmes - memorising dossier after dossier and scrutinising the game under a magnifying glass.

Within months Villas-Boas went from hot property to hot potato, wonderland to wilderness, Chelski to Hell-ski. Nobody wanted him. His record was tarnished, his card marked. Despite his youth, he was labelled as 'finished' - in this country at least.

So when he was linked with succeeding Harry Redknapp in the Spurs hotseat, it appeared the worst possible tonic for having our Champions League spot nabbed by AVB's resurgent former club.

The Blues had given us the blues and, worse still, their past failure was about to become our future. Nobody gave Villas-Boas a chance but stubborn chairman Daniel Levy saw it through. AVB became the Tottenham boss.

The Portuguese had a slow start but knuckled down. Consistency, then support, followed. As well as a 3-2 win at Old Trafford  - where we had not won since 1989. 

Even losing out on Champions League football, AVB was once again a credible name. 

And it was Levy and Spurs that gave Villas-Boas the platform to clear his name and to turn his career around.

At Spurs, he seems less distracted than with Chelsea, much more comfortable in his surroundings. Most Spurs fans now believe he has us on the right track and, given the right backing, he can help us progress as a football club.

And therein lies the other side of this coin - backing from the board.

It may not even have crossed AVB's mind to move on but it is now mid-June and the club has remained very quiet over both contracts and transfers. 

Why should he show us any loyalty if we are not going to support him in his vision for the club, especially with the possibility of a glamour stint in Paris.

Arsenal have announced their intention to spend, crowing about their increased financial clout now that years of investment and money-saving has come to fruition. 

And whilst talk may be cheap, AVB needs some signs from the chairman that
he will be allowed to do his job.

With PSG waiting in the wings, now is the time to show some direction. That could be deciding Gareth Bale's future, or making some changes to the squad in time for pre-season.

AVB is clearly some way towards restoring his reputation but it's now Spurs who must act to make sure we're not left picking up the pieces of our own. Levy's stubborn side clearly paid off at the start of AVB's reign -  hopefully it won't contribute to an early finish.

Players' desperation for Champions League football wrecks their chances of being remembered

Halls of fame at football clubs are accumulating mites and dustballs, so seldom are inductions in the modern day. Loyalty has been replaced by immediacy. Players, managers and clubs must succeed now and to hell with the big picture as everyone chases the dream.

None of this is news to us, of course, but it is a problem that will affect Tottenham more than any other Premier League club this summer, as the chasm between Champions League and Europa League qualification takes affect.

Top player after top player will brush aside our advances in favour of European Cup football unless the club can convince them that we are going places (and that they have to live on slightly less money).

With just Europa League football to offer prospective playing staff, our summer has started on the back foot.

We have already missed out on top target Joao Moutinho from FC Porto and we are failing to keep Gareth Bale off Real Madrid's radar.

The latest warning shot that our fifth-place finish could draw a big red line through our transfer shortlist comes from a long-term target, Internacional striker Leandro Damiao.

Damiao, 23, told the Sunday Mirror: "I would prefer to play in the Champions League but the most important thing is that they share the same ambition I have."

Not only does he almost compliment the club - by hinting that our drive to succeed might just live up to his own heady horizons - but he also leaves the door open for Europe's elite to beat us to his signature.

If Damiao really must chase the Champions League dream to the letter - and the day - then let's hope he joins Real Sociedad and they go out in the qualifiers.

But it's not just incoming players that display this impatient desperation.

Roberto Mancini was fired by Manchester City for coming second in the Premier League, Wayne Rooney wants out of Manchester United because he is not playing as often as he would like and Roberto Martinez has called time on his Wigan reign after being relegated to the Championship.

There is no doubt that agents play their part in convincing subjects to cash in while their stock is high but there are more and more glowing examples of the grass not always being greener.

Harry Redknapp refused to nail his colours to our mast when the England job came up, playing some part in his downfall as Spurs boss and he has now been relegated with QPR.

Mark Hughes left a burgeoning Blackburn Rovers setup for Manchester City - last week he was appointed Stoke boss having been fired by Fulham and almost been relegated with QPR.

Fernando Torres left Liverpool for Chelsea under a £50million price tag. His form dried up dramatically and, without the goals he provided at the Anfield club, Liverpool are not top-five - let alone top four.

Even Cesc Fabregas, who left Arsenal for Barcelona in August 2011, is already unhappy with his role in the squad.

All of the above left behind the opportunity to go down in their respective clubs' hall of fame. They gave up full stadia of fans singing their name and the chance to be remembered as an idol by forever loyal followers.

If there is anything the 2012-13 Premier League season has shown us, it's that the other side of the coin pays far greater dividends.

Manchester United legend Alex Ferguson retired at the top of the pile, Jamie Carragher had TWO farewell parties at a packed-out Anfield and even Newcastle goalkeeper Steve Harper was given a hero's send off, despite making only 157 appearances in 20 years at St James' Park.

Fabregas need only look to Frank Lampard, who has been told time after time that his Chelsea days are numbered only to knuckle down, break Bobby Tambling's all-time Blues scoring record and earn the contract talks he had been denied all season.

Eyeing the big prize can out work - Robin van Persie's title-winning move to Manchester United is testament to that. And nobody can deny the glamour of David Beckham's globe-trotting.

But even new Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has exchanged a journeyman lifestyle of trophies and galacticos to go "somewhere he is loved", so perhaps those like Leandro should start taking that into account.