Whatever you do Spurs fans, just don't mention the "D" word

It's here. That wave of enthusiasm is building again, just like it did last year, and I’d forgotten just how absolutely brilliant it feels. 

The moment Ander Herrera's deflected strike hit the back of the net against Chelsea on Sunday, the mood changed. 

As 70,000 Manchester United supporters celebrated a victory that reignited their top-four hopes, the expression on the faces of thousands and thousands of Chelsea, Arsenal and West Ham followers said one thing: "F**k."

To Spurs fans, it represents just a small window of opportunity. But for our London neighbours, the realisation that this title race might not be done yet was enough to spoil their weekend. 

And it was quickly followed by a crushing sucker punch...  Spurs are still in the FA Cup. 

In the space of a few seconds, we had gone from Wembley semi-finalists to fighting for the Double. It seems a ridiculous notion at this stage - but you will be hard-pushed to find a rival fan who can take it in good humour.

"Don't mention the D word" I said jokingly in a post-match message to a fellow Spurs fan. His response was beautiful. 

"It's happening mate, believe."

A lot of folk may still be trying to keep their feet on the ground but, if you're lucky enough to have inherited Tottenham as your team I encourage you to forget your feet, forget the ground and start clutching at as many straws as you can. 

Even if you can't bear the thought of calling it wrong or you just don't want to tempt fate then, at the very least, try to enjoy the next three days. 

For that time, and possibly beyond, we are unlikely “Double contenders”. And our rivals absolutely hate it. It is their worst nightmare. 

The jokes, the banter and the backbiting have turned to straight faces and silence. This is the worst it could get. And it will last until at least Saturday evening. 

One West Ham fan in our office now won't talk football, an Arsenal fan is cancelling Sky. The Chelsea fans...? Well, there are no Chelsea fans but you can rest assured they are sh*tting themselves and trying to work out where best to hunker down if their doomsday scenario actually comes to pass. 

I'm just smiling. It really is a beautiful time to be a Tottenham fan. For the next few days, anything's possible. All those years we’ve watched Arsenal lift titles and trophies while our season was falling off the tracks, this is a taste of what it felt like from the other side. 

So make the most of it.

I don’t mean be a dick about it. It is, after all, a delicate situation. It always is with Spurs. So I’m just saying you have to take the opportunity to breathe it in and enjoy it. Apart from anything else, this group of players have earned the right not to be lumped in with generations of underachievers. 

All Spurs fans know in their heart of hearts that we are still a long, long way off turning around this four-point gap and coming out on top. It would take a miracle. But then what's the harm in believing in miracles?

To Dare is to Do? Do it, I dare you.

Pre-match waffle: Spurs v Southampton

The big question surrounding Spurs around Southampton's arrival at White Hart Lane on Sunday is how we cope without Harry Kane.

The signs are good, with Heung-Min Son scoring that hat-trick against Millwall last week and Vincent Janssen finally netting from open play.

But Premier League opposition will be an entirely different prospect as two of our most inconsistent players compete to be the lead the line in Harry's absence. 

Add to that the fact that we have not reacted well all season to losing big names. 

The team seems to really take it to heart when a key member of our first 11 is missing. 

Injuries to Toby Alderweireld, Kane, Jan Vertonghen and Danny Rose have knocked our confidence at different stages of the season and, in truth, we have never looked wholly convincing without Kane. Except last Sunday. 

Behind the front line we now need our big names to step up. That's Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen in the main becuase we know that both have the capacity to trouble any team regardless of who is playing in front of them.

Depending on other results, if Spurs can grab a win then I would be confident of getting over the line and sealing a top-four spot come May. 

If we drop points against Saints tomorrow, though, then it could lead to a real tooth and nail fight for fourth. And I'm not sure I'm ready for another fraught finish to the season.

Spurs v Gent: The moment you just knew

You knew it. You just bloody knew Thursday would go that way. The focus just wasn't there. 

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino might have spotted it within his much-publicised 50-second rule. But for the rest of us it was made painstakingly clear at a Spurs corner in the 29th minute.

Harry Kane's own goal might have left us needing to score two more in the right end but you still felt Gent were there for the taking, such was the space and license we were being given to play in the final third. 

But when you have just conceded - and are desperate for a quick route back into the match - you expect your players to be switched on. 

Christian Eriksen whipped his corner across the box and totally wrong-footed the Gent defence. 

Dele Alli hurdled the ball, getting the slightest of touches to steer it right across the six-yard box. 

But it wasn't just the Belgian side caught napping as any Spurs players within any sort of reach were oblivious the set-piece had even been taken.

This looked like a training-ground routine gone wrong - executed perfectly by Eriksen - and should have been seized upon and easily turned into the net, even if the move wasn't intentional. 

But Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama were so slow to react the ball was nearly out of play before they saw it.

What's more, if it was a set-piece routine, it is now worthless. Everyone has seen it on national television and Mark Hughes will be preparing Stoke to deal with it on Sunday. As will every other Premier League manager we are left to face this season.

This was not the only instance where Spurs' focus deserted them: Mousa Dembele doing the hard work and beating his man from a short corner, only to turn back into him and commit a foul. 

Kyle Walker, admittedly one of our best players on the night, bombing past the full-back then slicing a near-post effort high into the Wembley gods.

Jan Vertonghen attempting a one-two in an advanced position, only to clatter into the ref. 

Obviously there were far bigger flashpoints that had a more damning effect on the game's outcome. Dele doesn't need any more criticism. Everyone already knows the situation.

But this lack of concentration - which Poch had warned the players about in the build-up to the match - gave the game away that Tottenham were just not switched on enough for a big European night. 

Scratch that, they just weren't switched on enough. Full-stop. Because this should never have been a big European night. It should have been a walk in the park. Gent were rubbish. 

We played Gent off the park in the second half despite being a man down - finding space that no Premier League team would have given us and still wasting chance after chance. That is also something that has to change. 

Dier's mind was again wandering before the goal that killed us off with eight minutes left. 

After two thirds of a season spent rebuilding a reputation shattered in the final weeks of last season.Our mentality is now right back under the spotlight. And with good reason.

Pochettino's dramatic change of message

No amount of talk about training-ground summits or crunch meetings can hide the fact for me that Tottenham have dramatically changed the rhetoric. 

Before the Liverpool game Mauricio Pochettino was claiming his players “dream they can be important here and lift trophies". As far as his ambitions went: “A few trophies, that would be perfect."

Even after the 2-0 defeat at Liverpool, Poch turned his attentions to Europe, insisting: “The mentality must be to win the Europa League."

Two bad results later, the FA Cup victory at Fulham brought an entirely new direction. Pochettino said: “It's too early to start to speak about whether we will win some trophies. Now we’re not allowed to speak about the FA Cup - we can see the draw but after that moment we must forget and focus on Thursday and Gent."

Hold on. Not allowed to speak about the FA Cup? After losing at Anfield, Eric Dier was telling the press you can “Never say never" about the title, let alone the Cup.

Quickly and decisively Pochettino has changed the message - from titles, trophies and ambitions to focus and the next game. He is now describing the Europa League second leg with Gent as “another final". 

You just wonder if the Argentine, 44, has realised that - with all the buzz around Tottenham’s big future, impressive setup and new stadium, everyone might just have been getting a bit ahead of themselves.

There is nothing wrong with a bit of belief and all the tub-thumping looks great in black and white, as long as you can back it up on the pitch. 

When the air of invincibility created by an unbeaten run gets washed away with a defeat, the empty promises of silverware and even dynasties do little except pile on the pressure. 

It had seemed almost as if the manager was happy to apply as much heat as possible to his young squad, maybe priming them to work under the spotlight. He has even compared youth prospect Marcus Edwards, 18, to Lionel Messi to make clear the level of his expectation.

But it does not really work like that. 

Nearly every title-winning manager in the history of press conferences has used the "one game at a time" line to lower the intensity and lighten the load on his players. 

Claudio Ranieri was a master of it last season. Leicester were five, six, seven points clear at the top and he still refused to concentrate on the title race - instead reluctantly admitting that the Foxes may just be in line for a top-four spot. 

Even this season, Antonio Conte is adamant that Chelsea are in a six-way fight for the title despite being 12 points ahead of sixth-placed Manchester United. 

You can almost pinpoint the moment Tottenham made the decision to talk up their ambitions. It was the 2-1 win at Manchester City last season, after which Poch declared the fans should be willing to dream.

Since then we have become pretty much self-proclaimed title-challengers, collapsing last season under the weight of our own expectation in a haze of rally cries in the press and pictures of lions on social media. It was all a bit of fun but it was definitely a distraction. 

You can understand that Pochettino wants to instil the mindset that challenging at the top is the club’s minimum requirement. But that mindset can only come with the knowledge that you have what it takes to get through the rough patches, the big games and the cup finals. 

This team does not currently have that and no amount of talking about it will change it. The only thing that will is focusing on the next game. And winning it.

How Tony Pulis had Spurs pegged from the start

Tony Pulis knew how to get to Tottenham right from the off. And it wasn't by winding up Dele Alli, doubling up on Harry Kane or by putting 11 men behind the ball.

We all knew West Brom would come to frustrate us and we all knew how good they are at it.

But the first victim of their stifling strategy was not Mousa Dembele's driving runs from deep midfield, nor Danny Rose's link-up with Erik Lamela – and it was not Kyle Walker bombing on down the right.

It was the fans.

White Hart Lane kicked off the evening in good spirits but West Brom set their stall out early.

They took far too long over every throw-in, goal kick and free-kick, letting a few more seconds tick down whenever the occasion arose and pushing the ref to, but never beyond, the limit.

Credit to our players, they weren't fooled and our slick passing game opened up the Baggies time after time. 

Christian Eriksen was agonisingly close with two free-kicks - either side of Kane's effort that Boaz Myhill somehow pushed onto the post. 

But the home support was starting to play into Albion's hands. Huffing and puffing, booing and jeering every carefully crafted stoppage or set-piece delay that Pulis' side was getting away with. 

The Spurs faithful were not directly criticising their own but, once the agitation was flowing, you could see it start to affect the side. 

Spurs players already had every reason to be a bit nervy - Leicester's 4-0 win over Swansea on Sunday meant this was basically win or bust.

With that in mind, a bit of calm from the terraces would not have gone unappreciated. Especially seeing as this side have risen to the task and proven themselves again and again.

Timewasting tactics are schoolyard stuff but Pochettino's blue n white army of followers fell for it - hook, line and absolute stinker. 

We all ask players like Alli to keep their heads in the face of such situations then we all lose ours at the first sign of bother - effing and jeffing with an irrational fear that, somehow, the Baggies might be able to waste the whole game away before we got our noses in front.

When Craig Dawson diverted Eriksen’s free-kick into his own net just after the half hour the damage may already have been done. 

The reaction was that of relief rather than elation and the lads went in at half-time to muted applause rather than all-out encouragement.

Prior to this we had conceded one goal in four games. A 1-0 win would have done just fine. There was no real reason to believe that West Brom should be able to seriously trouble us at the back.

Still we worried, fretted and bit our nails and the lads came out for the second half a shell of the team we have known in recent weeks. 

Apart from a few shining lights in Toby Alderweireld and Dembele, the nerves were taking hold and the tension was rising in the stands - until eventually Dawson got the equaliser we had all been fearing since his own goal at the other end.

It was job done for Pulis and probably job done for Leicester. 

But devastating? Gut-wrenching? Miserable? Not at all. And we certainly did not bottle it.

At the end of January, 12 games ago, we were fourth – five points behind Arsenal who were top of the pile. 

Anyone who thinks we bottled it has an admirable sense of ambition - but no sense of perspective.

Going forward we will no doubt all look for progression from this young team that has showed so much promise. We will all hope they can use this season as a platform and learn from the experience.

Next season we will look for them to demonstrate the composure of title challengers, rather than title hopefuls.

And really, as fans, we should be looking to do the same.

Tough week could help Spurs hang in there

ONE point from two huge games was not what everyone wanted but bear with me while I argue that it might do us a favour.

Wins over West Ham and Arsenal would have left us top by two points - but can a team that has not won a title in 55 years really be expected to lead from the front with nine games to go?

The pressure, focus and searing hot spotlight that comes from being frontrunners is surely too much for a club stalked by its own shadow of late-season stutters.

We have a history of easing off the gas from good positions, so let Leicester take the weight of responsibility for the time being.

With 27 points left to fight for, a five-point gap at this stage is hardly unassailable and 
there is no sense in making ourselves the team to beat at the start of March. 

We are safer riding Leicester's coat-tails as they attract the limelight and deflect attention. 

Apart from anything else, my blood pressure could do with a rest from the nerve-shredding tension of our last two games. How the players must have felt is anybody's guess.

If the Foxes do win the title from here then they damn well deserve it and we should all stand up and applaud rather than picking apart our own supposed shortcomings.

But to put that feat into perspective, they have never won nine top-flight games in a row in their history.

It's a nervy time of year and everyone is dropping points. City lost to Liverpool, United at West Brom, and Arsenal haven't won in four.

Leicester's final two fixtures are Everton at home and Chelsea away. That's a tough enough finish in itself but in the meantime, if panic does finally strike Claudio Ranieri's squad, then any match becomes a banana skin and five points can disappear very quickly indeed.

Our final two games are home to Southampton and away at struggling Newcastle. Although by then they could well be "relegated Newcastle".

With that in mind, the main aim should be to stay within striking distance of the top, keep your fingers crossed we can hang in there and give ourselves a chance come May.

But many Spurs fans are starting to bite their fingernails not just over whether we will be fighting for the title come May, but whether we will still be in contention for the top four.

In 2011-12 we surrendered a 10-point lead over Arsenal in barely a month, the season before we won just one league game in ten from late February, including a home defeat to Blackpool. 

Both seasons we had put ourselves in the driving seat with regards to a Champions League finish. 

Yet in 2009-10 we got it right and beat Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City in a run-in that saw us nick fourth. 

The difference being that season we were underdogs right until the penultimate game, where a shock 1-0 win at City sealed it a game early.

And that is why we shouldn't be too disheartened heading into another crucial week on the back of two disappointing results.

On Sunday it's Aston Villa away, followed by Bournemouth at home a week later. 

Both matches present sides fighting for their lives and, given our recent history at this stage of the season, I'm happier to be going into it with a little less expectation on our shoulders.

Villas-Boas' new habit is more than welcome at Spurs

TOTTENHAM'S reliance on late goals and 1-0 wins were not the only trends highlighted by Paulinho's 93rd-minute winner against Cardiff.

Since Andre Villas-Boas' arrival in summer 2012 we have won all eight Premier League games against newly promoted opposition.

To the outsider, that does not sound too impressive, but Spurs fans know it is all too significant.

Soccer scribes and pundits are still questioning how we did not score more of our 29 attempts on goal on Sunday. 

But Spurs' most irritating problem in recent years has not been our failure to kill off the division's minnows early on but a failure to kill them off at all.

And more often than not, that has resulted in heartache come the end of the season.

In Harry Redknapp's three full seasons in charge - not including the season he arrived to steer us clear of relegation, it would be unfair to count that - we managed just six wins in 18 games against Premier League debutants.

The season we qualified for the Champions League, we took just seven points from Burnley, Wolves and Birmingham collectively.

We repeated that feat the following season in 2010-11. So despite reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, we could only take one point off Blackpool all year.

And it's not just under Redknapp that we have been plagued by these lower-league lapses.

Martin Jol took us to the brink of a top four finish in 2005-06, missing out on the final day having only won two games against Prem new boys Sunderland, Wigan and West Ham.

Obviously, circumstances always play their part and these games are never as easy as they sound. 

But just say we had taken all 18 points from divisional new boys as a matter of course, we'd have finished 3rd in 2011-12, unaffected by Chelsea's European Cup win, and runners-up to Manchester United in 2009-10.

In fact, we would have qualified for the Champions league for five of the last eight seasons.

As chance after chance went begging on Sunday, the press was edging our early top-four credentials towards the bin marked Not Yet Ready.

And, before Paulinho's last-gasp backheel broke Bluebirds hearts, the words "same old story" were forming in the frontal lobes of fans and writers alike.

But Villas-Boas' encouraging back-to-basics trend indicates that this is anything but the same old Spurs.

Spurs' Norwich win down to hard work, not just creativity

YOU'LL do well to find a Tottenham article that didn't focus on Christian Eriksen over the weekend.

And well they might. The Dane came in to provide some creation in midfield and two goals from open play swiftly followed.

However, anyone who saw the 2-0 win over Norwich will have noted that individual hard work played just as big a role as creativity - particularly in the latter stages.

Protecting a lead, the final 20 minutes are often somewhat of a concern at Spurs. 

Apprehension sweeps the crowd like wildfire and panic spreads from player to player like an airborne epidemic.

Simple passes become stray balls and defensive positioning begins to look like a freeforall.

But on Saturday Michael Dawson and Jan Vertonghen remained firm and focused and Danny Rose put in as robust a last quarter as you are ever likely to see from a left-back.

Sandro sat on the bench for the best part of 80 minutes but, bang, he was straight to the top of his game when he came on - chasing, harrying and switched on to all runners and potential hazards

Even light-footed sub Erik Lamela chased back and mucked in, winning the ball in the final minutes.

It wasn't a case of being first to every ball but more a case of, "If second to the ball, win it back anyway."

Of course, Spurs fans will still hail Eriksen's performance - he had a blinder.  

Roberto Soldado had been looking increasingly isolated before we found somebody capable of linking the play between the frontman and our solid midfield.

But while the invention and style may be the cake's icing, or the cockerel's doodle-doo, it all has to be underpinned by concentration and unwavering work rate from every player in the side.

Countless times in the past we've done the difficult bit and got our noses in front only for a keeper to make a howler, the midfield to fall asleep or the attack to stop pressing.

Then we're left ruing dropped points that, like May just gone, would prove vital come the end of the season.

Creativity might win you games but it's the groundwork that wins titles and, without that focus from the first minute to the last, regular trophies and top-four finishes are a pipe dream.

Until our tenacious display on Saturday, Norwich had scored nine goals in their first four games of the season. But we reduced them to just a single shot on goal for our fifth clean sheet in six games.

It might only be a start, but it's a bloody good one.

Don't underestimate Spurs legend Chris Hughton

Spurs fans always have time for club legend Chris Hughton but we could soon be sick of the sight of him.

We host his Norwich side on Saturday afternoon hoping that our old player and coach does not continue his good run of form against us. 

Hughton was unbeaten over three meetings last season and the pressure is rising for Andre Villas-Boas to break that trend this weekend.

Just three games in, Norwich at home is billed as "a must-win game". As if, somehow, any dropped points could cause the club to ditch the new stadium plans, flog off the assets and call it a day.

True, if we want to be competing for a top-three spot then it is the sort of game we should he winning. 

But presuming we're entitled to three points does a massive disservice to the plucky Canaries, and Tottenham favourite Hughton.

As left-back, coach and No 2, Hughton gave us 27 years of dedicated service.

He played 398 games for us between 1979 and 1990, winning the FA Cup in 1981 and 1982 as well as the UEFA Cup in 1984.

Hughton served under ten different Spurs bosses including Ossie Ardiles, George Graham, Glenn Hoddle and Martin Jol.

It was only right that, having more than overpaid his dues, he tried his hand at full-time management.

Arriving at Norwich last summer following stints with Newcastle and Birmingham, Hughton took the club to an 11th-placed Premier League finish.

His Canaries side twice held us to 1-1 draws in the league and knocked us out the Capital One Cup. 

On the face of it, that's not a good return for a "must-win" game but when you look at some of Hughton's other results it brings some perspective.

He masterminded 1-0 wins over Arsenal and Manchester United and ended last season with a 4-0 Carrow Road win over West Brom and a 3-2 away victory at Manchester City.

Hughton has worked with polar opposite styles and temperaments. He has seen good and bad, successes and failures, kings of men and lords of idiots.

With this melting pot of experience it should come as no surprise that he can mix it in management, or that he has the tactical know how to flick between gameplans. 

Norwich are just as capable of hammering a team out of sight as they are of grinding out a result against top opposition.

In fact, at 54 years old, it would be little surprise if Hughton went on to become one of the top flight's star gaffers in the coming years.

As for Spurs, we're hardly in a bullish mood having used up all our bull in a frustrating 1-0 loss at Arsenal - where the usual pre-match guff talked us all into believing we had won the game before kick-off.

With the international break in the way our raft of new players have hardly had a chance to settle let alone gel together.

We all feel like a win would set our season back on track after a rowdy transfer window. But this Norwich side will be no pushover.

Hughton will always be welcome at White Hart Lane, we would just prefer it wasn't in the away dugout.

Talking about my generation... Spurs fans' first-game memories

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club celebrated its 131st birthday last week, so we asked a number of Spurs supporters from different generations to give an account of their first-ever Spurs game.

Here's what they came back with...

Spurs 1-1 Wolves - FA Cup 4th round, Jan 1996  By Taxi For Maicon

It was freezing and, to put it kindly, Spurs were genuinely terrible. We were right at the back of the upper shelf - although the  lower north-east corner was to become home until Paxton Road was expanded.

I remember panicking during the week, firstly that it would get called off over snow, and secondly that Chris Armstrong would play (this was totally unfair as Chris Armstrong did well for Spurs, scoring 48 goals in 141 games, but I was a huge Jurgen Klinsmann fan and unless his replacement was, well, Jurgen Klinsmann, then I was always going to be an unfair critic.)

Anyway, Dean Austin misplaced a backpass for their goal and I'm pretty sure Clive Wilson brought us back to 1-1. Don't quote me on that, as my memory is terrible.

The rest of it is hazy other than my dad refusing to "stand up if you hate Arsenal", getting top-class chips from a chippie on Tottenham High Road and playing Sensible World of Soccer when I got home.

Spurs 5-1 Oldham - League Division Two, Oct 1977  By Hounslow's Finest (via Ja606.com)

We were in the players bar after the game as the bloke I went with's niece was married to Neil McNab.

We came out of the ground in Neil's wife's Austin 1300 (how times have changed).

We went up that season to Division One after finishing third behind table-toppers Bolton and  Southampton.

My 35 years of watching spurs has cost me loads of money, my fringe and a good few wind ups from my mates but I wouldn't change it for the world.

Spurs 5-1 Crewe Alexandra - FA Cup 4th round, Jan 1961 By ThePieKing (via Twitter)

We parked up at Wingate trading estate, which isn't there any more. I think it has made way for  the development of the new stadium.

I remember it being full. Around 60,000, mostly standing although funnily enough I was sat down.

Cliff Jones and Dave Mackay were among the scorers but my lasting memory from the game is Bobby Smith hammering a shot wide from close range.

The ball arrowed straight into the crowd and hit someone down the front. It looked nasty and there was some sort of commotion - maybe a stretcher, but I can't be sure.

We never did find out if they were OK afterwards.

Bolton 2-2 Spurs - Premier League, Oct 2009 By LancslassinLdn (via Twitter)

Living up north, we didn't get to many home matches, and started going to the Lancashire away games.

We waited by the coach before and after the game and Peter Crouch was doing well for England at the time, so he stood out.

Afterwards, my partner pointed out one of the Spurs youngsters stood away from the crowd - it was Gareth Bale.

He was tiny! He hadn't played and nobody really went over for his autograph and he was picked up by two people, probably his parents. 

Who would have thought he would become the world's most expensive player!

Spurs 2-1 West Brom - Premier League, March 2006 By Spurs boy (via Ja606.com)

Curtis Davies opened the scoring and we left it late to get back in the game.

Robbie Keane chipped an equaliser and then Mido scored only for it to be disallowed as Jermain Defoe had been brought down in the box seconds beforehand. 

Mido was furious! Keane scored the pen.

Arsenal's Ozil move doesn't put Spurs in a Mes

SMILES. Smug smiles. That's about all you'll get from Arsenal fans this week. 

But it's not just because they've signed Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid and finally spent some money, it's also because they think they've got Spurs fans rattled.

What's worse is that some of us are proving them right.

Until Ozil's deadline-day Goons switch, our chairman Daniel Levy owned the transfer window but it seems sharing the limelight with our old foes is just too much to bear.

And the irony that it would never have happened without Gareth Bale's Real move makes it all the more cruel.

Well, sorry, that doesn't wash with us. 

On Sunday morning, we were like a boy racer revving his new car at the lights. We were nailed on for fourth place and it was sure to be at Arsenal's expense. 

By Monday evening (yes, that's a long time to be at the lights but just go with it) they rolled up with a Lamborghini and our balls wilted.

What did everyone expect? Arsene Wenger would just sit by and let us speed off into the distance? Hardly.

We've heard it all from Spurs fans this week. "We still need a left-back, why didn't we get Ozil?" and most deluded of all "that was a poor deadline day for us."

All of it is ridiculous.

There's no denying that Ozil is one of the best players in Europe. In the past five seasons, he has created more chances and made more assists than any other elite player in the continent.

But it helps when the man you are passing the ball to is Cristiano Ronaldo.

The simple matter is the German playmaker would never have come to Spurs. He has to perform against the best and we cannot offer Champions League football.

Arsenal's need in the transfer window was much different to ours, they know they already have a squad capable of regularly finishing in the top four, so it only needed a respray. 

But one signing won't win them the title and it does not take away from what we did in the market.

In Erik Lamela and Christian Eriksen we have two of Europe's most renowned young talents. Add to that a reinforced midfield of Paulinho and Etienne Capoue. 

It's a lot of players to gel in very little time but the previous squad had proven three years in a row that it could not keep pace for the whole season and enough was enough.

True, none of the new guys are proven in English football but it shows major ambition and if even four of our seven signings live up to their massive potential then it gives us a fighting chance of withstanding another late-season collapse.

If it's Premier League experience you're after then look no further than Danny Rose, one of last season's key left-backs on loan at Sunderland.

What's more he's English, he's prepared to fight for his place and refusing to sell him on could yet prove to be one of our best moves of the summer. 

The other option was Fabio Coentrao, and even Manchester United failed to prise him from Real.

The view that we are typically shrewd on transfer deadline day is a myth as well.

In the last seven of them, the only real coups have been Hugo Lloris and Rafa Van Der Vaart. And Rafa only because we were in the Champions League.

Other than Clint Dempsey - who replaced Rafa with limited success last summer - our ONLY other deadline-day signing since 2010 has been Louis Saha.

The real crux of the matter, which has jilted folks' perspective, is that we lost the North London derby at the Emirates. 

We didn't create much but it's a game that we've lost 5-2 for the past two seasons, so it's an improvement.

We have never been this consistently close to Arsenal since the Premier League began.

Yes they are still in front but it's not Spurs who have 17 straight top-four finishes to protect.

It's not us who are crying over not winning a trophy for eight years.

And it's not us who had to sing "spend some f**king money" on the opening day just to get some transfer activity.

Frankly, it's not us who should be rattled, it's them.

Taxi for Bale... or should that be limousine?

GARETH BALE the promising prodigy is a thing of the past. Will Bale the galactico please stand up?

Seeing Real Madrid unveil the world's new most expensive player hammered home what we've known for weeks - his Tottenham days are done... Taxi for Bale!!

Yet you can be sure it wasn't a taxi that took him from Madrid airport to his new theatre stage, those days are done as well. 

A limousine is more like it, although if the reported contract he is on is accurate, Bale never needs to be driven anywhere again.

Between private jets, helicopters and yachts, his feet only have to touch the ground when he's playing football. 

And his new employers would probably prefer it that way because, when Real pay that sort of money for someone, they aren't just buying a footballer but investing in a superstar.

The confident well-preened young man out there speaking Spanish and doing tricks in the middle of the Bernabeu was no longer the wide-eyed youth whose every touch bore more potential than the last.

It was GB11, the brand - a globally public figure expected to appeal to millions of fans and generate squillions of euros.

Former managers and mentors all say Bale is a homeboy at heart and will not be blinded by the bright lights or sell out to celebrity.

But, like CR7 (Cristiano Ronaldo) and DB23 (David Beckham) before him, Real expect his entertainment value and image rights to more than pay for his astronomical transfer fee.

The sky is no longer the limit for Bale mark II, it's the minimum requirement.

There will still be Spurs fans annoyed at the way the transfer saga played out. 

But the groundswell of opinion is that the man responsible for all the great memories, the amazing goals and the explosive excitement deserves his crack at the bigtime.

The innocent lad who found his feet in front of the White Hart Lane crowd and grew into one of the finest Premier League talents has more than earned his dream move - especially when you look at the rack of replacements he has effectively paid for. 

And if that means Bale has enrolled in a future of backwards baseball caps and personalised sportswear then so be it.

He'll still be welcomed back at Tottenham and, if he does remain a homeboy, then there'll probably still be Spurs fans waiting for autographs when his yacht sails back up the Welsh coast.

So, for one final time... Taxi, well, private jet for GB11.

North London derby nostalgia - our top four moments

IT'S that time of year again. The North London derby brings nerves and excitement bubbling to the surface as if it were your A-level results, graduation or wedding day - except, of course, it's far more important than that!

Taxi For Maicon looks back at our favourite moments from recent clashes. It's been said a number of times that top five isn't good enough, so here's our top four...

4. Aaron Lennon - March 2013

Andre Villas-Boas' debut season had yielded some good results - not least our first win at Manchester United since before dinosaurs roamed the earth.

The organisation of a side getting used to AVB's tactical nous was clear to see but would it hold up in the pressure-cooker atmosphere? 

The answer was a resounding yes as the very same pass in-between the Gunners' centre-backs caught them out twice in three minutes at the end of the first half.

First Gareth Bale and then Aaron Lennon beat the offside trap to ensure we got our own back for the November thumping at the Emirates.

3. Rafa Van Der Vaart - April 2011

The Dutchman relished derby day and he embodied everything Spurs stands for - style, raw passion and undoubted entertainment. Oh, and he was a bit injury prone, eccentric and unpredictable - we're suckers for all that.

VdV secured his place in derby nostalgia when he "shushed" the Arsenal fans after his first goal in a 3-3 draw at the Lane. 

Then, after his second goal to complete the comback from 3-1 down, he quite literally wrestled the ball off Wojciech Szczesny after an evening-long battle with the pole.

2. Danny Rose - April 2010

One of the best debut strikes in Spurs history. We had just lost at Sunderland and had a nightmare run coming up against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United as our fight for fourth looked doomed.

At home to the Gooners, youngster Rose was drafted in at left-back as injuries took hold. And, as Manuel Almunia punched out a 10th-minute corner, he lashed a 25-yard volley through a crowded box and almost took the keeper's head off as it flew into the net.

Spurs went on to win 2-1 and beat Chelsea the following weekend before ultimately qualifying for the Champions League with a 1-0 win away at Manchester City in our penultimate game.

1. Younes Kaboul - November 2010

Two-nil down at the Emirates. Same old story as it had been for the last 17 years as we'd consistently failed to win at Arsenal.

But goals from Gareth Bale and a Rafa penalty had hauled us level with 20 minutes remaining and we were all starting to think, "Hang on, we could do this."

With five minutes left, we were ready to settle for a draw until Younes Kaboul met a free-kick from deep and glanced his header into the bottom corner. 

Another record broken and a huge hoodoo off our back, so hopefully we won't have to wait so long for another victory at the Emirates...

Roll on 4pm tomorrow! Come on you Spurs.

Spurs must heed flood warning as they splash the cash

Changes are no longer afoot - they are here. It's easy to get overexcited when your team is making big signings but Spurs are getting into dangerous territory.

Too much more cash-splashing could flood the dressing room and past experience tells us it'll ruin more than just the tilework if the floor falls through.

With Erik Lamela's arrival from Roma imminent, our summer spending is set to outstrip even Manchester City's. And all sources - including manager Andre Villas-Boas - indicate that we ain't done yet.

But it is not the cost of this rapid recruitment that is the concern - we all know where the money is coming from after all - so much as the sheer turnover of players in a squad that cannot have expected this level of upheaval.

Gareth Bale was always going to cause some summer waves following such an impressive season but, having finished fifth by just one point, surely it was a case of signing a replacement then strengthening one or two positions - mainly up front.

Instead, there have been wholesale renovations with William Gallas, Tom Huddlestone, Jake Livermore, Scott Parker, Steven Caulker and surely Bale all heading out and four so far coming in.

Argentine forward Lamela, 21, would make five but then we can supposedly expect deals for centre-back Vlad Chiriches and Ajax playmaker Christian Eriksen to be announced "within days". 

Add to that the links with Manchester United's Javier Hernandez and Real Madrid left-back Fabio Coentrao and it's all getting a bit silly.

In the last few years, a goalscoring box fox of Hernandez' quality is exactly what we have needed but that would make 10 new additions - and nearly all of them will expect a starting place.

AVB then has the unenviable task of juggling the egos and settling them into a first-team that - like so many others in the football world - is only allowed 11 players.

The last time the revolving door span so quickly was summer 2008, under Juande Ramos. 

Luka Modric, Gio Dos Santos, David Bentley and Heurelho Gomes - among others - arrived before the season started.

They were followed before the transfer deadline by Vedran Corluka and Roman Pavlyuchenko as the spending topped £104m.

More than 10 first team players including Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Younes Kaboul, Paul Robinson and Steed Malbranque were shipped out.

What followed is the single biggest horror show I have witnessed as a Spurs fan and "two points from eight games" became Harry Redknapp's mantra for the next three years as he came in to steady the ship and steer us away from the bottom of the table.

We were stung the previous season as well, when a turnover of 12 players, including the club-record £16.5m signing of Darren Bent, led to a run of one Premier League win in our first 12 games.

So, you see, we have previous for these mass overhauls and they don't always go to plan. It's no coincidence that in four seasons of relative calm we've now finished 4th, 5th, 4th and 5th.

But it's hardly panic stations yet. We've only completed four signings. And, unlike some in the past, they are quality players.

Paulinho would strengthen any midfield and we've been waiting on a goalscorer like Roberto Soldado for years.

Nacer Chadli fills the gaping hole on the left-wing and Etienne Capoue adds a more defensive option to what looks like a regular five-man midfield.

Lamela's £25m arrival sees us veer towards luxury but seems necessary to add excitement to a frontline now lacking one of the world's most explosive players.

And, but for Romania captain Chiriches,  we're hoping that is where it stops.

Otherwise it won't be long before that dressing room needs re-tiling.