Personally of the opinion that having one or two aspects of your club, on pitch or off it, which drags your average upwards is a very dangerous thing. The only progress I trust is slow upgrades on everything and that's why this squad is exactly what I wanted to see as a Spurs fan. It's a definite upgrade in all positions (aside from perhaps strikers, in terms of depth and quality seen there) on what we had 5 years ago. Add to that the modernisation of off-pitch matters - the inclusion of Baldini and Levy giving him responsibility over transfers (DL having learnt his lessons from the Commoli experiment and applied them, it seems) as well as the successful recruitment, and retention, of AVB.
Now while AVB comes in for a lot of criticism (as does any manager - this is football and football is emotive), he is, on paper, the best fit for Spurs. We're not going to get a Hiddink, an Ancelotti, a Guardiola. Frankly, pre-Chelsea, we would not have gotten an AVB. But we needed a tactically astute manager with a little guile to him and a preferred system. I suspect that he will become more tactically flexible as his career goes on, and it may even be to our cost that he learns that lesson.
I won't say it didn't hurt to see Bale in a white shirt with 'Fly Emirates' emblazoned across the front. But I think that our play did centre around him last year and we looked bereft whether he was on the pitch or not - it was a moment of magic in the fatigue that often settled it, and you can't rely on the same man for the same tricks without the opposition forming a game plan to counter it. If what we want is progress, then Levy did the right thing. Having one player that stands out...you may as well put a target on their back. Ozil, Van Persie, Suarez - even Bale - all drew a huge number of fouls last year, will do again this season and with good reason: because they're quality players and quality players need to be stopped by any means. An injury to any of those players and the team looks like a much worse proposition. And that level of dependency is dangerous when you're challenging at the top level.