It was all going to be so straightforward. This article I mean. Been busy, in hospital tomorrow for another knee replacement, Tottenham On My Mind will limp into a new season all in good time, if you can hang on a bit.

But it’s Spurs. Nothing is ever straightforward.

Eze is on. Delays, but sorted. Palace canny – hang on until they get him for two important matches at the start of the season. Eze is happy to Join Spurs. Or not.

Hardly a JFK moment, but I can remember where I heard the news. 7.45pm, listening to a podcast recorded earlier that day where a well-connected, non-sensationalist AFC supporting pundit confirmed he had heard his club like Eze but not at that price and had long since moved on. 8pm – 62 Whatsapp messages.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the myth that Levy is a master deal-maker. His approach rested on how he used his power – the power of being a PL club with funds available -to exploit clubs, usually lower down the pyramid, who needed the money. It can still work, witness Archie Gray’s deal when Spurs could move quickly to trump Brentford’s offer, with Leeds keen to take the cash.

But football has moved on, as it tends to do, without, apparently, Levy noticing. Like the low block, these tactics can work but are ineffective over time if you want to be consistently successful at the top level. Our indecision in the market has serious consequences. We are crying out for a creative, passing midfielder but it seems that our deal-making undermines the imperative to be successful on the pitch. Staggered payments, add-ons – I completely understand that few transfer fees, if any, are paid in full up front, but our approach leads to hesitancy and creates opportunities for others, just at the point where the team needs a decisive approach, committed to buying high quality footballers who can lift our squad from promising to being proper contenders.

We dodged a bullet with Saido Berahinho but I recall him saying subsequently, (I paraphrase) ‘we agreed £20m then Levy said, right, that’s £1.5m up front and rest in instalments.’ Willian, Petit, Grealish, all were on the way but never appeared. Nothing has significantly changed. Pre-season, Levy and new CEO Vinai Venkatesham indulged in a PR offensive. We’re going for the title and the Champions League, blah blah. To achieve this, fundamental change is required, and so far, I’m not seeing it.

But back to the Eze (non) deal. Thinking about this last night, this so-called late hi-jacking of the deal smelt a bit whiffy. There is no way that a complex multi-million pound deal could have been sorted in a couple of hours, as this version of the transfer suggests. In contrast to Spurs, AFC moved decisively when the time came but sure enough, this piece in the Independent by Miguel Delaney, a responsible journalist, confirms our neighbours, Eze and Palace were in on the deal. It was in all their interests. Palace hung on to get two more games plus the possibility of more cash, they got their man, the player is where he wants to be. Spurs have been utterly played, undone by complacency in the face of a labyrinthine plot concocted by the villains of the piece.

So this is how business is done. To be fair to Spurs, they have been lied to by all parties, consistently over a period of time and with intent, but if they had not prevaricated, this would have forced the hand of the poker faced conspirators. Also, mendacity is hardly unknown in business and finance.

One line in Delaney’s piece is worthy of note, that Steve Parish has a good relationship with an AFC board member. Conversely, Levy apparently makes little attempt to build such relationships. Indeed his tactics have hacked off many clubs. The powerful don’t have to worry unduly about how they get on with others when it comes to a deal. However, lose that power and there’s nothing left. Long-term, Levy’s approach creates unwelcome antipathy that is and always has been counter to the best interests of the club.

We’re left with more questions than answers. How much is our chairman prepared to delegate to his increasingly large and expensive recruitment team and senior club officers? This must change – the system is not running smoothly or effectively. How can we get a top class creative player in so short a time before the window closes? If we can, we’ll have to pay over the odds.

Also, how much money do we have to continue with this essential squad rebuild? We’re ok with PSR as I understand it. However, there were a couple of articles from football finance journos suggesting that we may have increased our income from the stadium and TV but are cash poor, that is, we don’t have as much cash available this season because of interest payments and in particular because several of the so-called canny instalment deals we’ve agreed in the past have to be paid up now.

There is one addition to my list of might-have-beens’ (you may have others, I’m relying on my increasingly unreliable memory). I recall that an exciting midfielder was on his way to the Lane, ready to step up from the Championship. The deal was done and goodbyes were said. He played for QPR and his name was Eberechi Eze. There’s something remarkable in such an achievement. These days it’s the only Double we’re capable of.

Anyway, the rest of the original piece, preserved for posterity:

• Thomas Frank a sound choice. Brings organisation without fundamental negativity
• It’s a step up for him, and we share his ambition for bigger and better things
• Decent motivator – history of getting the best from players, important for the fit as we develop players
• Looking forward to seeing what transpires, and let’s give him some time
• The board must invest in PL ready players to fill the squad gaps, specifically CB cover, centre forward and creativity in midfield
• Buy Eze

Maybe I should have left it at that. See you with a new knee. The morphine will dull the pain, handy right now, and sincere thanks to everyone who takes the time and trouble to comment, more frequently than I write.

Read sadness into what follows. Every word, comma and inflection. I take no pleasure in Ange’s dismissal. But there is reason.

In all honesty, since Bilbao I’ve been this way and that about his future. I readily concede that replacing him after that triumph will never sit completely comfortably with me, but Ange being a hero and Ange needing to go are two ideas that I can hold in my head at the same time. Both can be true. To me, I’ll always be grateful, delighted and moved by what he and his team ultimately achieved, a trophy after all these years and victory against all the odds. The outpouring of emotion from supporters around this win is deeply touching. These are lifelong memories and stories will be told down the generations about one night in Bilbao.

But in the past year, some of our football has been appalling. So: If nothing else, I try to be consistent, and if I change my mind on anything it is because there is evidence for change. That’s me and Ange. Delighted with his opening games, he deserved two years to see what he could make of the job. This is what I wrote in early April:

I can’t envisage any scenario where Ange holds his job into next season. ‘When not if’ seems inescapably to be the only question. I take no pleasure in saying this. I wanted this proud, motivated man to succeed. He was right for my club, so I hoped. I applauded his brave, attacking football and his value-base of teamwork and support for his players, plus his passion for the game, a beacon of authenticity in an increasingly dreary, cynical football world driven by greed. Except it hasn’t worked.

Of course injuries within a shallow squad have been a major factor in contributing to this unenviable record, but I suspect that if we had finished, say, 10th, I would be saying something similar, that while it is false to suggest his tactics have remained static, he failed to handle key problems such as constantly being caught on the ball, giving the all away (both caused by opposition pressing and high marking), poor penalty box defending and presenting opponents with far too much space, especially in front of our back four. You simply can’t play this way in the Prem. Latterly, the counter to this, that ‘we’ll score one more than you’, hasn’t been effective either in the league.

One unforgettable night in Bilbao triggered a cathartic reaction that was part celebration, part vindication, of the manager and especially of the loyalty of a fanbase starved of success. Nothing whatsoever that happens in the future can diminish that. I don’t agree with those who say this achievement has been diminished because of his sacking.

It was of the moment, and none the less magnificent for that. Ange set aside his principles for the sake of our club. Not only that, he convinced the players to buy into that too, ample evidence of his ability as coach and motivator. He believed, and made sure the players believed in themselves. Yet for much of the season, we played like a group of individuals with little connection or cohesion, and certainly the players’ confidence and ebullience of the early months had become a distant memory.

Ange belatedly but sublimely sorted that out, and there is undeniable risk in leaving that behind. Add this to the injury list as another what-might-have-been – we’ll never know, I don’t know, and it’s a question that will be debated whenever the history of Spurs during this period is discussed. I would add, though, that other managers can motivate players too.

Football is about those moments, and that’s what it was, a glorious moment, and that is its place in our heritage. Sometimes winning a trophy is culmination of a journey, building a resilient team over time who eventually become winners. Often, that proves to be a springboard for sustained success. This is different. Ange created a team for a specific time and place, essentially for three games, with little apparent connection to what had gone before. And what he created for our particular journey, building an attacking, front-foot team, did not work well enough in its particular context, namely the Premier League, where teams quickly learned how to exploit our weaknesses, where the strengths too infrequently failed to outweigh the positives and where the changes in tactics and personnel did not consistently make up for the deficiencies.

I understand fans’ disgust as expressed on social media that, for them, this indicates the board’s priority as league position, not winning trophies. However, this is nothing new. It’s not about Ange, it has been clear for many years, explicitly so in Pochettino’s era when he was told by Levy that the overriding target was a top four finish, and it is fallacious to assume this is the reason for his dismissal. I want Spurs to be contenders. I can deal with not winning stuff, goodness knows I’m used to that by now. But there’s a proviso, that we give it a right proper good go in every tournament. It’s not about either top four or a cup, it’s about building a team with squad depth to have a tilt at both. Until the board realise this and give the manager, any manager, the tools to achieve this, then we’re on the familiar journey towards disappointment.

We were talking about consistency. Here we are, back with the board again. Everything begins and ends with Levy. I have no faith in the board’s ability to make sound footballing decisions. Levy has created a culture devoid of sustained ambition to be consistently successful on the field. There’s no drive or purpose.

In another world, his decision to sack Ange despite winning a prized trophy could be interpreted as the act of a man ruthless in his dogged pursuit of success at the highest level. Applied to Levy, this has a hollow ring to it. Any manager needs full support in terms of a playing staff fit for purpose, good enough and deep enough. History suggests Levy won’t provide this and until this changes, the club is doomed to repeat the managerial churn that drastically inhibits progress in the long-term. The anointed successor, Thomas Frank, has spoken of how he works closely with his board at Brentford and the whole backroom staff. Get ready for a shock, mate.

However, and this comes back to evidence for change, Spurs are shaking up the hierarchy. The highly influential Donna Cullen has departed with the new chairman coming in with a record of being forward thinking, fan friendly and above all, understanding the modern game and what a club needs to complete at the top. We have a highly promising group of young players coming back to the club from various loans with invaluable league experience to add to the excellence of Gray and Bergvall. Plus, we have money to spend on a few good quality experienced players to make a big impact on the team.

Somewhere in another dimension, there is a cosy alternative reality where Ange carries on triumphantly buoyed by success and leading his highly motivated team to further glory. I wish that were real but reluctantly and with sadness conclude that its not part of our universe.

So let’s luxuriate in the glory of what Ange gave us. He can leave on a high, with a reputation that will open doors to many jobs in Europe and around the world. He will always be a legend in N17 and like us, he will have those precious, unforgettable moments of joy. Unlike us, he’ll have a £4 million pay-off to go with it.

The Europa League triumph brought home the personal dimension in a money obsessed, commodified game. Johnson’s smile, VDVs stunning individual moment, players united. And Ange hugging his kids. Thank you and all the best. We’ll always be mates.

If the game is about glory, and it is, then glory comes in a variety of guises. In Bilbao, it shapeshifted into a physical, mucky, grafting, sweaty, shithousing delight. Barely recognisable as such, but glory it was. Exactly what is needed to win a European trophy.

At last. This was one for the fans, the players magnificent in their application and commitment. Playing for the shirt has become a cliché, but for our lot, this meant everything. It was astonishing. I freely confess that 6 weeks ago, I would not have remotely believed they were capable of playing with such intensity, focus and resilience. Frankfurt away carried a seismic force that tilted everything on its axis. Then Bodo Glimt, now this as its culmination.

Huge credit to Ange for getting this through to his squad and in the process going against the attacking instincts he holds dear. This formation was right for the situation and perfect for the players, who took to it readily because these patterns and positioning in defence were familiar and comfortable. Turn round and they could see their mate, right there, ready to cover, rather than a vast expanse of green as sadly has been the case so frequently this season.

Credit to the players. Countless post-match interviews articulated their togetherness, a bond forged and fostered by their manager’s inspirational team talks. If you can catch it, Brennan Johnson speaks with touching respect about how Ange got the players to share their individual stories with one another and how this brought them closer.

If you’re here for post-match analysis, my apologies, absent partly because I watched the game on the big screens, partly because throughout the game I was in no fit emotional state to make any logical judgements, partly because, who cares? We won, that’s it. And VDV’s goal line clearance is the stuff of legends, to be spoken of down the generations.

What did come over to me were the interpersonal dynamics of the game, all the more important because there wasn’t any good football to distract us. Beforehand, in a rare moment of insight, I named Romero as the key. His performance became the touchstone for our success. Before kick-off, he took the players into the United half to perform the huddle in their midst and in front of our own fans. Then down came the mask. Rugged, muscular, devious, Argentinian they-shall-not-pass-do-not-yield-a-millimetre penalty box defending. He knew the potential influence of Maguire in that same role for United. That was his target, and reduced the United man to a whinging ineffectual lump. Every player took their inspiration from their captain, fulfilling their role and winning their individual battles, with Richarlison and Bissouma outstanding in this respect.

Anyway, what’s football got to do with it? Football fans are born shamen. We seek omens in the everyday configuration of events, or give fate a nudge by sticking to the same routine or wearing our lucky pants. A good Spurs pal of mine reconstructed his day in 1984 when we won the UEFA Cup by spending Wednesday evening repairing his van and listening to the match on medium wave radio. Lucky ring spanner anyone? While I wouldn’t go that far, in the build up to the game, my son and I weighed up the merits of the two teams but ultimately were reduced to begging that please, just this once. Just let the ball roll our way, just this once. So fate dictated that the cup would be won when two players both failed to properly connect with a cross and the ball bobbled into the goal. Just this once, it did roll our way.

With son and granddaughter in Bilbao behind the goal, I met good friends in the Antwerp then watched the match in the stadium. Fans chanting and screaming at television screens; I would call it bizarre except that watching people kick a ball around is inherently bizarre. The collective experience never fails to deliver. The second half was utter mayhem throughout. Perhaps fans wanted to make up for the artificiality of the situation, as if driven to generate  the emotion to make it real, but the noise was deafening at times. I still managed to shout at Darren Fletcher when he mentioned Champions League qualification. They never get supporters, these people. It’s about winning, and nothing else.

Full-time and a pitch invasion, not with my knees though. Dad dancing with strangers, as uncoordinated as those giant inflatable figures with absurdly long arms and legs. Inflatables, flares, a Brazilian flag. Supporters flat out on the grass, star-shaped, ecstatic beyond words. Climbing on the screens. Why do fans always climb up structures in celebration? Such existential questions are for later. Meanwhile, consider why a fan schlepped a big speaker on a trolley to play Ossie’s dream by the portaloos near Northumberland Park station.

The club has a grip on me and my psyche, and I don’t want it to end despite the problems that follow. My match preparation consisted of lack of concentration, feeling sick and shortness of breath. I’m delighted that pushing 70, something still moves me as much as being a Tottenham fan does. I sobbed my heart out at full time, in public. I was sitting on the end of the row and a young woman steward came over to give me a reassuring hug and say how pleased she was for me. I mention her age and gender only because I assume she does not make a habit of cuddling male strangers of pensionable age. My granddaughter messaged her mum (my daughter) at full time simply to say, ‘this is the best day of my life’, and you know, it probably was. I’m proud and moved to go to the Lane with her and my son. Two days on and I’m still welling up at videos of celebrating players and fans. The one with the kids in the local primary has done for me today.  Football eh, long may it continue to make idiots of us all.

Football, especially at the top level, has earned itself a bad reputation in many ways. Those who run the game both in this country and across the world abrogate their responsibilities towards the game and its supporters in favour of self-aggrandizement and financial gain. In these columns, I have consistently criticised our board for wilfully creating and enlarging the distance between club and fan.

The lasting and permanent impact of this victory is not, as countless pundits insistently intone, entry to the riches of the Champions League, but the bliss of sharing the moment with loved ones and friends. It rekindles our passion for the game and reminds us why we are so committed in the first place.

This win feels as if a burden has been lifted from our shoulders. I’m not so fussed about the reactions of fans of other clubs to my support of Spurs but this is a reward for years of loyalty despite the disappointments, which left me weary. Be a Spurs fan with confidence and swagger. See me wandering down the street, queuing in the chemist or shopping in Tesco’s, see that smile. You know why. Life is different now.

Talk to supporters as they celebrate, and watch the many videos doing the rounds. Note how many people say first, how overwhelmed with joy they are, then recount their family history. What sustains their pleasure is the faces of loved ones, often parents, sometimes as in my case, those of children and grandchildren. Skimming through social media, in this moment they connect the present with their past, how they are three or four generations in as Spurs fans, or how they reconnect with their fathers. Happy for themselves, happy for others,  because of this shared joy. Only football does this as profoundly.

Spurs are by no means unique in this respect. However, family ties hold particular value for our support. We don’t have any gloryhunters among the fanbase, self-evidently because that particular quality has been in short supply for a generation. Those young fans seeing instant gratification have gone elsewhere and wear blue or red. Neither are community links part of our identity, as the fanbase is spread far and wide. Hence the value of family ties, with the flame being passed down the generations.

In the Palace game, returning to my seat from the busy concourse and straggling queue for the gents, I expected to eavesdrop on chats about how dire we were in the first half mingled with plans to reach Bilbao. Instead, I found a stadium uncharacteristically hushed in awe and respect as fans gazed at the screens sharing the names and photos of Spurs fans who have died this year, the first time I believe the club have organised this.

It was the best of tributes – simple, unfussed and moving. Words were superfluous, the faces said all that needed to be said. Young and old, each photo told a story. Every smiling face, proud in that frozen moment to be wearing a Spurs badge on a scarf, hat or t-shirt. It touched us all, because they are us and we are them, an unspoken bond that football creates like nothing else can. Rest easy, one and all. We are all Tottenham, forever. My one and only club, my undying love.

I’m still basking in the afterglow of Thursday night’s wholesome and wholehearted performance. Such warmth and serenity has been in short supply this season. It feels like meeting an old friend you haven’t seen for many years and discovering that you still get on.

We needed that. A semi-final holds the tantalising prospect of a trophy, sure, but what we craved, and what will last, is the manner in which victory was achieved. Under pressure, Spurs didn’t fold. They raised their game, showing teamwork, intelligence and commitment that sadly has been a rare sight for much of this campaign.

Frankfurt, a classy team playing at home in front of their fans baying incessant support, but we took the game to them. We became the disruptors, partly through our threat on the break but mainly through our combative attitude. We wound them up, basically, epitomised by the slight figure of Brennan Johnson, who without having a great game was in opponents’ faces, skirmishing down on the touchline. Not much going on, so let’s get a little agitated. Others rushed to join in. Teamwork. Unsettle them. Exploit their visible tension.

Second half, backs to the wall, brought out the finest qualities in our defence. VDV had already saved us early on. Not mere pace – he timed that challenge to perfection even though he was hurtling along. Romero shone in adversity. The cold, blank stare of this ruthless defender returned. I love to see this. Tackles, niggles, shoves, any and every part of the body in the way of his opponent, it was classic penalty box at-all-costs defending.

Udogie better now his fitness is returning – we underestimate how much recovery takes out of a player. Bergvall the star, the maturity and intelligence of his positioning, tracking attackers. Hard to believe he’s just 19. We have a real player on our hands. Solanke tireless and uncomplaining up front, lacked support but never gave up. Plus handy that their two best chances fell to a right-back

So our best back four were able to play together and we’re better. Of course, but what really impressed was our shape. Minimal space between the back four with the midfield cutting out space in front of them and Bergvall and Bentacur dropping back to cover and mark. Turns out Ange’s all-out attackers can defend like demons after all.

I freely confess I was not expecting this. Little in recent matches provided any clue that the side was capable of such a transformation. In the post-match interviews, Vicario shared that the team were determined to show this side of their character, for the fans and manager. Usual stuff – what’s Italian for blah blah blah? A keeper I like a lot, and who has been unfairly criticised in the past, he’s been so shaky of late, nerves radiating out from the goalmouth in Hugo-esque fashion to weaken the resolve of the entire team. But like the rest of them, he found something extra. Never mind the late save with his feet, more about coming right out of his goal to catch a deep cross. In charge of his box again.

If we look back, this is not totally out of character for Spurs teams. We rightly revere our proud history of cup success, which usually came alongside the inability to challenge consistently for the league over a 42 game season, although admittedly when winning stuff we didn’t fall as far as we have right now. In 1984, for instance, we won the UEFA Cup but finished 8^th, in 72, 6^th and won the Cup in 81, 10^th. The difference between then and now is that those teams were full of big characters and experienced players who led by example and whose ferocious will to win was evident in these big games. I would not say this applied to the current team. In fact, on the field leadership appears, from the stands at least, to be largely absent, but full credit to all of them to find something deep down to rise to the challenge and be the best they can be.

These defensive hold-outs have a lasting positive effective on team morale, more so in my view than a series of thumping victories, because qualities like determination, organisation and togetherness are abundantly obvious. Perhaps the players needed convincing that that could play like this, and proved it to themselves. Whatever, the scenes of jubilation in the stands and on the pitch as the players and manager piled in on each other were heartwarming and genuine. It’s been too long. Ange even smiled. Players, fans and manager, we all needed that.