With the New Year comes the proliferation of self-improvement advice to enhance physical and mental well-being, and goodness knows I should pay more attention to both. The joys of a late winner are strangely not included in any of the options I’ve come across. I really think the advice gurus are missing a trick here. It’s obvious there’s nothing like it for instant gratification and lasting exhilaration, especially if it’s banged right into the roof of the net, no messing.

This is the bit football fans can’t explain to those who don’t follow the game. Their reactions towards us range from patronising tolerance to outright pity, as we spend a lifetime fretting over eleven players kicking a ball. But we feel sorry for them, because they’ll never feel the heartpumping thrill of a late winner, the uncontrolled limbs of the celebration dance, shared with 62000 strangers. All the things that excite the uninitiated – no, you’ll never feel like we do. Toxins purged, I can face the coming week with renewed enthusiasm. Boring meeting? Tricky situation at work? I’m nodding earnestly but inwardly, I’m smiling. You know why.

Plus the added bonus of being particularly pleased for Johnson. Cost a fortune but looks like a little boy to me. You’ve got to be pleased for him as he needs not just a goal but the confidence that comes from attacking a bouncing ball in the box at a crucial moment so assuredly. He’s a player I so want to come good. And he will. He is.

A game not so much of two halves, more of four quarters. Brighton on top at the start and finishing stronger, Spurs exerting a measure of control before and after half-time. Some disappointment expressed about us but overall, it wasn’t a performance that is straightforward to judge. The value of having almost everybody fit showed in the strength of the bench and the quality of the substitutions available to Ange. However, there’s fit to play, fully fit and Ange fit, the last being the ability to go flat out for 95 minutes. Players coming back from injury and in our case Afcon and the Asian Cup aren’t there yet.

Yet to us, this comes over as them having a bad game. I thought our attacking edge was blunted by Porro and Udogie not getting forward as often. I wondered if this might be tactical tweak to give more cover at the back but probably it was because they are understandably worked so hard.  

Bentancur was another example. He’s a top quality midfielder, no question, but was little influence yesterday, although he improved in the second half before being taken off. Comments this morning that the coaching staff are not expecting him to be up to his pre-injury standards until next season, which puts impatience from fans into context. Also, he was assiduously marked, a Brighton forward going to him as soon as we picked the ball up in defence. They clearly saw him as key to our transition to attack and worked their plans around stifling him.

So I’m not judging him on all that. As for the team, we weren’t as fluent as we have been, and should be. Our movement of the ball in possession was frequently stilted and restricted, but it’s only partly down to us. The next challenge Ange’s Spurs have to face is that teams have sussed us out. In varying degrees, Brighton, Brentford and Everton have taken a similar approach to playing us. They press hard up the field, stay tight on our midfielders if we progress the ball and try to get inside the pass as the receiver prepares to control it. Brighton’s press was better than ours. Time and again in recent games we’ve given the ball away by being caught playing out. Bentancur yesterday gave the ball away at the edge of the box just before their penalty. Udogie and Hojbjerg have been culprits too of late. Our set-up means we are brutally exposed in these situations, despite the pace and strength of our back four. We seldom have extra cover back and are moving to attacking mode as soon as we get the ball. It’s not just about individuals. They have to have (ready yourself for stunning tactical insight ) someone to pass to. The days of Dembele fending off half a midfield on his own are long gone.

Spurs’ approach works best when everyone is flying, at 100%. We give ourselves less margin for error than other teams. I’m all aboard the Ange train until the end of the line. It’s just that watching Spurs protect a lead is a strain at times. Dealing with it is a better guide to my health than the blood pressure meter, I reckon.

Often the best guide to any side’s progress is how well they do when they are playing at 60% or 70% effectiveness. Yesterday, Brighton gave us several scary moments and were on top for extended periods, but they failed to score from open play. Vic made two excellent saves, otherwise they had little on target.

How we respond at the crucial moments in each game is a benchmark of how we are doing. Kulu was in and out, but that pass to Sarr for the opener was instant, and a gem. Maddison didn’t dominate but makes something happen. VDV conceded the penalty but made several vital interventions. And our winner was a terrific piece of football, the pass to Sonny, his run and Johnson, again off the pace when he came on, delivered when it mattered.

Good for my heart and soul to be back at the Lane. I watched the City and Brentford games from my sofa rather than the South Stand, a victim of the governing principle of the universe, Sod’s Law. For perfectly reasonable caring reasons, I prefer to stay home most nights. Faced with the prospect of three Spurs’ outings in 10 days or so, I opted for the launch of Julie Welch’s new book about the best Tottenham strike partnerships (out now, highly enjoyable and recommended) and the City game. However, at the last minute I couldn’t attend the latter as the dog was being sick repeatedly in every room of the house. It’s the glamour of my life that gets too much, truly. And as I move to remove my Bees ticket from the exchange, the email arrives to say it’s sold.

It’s worse at home, watching the gaping fissures open up in our defence, like the TV documentaries covering millennia of earth’s history by fast-forwarding a graphic of shifting tectonic plates, rift valleys and mountains. The Brentford game was the prime example of the ‘we’ll score one more you’ elements of our manager’s approach, and we did, in the end, so that’s alright then. Or is it? It was hard watch at times, even at the end with three centre halves. We shouldn’t have to rely on unaccountable opposition misses in both games, although when City pinned us back, we defended well for the most part. Brentford will be furious that they did not score a third, though.

But Thomas Frank is a canny operator. He kept it tight at the back and told two strikers to stay up top, with the dangerous Toney often drifting wider right to open up more space and more doubt in the minds of VDV and Romero. Ange wants defenders who are good one-to-one, that’s what ‘s got in our first choice back four. More sophisticated tactical analysis is available but two v two like this with Porro and Udogie pushed inside in midfield and we’re always going to be onto a loser at some point in the game, however good that partnership is, in my view very, very good.

In praise of Vicario. He’s an excellent keeper. His saves, acrobatic again yesterday, his presence, his speed off the line – I could go on. I question the level of recent criticism about dealing with set pieces. This season he’s been good at the physical side, especially given his stature. He goes for the ball and usually gets it. I don’t accept this ‘could be stronger’ stuff. He never takes a backward step and confidence is unaffected by problems – next time it comes over, he’s going for it. There is little he or any keeper can do if he is fouled. Everton hassled him. Sometimes it was legitimate physical contact, sometimes he was fouled, and their first goal is a blatant foul.

Other teams protect their keeper, and yesterday Maddison took on that duty. Although I detest managers refereeing from their press conference (Pep, Arteta, Klopp all do it, as did JM), I’m glad Ange played the game and spoke to PGMOL about this. It’s now in referees’ minds.

A final word for Sonny. Already much loved, his reception yesterday was deafening and elevated his status to the returning hero we all need.

Dier out, Dragusin in, a move that embodies the changes at Spurs since Postecoglou’s appointment, not so much his will imposed on the club as his spirit and ethos coursing through its veins and nervous system. These are Ange’s decision, this is Ange time.

Dier is stolid, Dragusin looks exciting. Dier is the past, the present and future is about speed, athleticism and vibrancy, and already Ange has a squad that gives him what he wants. There’s a plan here, moving decisively in the market to buy players who are young (ish) and who already have a foundation of experience on which to build, with Ange the architect.

Dragusin represents the change in another way – players want to come to Spurs. He believed in us, in his manager, in the face of a bid from Bayern Munich because his prospects are better here. The same goes for an older player, Timo Werner, who in different circumstances sees his career can be bolstered as Ange’s Spurs suits him.

I (and others) have described Ange’s approach as transformative, and it’s worth pausing momentarily to reflect on where we are. The club have an organised approach to buying new players, with Levy and the revamped recruitment operation working together to target players the manager wants. Given our past, that is a seismic shift in approach that is frankly astounding.

We look forward, not back. We have faith in what is to come. If it doesn’t work out, at least we had a go, doing it the right way, playing the right way. That’s all I ask. Be on the front foot. Take them on. Play with style and chutzpah. Beat your man. That’s what I want from being a Spurs fan.

The team looks entirely different. Different faces, very different approach. Every player believes in him and his way of playing. It’s breathtaking and full of tension at the same time, and that’s just fine by me, because every match, my senses are overwhelmed, joy and pain, romance and heartache, redemption and frustration. I feel it all. It’s what I want from being a Spurs fan.

I wish Dier the very best in the future. He was one of those players that I felt good about when he played, wanted him to do well. Even most recently, when exposed by his static footwork and lack of real pace, to me he was a muscular, reassuring presence, dashing onto to the field as a substitute with all the determination and fresh enthusiasm of a youngster called upon for the first time. He wanted to play for Spurs and gave of his best when he did so. He was never the same after being laid low by that mystery virus.

That commitment is a precious commodity, one that I value highly, to the point where I’ll forgive the sins of any Spurs player who displays that quality. Maybe I forgave too much. Errors crept into his game over the years, horrid lapses magnified by deficiencies around him as Spurs struggled to build a coherent defence. That sideways lunge shape he adopted, arms behind his back, instead of going to his man, I shudder at the memory, but the rubbish from social media boo-boys was not merely undeserved, it was downright cruel and heartless. We profited from a balance sheet of Eric’s pros and cons over ten years substantially in the black. As he metronomically hurdled the West Stand seats after the Norwich cup-tie, row by row in relentless pursuit of those who abused his family, that’s the kind of man I want on my side.

Dier was the future once. He was a young player with, for a footballer, an unusually cosmopolitan background who was sufficiently intelligent, mobile and flexible to play first as a defensive midfielder, then adapt to roles in a back three and four. We’ve moved on. That’s what this transfer represents.

Perhaps it also represents another change. Gone is the era of the club stalwart, where players and managers stay with us for a decade or more, let alone a career. See also: Kane, H. We’ll have to get used to players moving, if we haven’t already done so. It’s not a sign of any absence of dedication necessarily, it’s just the way it is. Hopefully, our young stars will remain as we achieve success, and I’ll still cheer Sarr and Udogie when Real Madrid buy them for £100m each.

One exception is Ben Davies, and this is my opportunity to praise him for his current excellent form and for taking on extra responsibility without batting an eyelid even when partnered with Emerson. Hats off to him.

‘The first team’ may soon be an outmoded concept too. The current crop of injuries, not unique to Spurs, reflect physical demands on players that will only increase. Playing a first choice XI is likely to be the exception rather than the rule. More than ever, it’s a squad game now, so as we build, we need not so much cover as options in key positions. Ange is keen to buy players who can double up, Dargusin has apparently done well as a right back in the past, although the way he’s going, Porro will keep running until this time next year without a break.

Happy New Year by the way. Life gets in the way so there will be breaks between pieces sometimes but I’m still here. Still on Twitter too but posting less, partly because it can be a cesspit, partly because the owner is a raving anti-Semite, but there are lots of folk on there I choose not to lose touch with.

So where are we with – let’s do each other a favour and not call it Angeball, he’s the manager and we kick a ball but like the ball in cricket’s Bazball, it’s become a suffix stripped of meaning. So into the bin with it, decomposing alongside spursy. So as I was saying, where are we with Spurs playing attacking bloody brilliant football?

Fourteen games plus a league cup tie in, and it feels longer, not because time has dragged. If there’s one thing you can’t level at Spurs this season, it’s the accusation that they are boring. More about so much has happened, so radical has the change from the last four years been, it feels like March or April 2024. We’ve been through a whole cycle already. An unremarkable pre-season, then transformative attacking football, the squad revitalised and rejuvenated by an inspirational leader, who can communicate to his players and to supporters. New signings look like old hands. From the dark to the light.

Then, a pothole in the road punctures progress. The aftershocks of the Chelsea game are still being felt, and there may still be reverberations come May. Part self-inflicted wounds, part fate, a combination that’s tough to overcome. A good Spurs friend of mine is convinced we are cursed, the only possible explanation for the misfortune that befalls us. I chuckle along, but just when we’ve got things together, after so long in the doldrums, playing football the Spurs way, the way fans want us to play, and this happens.

As ever, it’s the fans who are most attuned to circumstances. Joy unconfined at the Lane early on this season, celebrating not just good football, not merely the unsurpassed delight of late winners but also celebrating being us, rejoicing in having something to celebrate. Then, the remarkable, genuinely moving reaction to the CFC defeat, cheering the team to the rafters because of the shift they put in, for us. Versus Villas, by about 3.30, the atmosphere in the South Stand dropped to a low hum. It lifted later, but at that point, optimism had dissipated to a collective, unspoken agreement. We’re not going to score, are we?

Now we’re back on it, enlivened, entertained and inspired by Sunday’s draw. Limbs in that away end, a familiar sight over the last few years, limbs on sofas across the world. Walking on air. Never beaten till the final whistle blows. Knowing our team can do that is precious, even if they can’t always succeed.

It’s worth thinking about what that means for supporters. Going into a game knowing that anything is possible. Not expectation necessarily, hope certainly. Expanding the limits of what is achievable. Moving forward. Joining manager and players on the journey without being sure of the exact destination.

That’s what I want to feel as a fan. In supporting a PL team, I have no arrogant expectations or overbearing entitlement. I want a tilt at the possible, to be contenders, to be part of that and see where it takes us. Spurs have made massive progress under Postecoglou, and that’s the biggest leap forward. He’s given us the most precious gift – a future. We’re short at the back but we can always buy another centre half. You can’t buy what Ange gives us.

This is the new Spurs Way, with due respect shown to the old ways. Pass and move. Push and run. It’s not so radically different. The football world knows this already. Say Spurs and people know what that means and how we play, with a flourish, not waiting. The world is an uncertain, risky place, but here is something to rely on. And there’s a morality to it, with the right values, doing things the right way. It’s what I want to feel as a fan.  

And fans have a big role to play, not just in getting behind the team but also in giving something back to the team – patience. There will be mistakes, like Bissouma’s, and we need at least two more windows to add the players in key roles at the back and as central striker. I’m prepared to wait.

Also, having been heavily critical of the club’s approach to football strategy, I have more confidence that we have recruitment and analysists to properly support the manager. It’s imperative the chairman supports this too.

It’s no real secret why we prosper against City. Their defenders are quick and tough, good on the ball, and because of that and their possession game, they don’t spend long periods actually defending. Reminds me of another team, sounds familiar…

Anyway, there’s always space, and that suits our strengths. Enter Sonny, terrific movement on Sunday across the front line from a central starting point. Against Villa, that hindered us because they fell back to limit that space, rendering him less effective. Granted, it helps if Haaland misses because it was just too easy to score.

Johnson darted and dashed, relatively freed from tight marking. City bet on their defenders one-on-one, my money’s on Brennan. I’m fast becoming his oldest fanboy. Kulu was excellent again, tireless and purposeful. But no need for that extra touch every time.

Our attacking football was utterly, stunningly, dazzling. The opener tore City asunder in a few devastating seconds, a move that began 12 inches from our goal-line. Thing is, this is us now. Not a one-off moment of inspiration but the way Spurs play football. Doesn’t always work, but no matter, we’ll try it again next time, and the time after that.

It’s transformative coaching, remarkable in such a short period of time, and the players are lapping it up. It is a world away compared with the last four seasons where caution and apathy, fear too, appeared to be drummed into the squad, where individuality and thinking for yourself were suppressed rather than nurtured. This is eager, front-foot football.

Porro’s a good example of this. Last season he never looked confident, whereas now, he’s by no means a perfect defender but for the entire game he’s on the go, going forward or going in hard. His body shape epitomises our game – he’s stronger than I first thought, slightly leaning forward, muscular, eyes ahead.

I’m somewhat mystified as to why Angeb… Spurs attacking football has so amazed the media. Perhaps it’s the stark contrast with what had gone before. On balance, Neville and Carragher are worth listening to on Sky. At least they try to analyse the game, in contrast to most pundits who are happy to blather on about hard work and scoring a goal when the ball’s in the box (Dion Dublin, I’m looking you right in the eye). But Neville’s chortling away about fun while Carragher suggests lumping it long, whereas in front of him a Spurs team without half its best players passes its way through and round the puzzles set by City.  

Ange isn’t a football purist for the aesthetics. He plays this way because he believes this is how to win, and so do I. It’s not gung-ho attack. Rather, it’s crafted, patterned football based on endeavour and team work. Players know what it expected of them. Where they are supposed to be and what they should be doing in different situations, leaving plenty of room for individuality and inspiration.

I wince at the high line, and confess I felt against Villa he over-thought it and left us weak in other situations like set pieces. But again, it’s not just the high line. It’s about having pacy, mobile defenders who are strong one-on-one. The high line maximises the effectiveness of those attributes. Even with Davies and Emerson, that gives forwards another problem to deal with and goes some way to mitigate the obvious weakness there until Romero and VDV can return.

Whatever you call it, I’m all in. Bloody love this team, bloody well love them.

To dare is to do, that’s all very well but Spurs’ new motto is onwards and upwards with Ange. Hang on, we can’t go upwards because we’re on top of the league!

Old habits ingrained over five decades die hard. I’ve not yet come to terms with how being top feels. Rational brain tells me that we dominated Fulham even after throttling back towards the end. Spurs’ brain screams don’t give the ****ing ball away! Don’t leave those gaps at back! Emerson, what are you DOING? Rational brain doesn’t expect us to be lasting contenders for top spot. Spurs’ brain says – could we?

The proper answer to all this is: enjoy every chuffing second. The first half was dynamic attacking football, inventive and ingenious. A few of the moves were simply beautiful, with Maddison at its heart, all swagger and poise, the cocky git we’ve craved since dear Dele faded. Never mind the table, I’m overwhelmed by the sight of pace at the back. I wouldn’t swap Romero and Van der Ven for any central defensive partnership right now.

The transformation of every aspect of the club is little short of miraculous, especially as it has been achieved in such a short space of time. Every first teamer is playing better than they did last season, while newcomers have integrated perfectly, more than the sum of the parts because they’ve galvanised existing squad members to aspire to be better. The Lane is rocking and rolling. Attacking front-foot football is a delight.

And its soul power comes from a man with the air of an avuncular uncle at a family do, who is pleased to see you and surreptitiously slips a fiver into the palm of the youngest child as he leaves the party. He is, as he’s fond of saying, your mate.

Postecoglou is self-evidently a fine coach, able to convey his ideas unambiguously. At first glance he’s not a charismatic figure, but in my view, charisma is over-rated. Its essence is about an individual, all about the me. Follow if you wish, but it leaves nothing behind once belief in that figure fails or the leader departs.

JM and Conte worked assiduously to polish their charismatic image, because this, rather than the well-being of Tottenham Hotspur, was their prime concern. They could pack up their image and charisma whenever they wished and take it away with them. What they left behind was none of their concern. They focused on finding another set of converts. And if the players ceased to believe, perhaps because at close quarters they saw right through the facade, they were to blame. When these managers were not blaming the fans, that is.

I’ve been reading Still Dreaming by Alex Fynn and Martin Cloake, the story of last season at Spurs intertwined with a sharp, informed commentary with inside knowledge on the state of the contemporary game with the fans’ experiences at its core. Hard recommendation from me. It’s written in the present tense, a sort of live action commentary over the season. Its strength lies in the way it interweaves the story of the season with wider issues about the club’s history and future and uses this to illustrate developments in the contemporary game such as the impact of television and the need to maximize income generation.

While acknowledging his successes, Conte’s vanity and hollow pronouncements about his hopes for the club are exposed, while the board are intent apparently on alienating loyal supporters by any possible means. The last few seasons have been bleak, the extent of which I didn’t fully take on board until the close season when I had time to reflect without having to think about our points total.

However, I wonder if history will judge last season as a turning point. Things are different now, perhaps because Spurs were compelled to change direction due to the sheer awfulness of the last three managers and how they denied and desecrated the club’s culture and heritage, something which even our board could not ignore.

Postecoglou is a different kind of leader. He’s ambitious, of course he is, but achievement comes via another route. His is an authentic voice, and the players believe him, not just because it’s him but also because what he says is meaningful for them as individuals. Ange doesn’t say, believe me because I’ve won all this stuff somewhere else. He says, believe me because I’ve had to work bloody hard to get where I am. I’ve lived through failure and disappointment, I know what that feels like, and I don’t want you to feel like this. I want you to be the best you can be. Come with me.

His supposedly more illustrious predecessors preened as saviours handing down wisdom from on high. Ange has a different relationship. He says, I believe in you, do this and this because it will make you better players. The players give something back to him in return. There is reciprocity, a bond, a sense of working together with the same aim in focus. If Ange left tomorrow (perish the thought), he’s left something with the player, he’s made them better. It’s his gift to them.

He understands them, because he is without pretension. He’s at their side, not standing aloof. If they make a mistake doing something he’s asked them to do, like passing it forward and taking a risk in so doing, he’s got their back. He takes each player and asks them to play in a position that suits them, asks them to do things he knows they can do, and do well.

Already, the players sense he understands their game better than they understood themselves. Not so long ago, I wrote about my fears for the squad, including the imbalance of wing-backs ready for a manager who likes to go four at the back. What he has achieved with Porro and Udogie in a short space of time is remarkable, yet he’s still playing to their strengths. Coach the players and they can improve, to me a basic concept that nevertheless appeared alien to JM and Conte. I agree with Alex and Martin when they point out that these managers are prepared to shape proven talents into a team, rather than coach players to develop. Where they saw flaws, Ange sees potential.

You’ve probably seen this team-talk he gave to the Australian national side, with his now famous sign off, enjoy your lunch. JM and Conte, they were at the centre of their world and everything else orbited within their gravitational force, whereas Ange inhabits our world and walks in our footsteps. He motivates by appealing to what lies in players’ hearts, what is important in their lives. Personal pride, family, people who meant something to them emotionally. Play for them. They believed in you, now believe in yourself. That’s proper leadership.  

At Spurs, he gets it. Our history and heritage are important to him. Fans are fully part of his world. Again, reciprocity – he gives us something meaningful to us and we give back. First game in 67, I’ve seen the Lane rocking over the years but the raucous din of celebration after the United and Sheffield games was off the scale, an expression of pride in the club and rediscovering the joy of being Spurs. You lead Ange, we’ll follow. Cheers mate.

And is it so fanciful to say, after all these years, the board were so wrong with their choice of not one, not two but three managers in succession, that even they have through the bad times gleaned a better grasp of what works at Spurs. Repeating myself over the last ten or twelve years, I said again last year (full disclosure – this is quoted in the book) that any football club depends on three elements, manager/coach, recruitment and finance, and Daniel Levy has seldom aligned all three. When he did, they now appear as outliers.

Yet here we are. Ange and his team working well. Recent signings have worked well without breaking the bank plus they are geared to the way the manager wants to play, pace with VDV and Udogie, guile and passing ability with Maddison. An overhaul of the recruitment department has established clear demarcation lines with (in theory) our chairman taking a back seat and based on a data driven approach. This complements a development that began a while back of buying young talent to develop in the under18s and 23s and paying the market rate to keep young talent at the club. None of these developments are original but in terms of the way Spurs are organised, it’s revolutionary. Spurs are going in a different direction. The only way is up.