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.

Football is all about the moments. That feeling. Bedlam as the ball hits the net. There is nothing like it, nothing can compare with a last minute winner. That uncontrolled explosion of joy and unity. It’s natural, unreconstructed, visceral. It’s ours.

Can’t explain it to anyone who doesn’t get football. I mean, if I say there is nothing to match it, am I merely revealing my drab, grey existence? I think of my friend Adrianna, who looks at me kindly with a mixture of bafflement and pity when I talk like this.

I’m right though. Where else can you experience such utter instinctive joy, made even more powerful because it’s shared with 61000 others, plus everyone at home who felt it too. It’s so precious. Few of the ways we express our emotions these days are spontaneous. The goal liberates us, frees us to be ourselves. In that chaotic tangle of limbs and the jerky carnival of celebration, we find our moment and rejoice in being us.  

Football at Spurs is fun again Everyone I spoke to said the same thing – you look forward to games now. Under the last three managers, football became something to be endured, now it is a pleasure. We enjoy it for what it is and what it means to us.  

The celebration police mobilised on social media. Of the all ridiculous manifestations of modern fandom, defining how to celebrate a goal is the most ludicrous. On twitter, I move like a Maddison, aware of what’s going around me and easily skip past obstructions to find my sweet spot. Live in the here and now and relish the good times. If you feel the game, you don’t think, you just do it.

Embrace the moment for all its worth. When it comes to milking it, I channel my inner Ange, the last one to leave the field, finally tearing himself away from the South Stand roar. I looked back up at the giant stand, a single pulsating being. Genuinely I don’t know what our position in the league is. That’s not what we were celebrating. We revelled in the rediscovery of good football, of our heritage. We delighted in the fact that the manager and players felt the same way. After the winner, the players ran uncoordinated in all directions. The same as us. Ange’s finest achievement so far is to reunite team and fans, to close the chasm JM and Conte opened up. They love it as much as we do. This team is a reflection of us, of who we are and what we want football to be like.

This denouement, though, had the added spice of the corniest of Hollywood sporting films. It looked like the bad guys – boo hiss – with their dastardly timewasting would win out, and that the referee – boo hiss – would have succeeded in ruining the game. We could be talking about S United’s admirable defending in the box, not only heroic last-ditch blocks but also cutting out space and covering runners. Instead, it’s all about calculated timewasting like nothing I’ve seen before. Spurs waste time. I’m not a betting man but last season, if we were a goal up with five minutes left, I would have put the house and the kids on Hojbjerg going down. But blatant slowness by the keeper, players taking it in turns to sit down in the second half while the rest of the side took on liquids and tactics from the sideline. The keeper should have got a second yellow but the ref, who was atrocious, decided against it, even after warning him and the skipper in the first half.

At one point it looked as if this would be the first test for supporters of the Ange philosophy, keep playing regardless of results, but Spurs kept going. We never stop, and they didn’t. They deserve enormous credit and admiration for such a remarkable transformation is such a short period of time. Total commitment to the cause, plus they kept their heads and played terrific football throughout. The move for Kulu’s goal, under intense pressure, is a mini-masterpeice of passing football in a tight space, all begun by what is fast becoming a feature of our play, Udogie winning the ball high up the pitch.

Ange works his players hard and doesn’t suffer slackers, yet has the emotional intelligence sadly lacking in his three predecessors to value them as individuals. Apparently if you treat people well, they respond well too. Who knew?

Richie knows. He’s been protected and looked after. On the bench but not sulking. His goal could have been portrayed as a moment of redemption and closure. Instead, his reaction was all business. I’m the striker, get ahead of my marker and head it. Job done, now get on with it. My kind of striker.

Bissouma was outstanding, epitomising our determination and drive. Romero has caught the eye this season too. He is thinking more about his game, where he should be and how he can combine with VDV. Son in the middle may work better away from home when teams have to come out and we can attack on the counter. Solomon and Kulu kept the crosses coming in but the United centrebacks lapped it all up. Johnson had little time to shine but the way he pulled that ball down and beat the keeper, disallowed but there’s mouthwatering promise and talent for all to see.

Life comes at you fast at Spurs. Four games in and Postecoglou has already gone full circle, experiencing every result and emotion. A decent away draw to begin with, the good alongside the indifferent. Then came the highs of a fine victory together with a pulsating, joyous atmosphere with him at the centre of it all. After a good win away, the team is gelling then the comedown after last night’s defeat. Some treat him like a saviour but last night he showed frailty that is all too human.

He is very much his own man, a real strength that appeals to me enormously. It has taken him a long while to get a top job and he is clearly determined to do things his way. But Ange’s team selection against Fulham was a mistake in my view. Rotation was the wrong option. I understand the need to give playing time to as many members of the squad as possible. However, this was outweighed by other priorities. Against a PL team away from home when we’re not under undue fixture pressure because there’s no European football, we should put out a strong side. There’s no need to rest fit players. The manager was quoted this week as saying how much he always wants to win, at anything. I’m not a huge fan of the League Cup but for a team who has won nothing since 2008, freed of European distraction, this was a big game for us and we should have gone big with team selection.

Also, Spurs are in the middle of rebuilding the team in a league that doesn’t allow the luxury of the time and space to do so, therefore the opportunity to develop teamwork and partnerships was more important in my eyes than seeing what players with, Solomon apart, known strengths and weaknesses can do. Ange said he wanted to learn more about his squad and he will rightly be highly disappointed in their reaction. He gave them a chance, they didn’t take it. Some of our passing was frankly appalling, basic stuff that we failed to do.

Wholesale changes simply don’t work for us. They never have (I still shudder at the memory of the Sheffield United cup-tie last season), and last night’s selection created unnecessary disruption. Skipp, LoCelso, Emerson and Hojbjerg were poor, but without making excuses for them, our whole system was out of kilter. And this undermined the very thing that has been his real achievement so far, creating cohesion from chaos in a very short space of time thanks to his coaching and motivational skills.

Ange strikes me as a coach who puts his faith in his players. He’s learned a painful lesson. At least we have a clear idea of the core of the side. If you want to win a game, I’m never keen on playing the back-up keeper – more painful memories of Vorm chucking a couple in his own net. Forster is a decent back-up, although his penalty-saving technique of sitting down just before the kick needs work, but play Vicario behind VDV and Romero, Bissouma proving his value in his absence, Maddison the difference-maker with Son and Kulu wide, Kulu adding a bit more to the middle as required. To know this after four matches, we’ve have come a long way in a short time, and so we move forward.

Life at Spurs brings other pressures for managers. Postecoglou has to carry the unwanted burden of the recent past at Spurs, things that are not his responsibility but which are tangible and he cannot avoid. Some of this he sees as an opportunity. He relishes playing attacking football and bringing through younger players, and this overcomes the energy-sapping legacy of the dull, unadventurous football of his predecessor. However, last night he failed to confront the lack of trophies, as big a mistake as his team selection.

He may be his own man, but it is hard to avoid another defining element of the past, the way the board runs the club. They have consistently prioritised a top four finish as opposed to going full out to win a nice shiny bauble. Have they set targets? Fans want a cup but above all want to see the team having a proper go, and if we fail, so be it but at least we gave it everything. And then there’s recruitment. Ange may have learned a lot about his players but there’s precious little time left in the window to do something about it.

Ange is good for us. He will build a team, motivate them and there are good times ahead. I’m fully aboard the Ange train, full steam ahead, senior railcard in hand. But there’s disappointment and anger around the fanbase today. 6000 fans plus many more in the home sections came to the Cottage to celebrate the new Spurs and felt let down.

He’s a good manager, right for us, but he’s not the messianic Greek god some make him out to be and we would do well to remember that. Already legends and myths have grown up around him, a creation of fans desperate for change. We are mythmaking because we need a hero who is a force for good, able to exorcise the evil spirits of stupefying, mind-numbing football from the Lane armed only with a couple of inverted fullbacks and a winning way in press conferences. Some hang on every word and divine meaning from each sentence. Not enough for fans to sing his praises, he has his own song and the seal of approval from Robbie Williams.

Folklore and legends may be fantastical but they serve to give meaning to what we do and who we are. Let’s follow Ange from the darkness of Conteball into the light, but he’s just a hardworking manager learning about the Premier League. Don’t make him into something he isn’t and should not be.

And that revolting strip looks like a red sock got left in the high temperature white wash.

Hear that? The sound of straitjacket buckles being undone. Locked doors thrown open, barriers crashing down. The cracking of Conte’s concrete boots. That bloke who used to stand behind JM with his clipboard being ignored by the players, his pencil lead breaking.

Not that you could hear anything over the wall of glorious noise crashing out of the Park Lane to fill the stadium for 99 minutes to visibly lift the players. The old guard were surprised, the new guys lapped it up. All the players plus the manager were genuinely moved and inspired. None of these self-indulgent in-joke choreographed goal celebrations. Sarr leapt in delight and piled in towards the fans in the corner before being engulfed by his team-mates. Unconfined spontaneous joy, on the field and in the stands.

Someone should tell the new guys that it’s not always like this. Or maybe it will be. Kudos to the new singing section at the back of the south. If you build it, we will come, and join in.

This hullabaloo marked more than a fine win over benchmark rivals, excellent though we were in the second half. This was an uproarious celebration of us, of being Spurs, a triumphant sustained roar to exorcise demons and a rediscovery of who we are, of being Spurs, an identity and belonging that had been stifled and repressed by successive regimes.

Players inspired, raising their game, led by a manager whose values chime with ours. Get on the front foot, take the game to our opponents and if that doesn’t work, do it again only better. Ange gets us. JM and Conte paid lip service to the club’s heritage and to us, because in their hearts and heads, they were more important than the club. But Ange believes, so we believe in him. We sang Conte’s name, he thought, well yes of course you do. Sing Ange’s name, he is humble and proud. Such praise is earned. In Ange and his team, we see a reflection of ourselves as supporters, of who we want to be and how we want our team to play.

I like the relative peace and quiet of the close season where normally a measure of hope and optimism are the dominant emotions. This summer, I brooded in anguish over seasons of dull, unambitious football to be endured rather than enjoyed. Hardly an original observation, but the depth and consistency of the numbing awfulness of it all was inescapable. A lack of ambition was coached into our players. There was certainly no coaching to improve them as a team or to develop young players, and we have many of those.

And with a single bound Ange set us free! I read a quote from a manager over the summer, think it was Arne Slot, who said he didn’t like defensive football because it encouraged players not to think or take the initiative. I present Conte’s Spurs as a case study in evidence.

That’s all in the past now, than goodness, although I do fear for our defence while the manager coaches wing-backs to be full-backs and the promising Van der Ven settles. Romero had a good game, clear-headed and committed, more please.

With the leggy stride of the thoroughbred he is, Sarr was outstanding in midfield alongside the excellent Bissouma, who has found his form once free of injuries and through a manager who believes in him, who asks him to do what he does best, not confirm to rigid, cloying and outdated tactics. Good at holding the ball under pressure to help team-mates out and allow our shape to reset, just as the mighty Dembele did under Poch. Maddison on the ball to create chances, he does things a fraction quicker than the rest. With ball at his feet comes the thrill of expectation. Something is going to happen, how I’ve missed that feeling. And Udogie looks a real prospect, not just raiding with pace and strength from the back but the timing and positioning of his runs shows maturity way beyond his age.

This is a young side and there will be setbacks as they learn by doing, as well as successes. Being honest, the manner of our victory was the most significant part of the day, and I would be praising them even if we hadn’t won. That second half shift was remarkable and put United’s expensive midfield to shame. But we were fortunate that United missed those two first half headers and that Davies’ cunning plan to take everyone by surprise and shank the cross worked as well as it did.

But we have something to look forward to. My anticipation levels are off the scale, and fans will be alongside them win or lose because this is right way to play football. The team spirit and togetherness is energising in itself.

Ange hasn’t sorted out the front three yet. Richarlison is clearly being told to stay central, so he spends a lot of time waiting for the ball to come to him, rather than moving or interchanging with Son, which could make it harder for defenders. Son’s talents are not best served by expecting him to play as a wide man.

So a great day out at the Lane, all the sweeter knowing the promise of more to come. Strap in and enjoy the ride. It will take time, and patience can be our gift to the manager in return for the promise he brings.

By the end of the window, I’d like to see another striker and centre-back as a minimum. I’m leaning towards spending the Kane money on class and buying the best as opposed to skimping, that’s assuming the money hasn’t been spent already, but enough of the board in recent articles, I’m not going there for now.

There’s some concern about the number of players we need to move on but the reality for Spurs and every PL club is that the real business gets done to the sound of the window closing, when minds are focused as ifs and buts fall by the wayside. Happens every window, this will be no different. I think Dier and Hojbjerg will go, and will do so with my thanks and good wishes, sentiments not shared by others judging by social media.

N’Dombele will be somewhere, anywhere, other than N17, and the board have to take a big hit on such a poorly judged purchase. We scouted the football but not the character. I suspect they are waiting to see who can come in before selling Sanchez, he will stay if they can’t improve, and fair play to him for making the effort to play for a place when he could understandably want to get away.

It’s also worth noting that Spurs seem to have upped their game to compete for younger talent, both  buying potential in young men like Phillips or paying the going rate for salaries for top young talent, however unpalatable that may feel.

Getting to games isn’t guaranteed these days for various reasons I won’t detain you with. Last season, after 56 years, it didn’t seem to matter so much but on Saturday, another reminder of how precious it is to me, with the family, being there. Tottenham til I die is a cliched chant, heard it all before. So well beyond the final whistle, as players and fans linger to unite in celebration, why does it bring tears to this old man’s eyes? Bloody football.

Decided to stick with the football this week, given that it was a grand day and several recent articles have focused on my criticism of the board. But I must add that I fully endorse the Trust’s campaign against the ticket price rises and I was glad I took part in the pre-match demo. Stop exploiting loyalty. Maybe more on this and fans in the coming weeks.

And thanks so much for joining me for another season of Tottenham On My Mind. It does not evolve – same design, focus on the words, an old man shouting at the clouds in N17. I can’t write every week so stay in touch via twitter, Threads and subscribe via the button near top right.