Like pulling on a woolly jumper as the shadows lengthen at the end of summer, it’s a shame the seasons change but there’s comfort to be found. It feel easy to slip back into the familiar cozy routine. Curse the trains and buses, as last year, the year before, the decades before that. The step quickens involuntarily to round the corner and catch the first glimpse of the stadium, looming above the north London terraces, just as when we were children. That enticing, unique smell of onions and fat without which football would not seem quite right, wherever you go to watch it. Away fans sporting shirts and accents mix in with our

I’m a little earlier than usual, just to take it all in. Stroll rather than rush from the station. Nod to Harry’s mural. The queue outside Chick-King. There’s space in the Corner Pin even this close to kick-off, noted, for another day. Curl a lip at the sign for the go-kart track. This is a football ground, to me, to the old school, to those of us who feel increasingly out of step with the way football is presented and promoted. That thought is for another day, but it won’t go away, and will be a theme on TOMM this season as this old man gets, and feels, older. And there’s something new, something we are unaccustomed to. Is that a whiff of optimism in the air?

Some things never change. Spurs are all shiny shiny now. The club wants to respect and get closer to fans. Shiny new comms. Shiny new players, expensive this, designer gear not knockoffs. Shiny turnstile tech. I can’t shift years of distrust though. Despite shiny club emails, my season ticket pass has been resolute all summer in showing a ticket for Spurs against Doncaster Rovers with the words DO NOT USE, just in case I didn’t realise we weren’t playing them. Based on seasons of experience, I assume this won’t work. My son went to the Charlton game and said that staff at the first contact point at the bottom of the stairs to the ground were searching for QR codes that no longer exist. But no problem. I’m in. Maybe things really are changing.

I bump into an old friend. We hug hallo. How are you, ok, but we both know what we mean is, what do you think about the new season? More handshakes and catch-ups in the ground. How are you? What do you think? What are we still doing here? 

I’m getting on now. Next April, it will be 60 years since I first came to this corner of north London. Football’s very different, but to me, and this is how I deal with the contemporary game, it’s the same. I see 11 players in white shirts and navy blue shorts, and I support them with all my heart. It’s the rest of the game where I feel alienated and disconnected.

Here’s a for instance. I read, not only in social media but in the mainstream press, that Spurs fans are arrogant and entitled. Except the ones I speak to, and I speak to a lot, aren’t like that at all. Everyone I chat with today says the same thing. This is a new team under a new manager and it will take time to get it all together, but there’s confidence that we will. I agree, adding that there will be pain while we find the right way forward.

And so Spurs proceeded to prove us right. Trust Spurs to bring on the pain. I wish I had been wrong. In a dull, unadventurous first half, I saw shoots of promise in our spasmodic passing moves and occasional breaks. I felt duty bound to ignore the times we lost possession, or VDV’s desperate late tackle early on. That’s all consigned to the past now. See, I’m a Spurs fan. Self-deception comes naturally to me. 

You know the ending. Certainly an improvement after Brentford but woefully weak up front. Our wide men neutered, little support in the box. We were the better side overall, they were decent but unexceptional. They had two shots on goal and scored from both, whereas their keeper made his first save in the 87th minute. Walking to the station with that losing feeling, head down. I know every crack of every paving stone. 

It feels the same but this is different. We’re witnessing a seismic shift in Tottenham Hotspur’s identity as a football club, arguably the biggest change in a generation. Maybe we’re slow in coming to terms with the magnitude of change, partly because we’ve become accustomed to underachieving and our hopes being dashed, partly because many aspects are the same as before, including of course many players from previous squads, so it doesn’t appear that different, partly because we are just so sick of seeing us lose at home. 

This time, though, the board are prepared to back their manager with funding for a series of high class players. Hardly a revolutionary approach if a club has ambitions but never before attempted by the previous regime. We have never seen such determination to overhaul the squad, ruthlessly move on those who don’t have a place here, and to invest in talent. 

This radical overhaul addresses the chronic lack of purpose and direction that has bedevilled this club for a decade or more. Perhaps like me, over the summer you thought we’d see a few good players come in, maybe a marquee signing to appease us. But this is the new Spurs, attempting something more fundamental. De Zerbi is the board’s man, this is what he wants and we’ll go out and get it. Good players have left, because we’re impatient now, can’t wait to see if they might get better – Sarr, Vuskovic, Lankshear. Danso can’t wait as fourth choice, Richarlison good but not good enough. Spence had a good World Cup with the world watching but he’s not first choice so we take the money. Decision-taking that is quick and clean. 

The board have seized their moment. They have levered the advantages available to them, using the new PSR rules, exploiting the returns from the stadium and the relatively (compared with other PL sides) low salary to income ratio bequeathed to them. Players are keen to come because we’re paying competitive salaries, they will be first choice, it’s a London club and for the present at least, they are joining an ambitious, upwardly mobile team. 

All of which does not provide an answer to the key question: will it work? I don’t know, but I do feel positive despite losing our first two league games. The manager has a huge task ahead, not only totally rebuilding a team but also to overcome the culture of underachievement that is embedded in the club’s psyche. 

The many familiar names in the squad obscure the extent of change required. We don’t have any established system to settle the new players. Not so much a squad of footballers as a bunch of lab rats compelled against their will to take part in a variety of fiendish experiments. Even leaving mad scientists Nuno, JM and Conte to one side, in the last 18 months we’ve had all-out Ange, ultra defensive Ange, Frank pretending he was still managing Brentford, Tudor imposing his methods only to look weak, plus RDZ. Compare that with Brentford who overwhelmed us in the season opener, slotting new buys into their tried and tested system.

Good teams rely on effective partnerships. We don’t have these and it will take time to create them. The manager has already tried a few options and at least the defeats will accelerate his assessments. I suspect he has already discovered what and who works. His selection on Saturday was unduly cautious, in particular playing Porro as right midfield, a sign perhaps of his lack of confidence in his team at present. That didn’t work, so hopefully won’t be repeated. Similarly, after a bright pre-season, Tel earned a starting place only to display his limitations at this level. The skill is there but it’s all in the mind – he hesitates when action is required. Trudging disconsolately past the south stand after he was substituted, as he went shedding bits of tape and sock-ties but not his bitterness, Tel reminded me of Ricky Villa’s long walk to the dressing room after his substitution in the 1981 Cup Final. His classic redemption story that followed is unlikely to be told about Tel. 

Partnerships can build. VDV and Van Hecke can form a strong centre back unit, with Porro on the right and Robertson or Udogie on the left. Gray remains a fine prospect but his talents are not fully exploited at full-back. I’d like to see Tonali and Fernandes combine in midfield and our new players could create exciting options up front, where the partnerships will be about movement, rotation and shifting positions, but this complex business all takes time. Our three best 10s are injured, for now maybe add Gallagher to the central midfield and encourage players to again move and shift as the space and pace of the game evolves. 

Regular readers will know I’ve been exceedingly critical of the way the club has been run in the past, but this is a sound approach. And the club seeks to build an attacking side with several players with skill and flair, something fans have been crying out for. There will be short-term pain, undoubtedly but give it time.