Are you strapped in for another season?

The first time we did it she was fine. She strapped herself in, gave me a look and a wink and told me it wouldn’t take long. “It will be quick, a rush, lets just do it” she had whispered to me. The second time? She shrieked, lost control and generally freaked the hell out. Strapped into Oblivion at Alton Towers, hanging over the abyss, she started to hyperventilate and search for a way off, but there wasn’t one, I couldn’t do much but stare straight down into the abyss as she attempted homicide on my ear drums.

What I couldn’t get a handle on is why did she freak out the second time? She had already experienced the ride once before earlier that day.

“I knew what was coming.” Was her simple to the point answer a few minutes later safely back on mother earth.

“You can be as prepared and as experienced as you want but the truth is, once you are there, you don’t know how you will react.”  Or something to that affect, my ears were still ringing at that point and I was trying to shepherd her over to The Smiler.

Occasionally my girlfriend has a magically accidental way of summing up my whole relationship with Spurs. For a girl that doesn’t really like football, unless it involves James Rodriguez scoring “golazoooos!!!” she does have a handle on it and Spurs. Perhaps six years of me has attuned her to disappointments, grand hot air proclamations and an evening of passion ruined after a few minutes of fumbling.

[linequote]This season it is all about progression, moving forward and finally selecting an identity[/linequote]

She managed to sum up why the start of each season brings a flood of new and raw emotions, regardless of how many times we have been there before.  We know the abyss into which we are about to tip into, that’s what sparks a range of emotions across all of us that still have the ability to surprise us. That’s what makes supporting Spurs exciting.

So what about me? What emotions have currently dug their nails into my skull? Will my couple of decades worth of Spurs experience have tamed the thrill? Or will it have me screaming into the ear canals of total strangers?

Personally this close to the start of yet another Final Destination themed Spurs rollercoaster season, I refuse to see anything but hope. Gentle, yet calm hope. The last few years have seen me almost explode with expectation, but this year it’s more innocent. It is all about progression, moving forward and finally selecting an identity. It is all about hope that Spurs will finally deliver.

Mauricio Pochettino wasn’t the popular choice, but he was the logical one. Available, young, untainted and equipped with a philosophy of nurturing youth and a style of play. I doubt the Argentine will rock the boat like LVG, publically stare down our players like Tim Sherwood, or attract the attention and snide remarks of AVB. Daniel Levy, for once, has made an appointment that fails to elicit a nervous shiver.

His previous appointments, barring Glenn Hoddle, have all had a smell of a amateur poker player at a high stakes table attempting to bluff his way to the pot. Jacques Santini, Martin Jol, Juande Ramos, Harry Redknapp and AVB were all big gambles in their own way, Pochettino feels a little less so. He is a sturdy hand, a couple of pairs, perhaps a triple queen, not the Royal Flush or something as strong, but perhaps good enough to win a few bets.

[linequote]You can not have a footballing philosophy based solely on 11 players. You need a squad that not only buys into it, but are capable of incorporating it[/linequote]

Along with the arrival of Pochettino, the transfers haven’t been as inspiring as last year’s, but in their sensible and calculated nature, slowly they have grown on me, and slowly they have managed to grip me much as in the same way as Magnificent Seven did 12 months ago. They aren’t marquee, they aren’t even really gazebo, but they have sturdy, wind proof, easily assembled and luxury tent written all over them.

Ben Davies, Michel Vorm and Eric Dier. A left back, a promising English centre back and a back up keeper who can play in the same style as Hugo Lloris. It is the exact prescription to the unbalanced syndrome we have been suffering from.

Barring a few years with Benoit Assou-Ekotto at left back, that area of the pitch has been a constant issue, regardless of whether we have thrown a South Korean, a Cameroonian, a fading German international or an unknown Italian at it. The more we scratched it, the more it itched, until now.

What Davies lacks in excitement, he more than makes up in solidity. Of course part of me would have loved the flamboyance of Fabio Coentrao or the Latin swagger of Marcos Rojo, but in Davies we have an addressed an decade old issue.

He is what we needed. That is not to say he isn’t very good or inspiring, but he is a long term remedy, and it that sense he excites me far beyond what a flashy continental fullback could have done.

It is the same principle with Vorm. Signing a keeper is boring, signing a back up keeper even more so, but when I look back at last year the image of Loic Remy scoring at White Hart Lane rattles around my head. Had Lloris played in that game, that goal wouldn’t have happened. Brad Friedel is a giant gentleman of the game, but the high line is kryptonite to him.

You can not have a footballing philosophy based solely on 11 players. You need a squad that not only buys into it, but are capable of incorporating it. In Vorm we have a cup/back-up goalkeeper who possess the skill set to play the Pochettino way, that enables us, whatever team we field, to play the same system. This is key and part of why I have so much hope for Pochettino, he has a footballing belief that Franco Baldini and Levy seem to share.

[linequote]In a few moves the dark days of last season are just something I now use to set a tone on what awaits this season[/linequote]

With two reasonable signings Spurs have suddenly lifted my expectations. The third in Dier is promising and a nod to the next generation of Spurs, but I expect to see very little of him as he adjusts to a new way of life and level of football.

In a few moves the dark days of last season are just something I now use to set a tone on what awaits this season. Just like “Bale post Christmas“, ‘Redknapp’s team fading’, ‘last season” is just an analogy to be used when describing dread or disappointment.

We are on the edge of the 2014/15 campaign and I feel calm and hopeful for what is about to come, I just pray that when the final whistle sounds on Saturday, I’m not screaming, clasping the person next to me for dear life and being hurled at speed towards an onrushing abyss.