Before the players walk out onto the pitch at every Tottenham Hotspur home match at White Hart Lane, a video is played on the big screens at either end of the White Hart Lane pitch. The video alludes to Tottenham’s history, of their successes both distant and recent. The video includes two important quotes that help shape what Tottenham Hotspur are all  about. The first, attributed to former player and manager Bill Nicholson (considered to be the most important figure in the club’s history) is, “It is better to fail aiming high than to succeed aiming low. And we of Spurs have set our sights very high, so high in fact that even failure will have in it an echo of glory.” The second quote is “We are about the Glory of the Game, We are about playing with style, We are Tottenham Hotspur.”

These words have become intertwined with Tottenham Hotspur’s history over the years. In part because of this attitude, the “The Tottenham Way” was created. Tottenham fans, while interested in winning, are more interested in the style of play, and would much rather play exciting football than win boring 1-0 games like the “Boring, Boring Arsenal” teams of the 1970’s and 1980’s. When Tottenham became the first club to win the double in 1961, after the FA Cup final Tottenham captain Danny Blanchflower commented that he was not happy because Tottenham played horribly and the football on display was not aesthetically pleasing. This philosophy has often led Tottenham to success in the cups, but they have rarely shown the true grit to grind out consistent results over the course of a long league season, which explains why they only have two league titles to their credit.

Historically, Tottenham have been a very innovative club, often setting the blueprint for other British teams to follow. Tottenham were the first team to win the double (League and FA Cup) in 1961. Tottenham were the first British club to win a European trophy when they won the old European Cup Winners Cup in 1963. Tottenham were the first winners of the UEFA Cup (now Europa League) in 1972. In 1978, Tottenham were the first team to delve into the previously untapped resource of marquee international players when they signed Ricky Villa and Ossie Ardiles from Argentina. Those signings were the beginning of a trend that now sees Premier League clubs heavily reliant on international talent from all corners of the globe. In 1983, Tottenham were the first team to publicly list shares on the stock exchange, giving supporters the opportunity to feel like they were a part of the club.

However, in the last few years, Tottenham have been in caught in the middle of trying to continue that tradition of innovation and “The Tottenham Way” of exciting football and trying to emulate larger, more successful clubs abroad, who employ a more “continental style” of play. The continental style of play is slower, more methodical and places a greater emphasis on tactics, structure and possession. The last four managers that Daniel Levy has hired to manage Tottenham show this state of limbo. Every time Levy fires a manager, the next manager he hires favors the opposite style of the manager that preceded him. Harry Redknapp and Tim Sherwood were more in favor of the “English” style of free-flowing football that often lacks tactical structure. Andre Villas-Boas, on the other hand, was of the continental belief that brought him success at Porto. In the beginning, current manager Mauricio Pochettino also appeared to be of this continental style, but he appears to have adapted a more balanced philosophy. With that said, the jury is still out on him.

Redknapp came to Tottenham in the beginning of the 2008-2009 season after Tottenham had collected just two points from their opening eight matches under previous manager Juande Ramos. After steadying the ship and leading Tottenham to eighth and a League Cup final that season, Spurs embarked on their two most successful seasons in the 21st century. The 2009-2010 season saw Tottenham finish fourth and earn themselves a Champions League berth for the first time since the double winning season of 1961. The 2010-11 season saw Tottenham top their group which included holders Inter Milan and reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League, where they eventually crashed out against Real Madrid. The 2011-12 season saw Tottenham within striking distance of the top in the middle of January but they eventually faded and finished 4th, one point behind rivals Arsenal. To exacerbate the pain of the collapse, Tottenham missed out on Champions League qualification after Chelsea improbably lifted the Champions League trophy after finishing just 6th in the Premier League.

These seasons had many memorable moments that many Spurs fans will never forget. Many Tottenham fans will remember where they were and how they reacted when Peter Crouch scored against Manchester City to ensure that Tottenham would finish 4th. Tottenham also scored nine goals against Wigan in November of that season at White Hart Lane with Jermaine Defoe netting five. Spurs finally ended their away day jinx at the traditional big four clubs (Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool) where they had not won since 1993 when they beat Arsenal 3-2 (after trailing 2-0 at halftime) at the Emirates in November, 2010 and Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield in May 2011. There were also the famous Champions League matches against the two Milan clubs, where Tottenham beat holders Inter Milan 3-1 at White Hart Lane before defeating AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro and holding out for a 0-0 draw in the second leg to ensure Tottenham’s progress to the last eight.

In the transfer market, Redknapp also proved adept even if he waited until the last minute to conduct most of his business. He often got top players at extremely reasonable prices. Prime examples include signing Rafael Van der Vaart from Real Madrid for just £8m, Scott Parker from West Ham for £4m and starting goalkeeper Brad Friedel from Aston Villa on a free transfer. He also successfully fended off Chelsea’s pursuit of Luka Modric in the summer of 2011.

With that being said, the Harry Redknapp era at Tottenham also had many low points. There were some embarrassing defeats when it often looked like he had no ‘Plan B’. These include, but are not limited to; the 2-0 loss in the 2010 FA Cup semi-final to relegated and administrated Portsmouth, the Champions League match at the San Siro against Inter when he went down 4-0 before half time before some Gareth Bale magic rescued a respectable scoreline and a night to remember for Tottenham fans, the 4-0 loss at the Bernabeu to Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals, the 5-2 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates in 2012 after leading 2-0 after 17 minutes and the 5-1 loss to Chelsea at Wembley in the 2012 FA Cup semi-final. There were countless other examples of Harry dropping points against smaller sides. Harry had a mentality of sticking to his formula no matter what happened. It was not rare for him to trot out almost the identical team match after match. As a result, this led to top players likes Gareth Bale, Rafael Van der Vaart, Luke Modric and Aaron Lennon becoming extremely fatigued by the end of a season. In both the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, Tottenham faded in the final weeks of the season and as a result failed to qualify for the Champions League. Because he played the same team so often, a lot of the players were on the outside looking in became disenchanted with the club and forced transfers at reduced prices. When the wheels predictably came off, Harry was left with a very small bench to try and adapt. Harry stuck to the English style of play, with lots of counter attacking and not too much possession, leading to AC Milan players to refer to them as “long ball Tottenham.” Nevertheless, the Harry Redknapp era at Tottenham was mostly a successful one, but unfortunately he was let go after the 2011-2012 season because Tottenham failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Out went ole English ‘Arry, in came the Portuguese wonder kid Andre Villas-Boas aged just 34. Villas Boas was only 12 months removed from leading FC Porto to a historic treble (Portuguese League, Cup and Europa League). However, he had also had a disastrous spell at Chelsea that saw him fired after just seven months amidst reports that he had lost the dressing room and the players had no belief in his methods. Hiring Villas-Boas so quickly after the Chelsea debacle enraged a lot of Tottenham supporters at the time, as it suggested that Tottenham were just picking up rival Chelsea’s scraps. Villas-Boas was a firm believer in the continental style and a lot of his philosophies were peculiar to players accustomed to the rough, physical nature of the Premier League. Villas Boas’ first summer saw Luka Modric leave the club for Real Madrid, while Hugo Lloris, Jan Vertonghen, Moussa Dembele and Clint Dempsey were purchased. Two of them (Lloris and Vertonghen) are still Tottenham’s top performers and Dembele also plays a role. In retrospect, it was a pretty successful summer for Tottenham.

Despite finishing fifth in Villas-Boas’ first season, the season was more successful than it may seem. Tottenham’s point total of 72 would have placed them in the top four in every other Premier League season. Tottenham finally ended their Old Trafford hoodoo when they won 3-2 at the end of September against eventual runaway champions Manchester United. They also made a run to the Europa League quarter-finals where they were knocked out on penalties by FC Basel. However, far too much of their success came as a result of world-class play by Gareth Bale, who was being increasingly linked with a move to Real Madrid. Tottenham were overly reliant on their superstar and Bale often rescued Tottenham from tough situations.

The following summer heavily shaped Tottenham’s current image. Bale left for Real Madrid for a World record fee of 85 million pounds and in his place came seven new players for a total of 100 million pounds. The seven players were Danishman Christian Eriksen of Ajax, Belgian Nacer Chadli from FC Twente, Romanian Vlad Chiriches from Steaua București, Frenchman Etienne Capoue from Toulouse, Brazilian Paulinho from Corinthians, Argentian Erik Lamela from Roma and Spaniard Roberto Soldado from Valencia. Seven players from seven different countries coming in from six different leagues, none of whom had played a minute in the Premier League. Villas-Boas was putting his stamp on the team and fully implementing his continental style. The influx of new players left the incumbents unsettled and fighting for places as Villas-Boas instilled a new philosophy in the team.

Villas-Boas did not make it to the January transfer window. Despite having success against smaller Premier League clubs and winning six out of six in the Europa League group stage, the players failed to gel and crumbled against the Premier League big boys. A 1-0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates at the end of August, a 3-0 loss to West Ham at White Hart Lane and a 6-0 loss to Manchester City at the Etihad in November started to heap pressure on Villas-Boas. A 5-0 drubbing from a rampant Luis Suarez led Liverpool was the final straw for Villas-Boas and he was sacked in the immediate aftermath of that match. The two heavy defeats are unfortunately what Villas-Boas will be most remembered for. However, despite philosophies that were seen as bizarre by traditional English followers, Villas-Boas did help the club out. He was dealt a bad hand by being forced to sell Modric and Bale. By bringing in all of those new players, he followed the Tottenham philosophy of “aiming high” and attempting to immediately make Tottenham a relevant power again. Unfortunately for him it did not work out the way he had originally planned and his actions in the aftermath of the Bale sale are now referred to as “doing a Tottenham”. Many of his purchases are now the club’s leaders.

And so out the back door went the quirky, alien Portuguese manager and in came someone who knew Tottenham and its philosophies and expectations very well as he played for Spurs during his player career. His name was Tim Sherwood and he was rewarded with an 18-month contract despite the fact that he had no previous first team managing experience, which concerned supporters. Sherwood immediately made his mark on the team, bringing back Emmanuel Adebayor from his much publicized Villas-Boas induced exile, and handed a debut to youth team product Nabil Bentaleb from Algeria. The decision to bring Bentaleb in was curious as Tottenham already had an extremely overloaded squad, but showed that Sherwood had the guts to pull the trigger. Out went Villas-Boas’ complex tactical formations and in came the “English” 4-4-2 with Adebayor partnering Roberto Soldado up top. Back to the old Tottenham and another 180 from Levy.

Sherwood’s tenure at Tottenham was brief and had mixed results. In his first match Tottenham were eliminated from the League Cup at the quarter-final stage by West Ham – their second of three defeats to their East London rivals that season. Tottenham also lost 2-0 in the third round of the FA Cup to arch-rivals Arsenal and were eliminated in the round of 16 of the Europa League by Benfica. In the league, Sherwood’s win percentage was pretty good, but a very top heavy Premier League left Tottenham in sixth place. He recorded another win at Old Trafford on New Year’s Day but against the other top teams Tottenham again capitulated. They lost 5-1 to Manchester City at the Lane, 4-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and 4-0 to Liverpool at Anfield. Tottenham also lost 1-0 to Arsenal at White Hart Lane, which meant that they had lost to Arsenal three times in the same season since 1987. And so, Sherwood was fired at the end of the season.

Out went the Englishman and in came another international manger. This time it was Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino who was hired from Southampton. Before Southampton, where he had led the club to eighth the previous season, Pochettino managed at Espanyol. Pochettino was another manager, who on the surface, seemed to favor the continental style, but unlike Villas-Boas had success in England at Southampton. It was a quiet summer for Tottenham as they focused on defense (which was clearly needed given all the lopsided results the previous season) and brought in defenders Ben Davies from Swansea, Federico Fazio from Sevilla, Eric Dier from Sporting CP and DeAndre Yedlin from the Seattle Sounders.

The beginning of this season was very difficult for Pochettino. The team struggled at home, losing to Liverpool, West Brom, Newcastle and Stoke in their first six home games. Fans were already saying that Pochettino’s days at Tottenham were numbered. Tottenham were putting in lackluster performances and were booed off the pitch after the defeat to Stoke, which led Adebayor to say it was easier playing away from home as they do not expect support there. It became very clear that Tottenham were having trouble breaking down teams that arrived at White Hart Lane, who were prepared to defend and settle for a point. Tottenham lacked the world-class player that can unlock a defense and change a game and as a result teams could give Tottenham possession and try and score on the break against a very leaky defense. Crystal Palace worked this plan to perfection in the beginning of December, as the only person who looked capable of scoring was Yannick Bolasie and was only denied by some top goalkeeping from Lloris. The match ended 0-0 and the players were once again booed off the pitch. After that match, one of the supporters on the way home from White Hart Lane told me that Tottenham should have hired David Moyes because “he plays our type of football” and that Pochettino was too involved with the continental style. “We had all the possession and no chances,” he said.

Away from home, Spurs started picking up results, even though their performances were poor. 2-1 wins with late second half winners over Aston Villa (stoppage time), Hull (90th minute), Swansea (89th minute) and Leicester (70th minute) ensured Tottenham picked up three points from matches where they did not deserve to win. These victories sandwiched a 3-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, extending Tottenham’s league winless streak at the Bridge to 25 games. Despite the lopsided scoreline, Tottenham played well and had the better of proceedings before Chelsea scored but in the end their defense was too strong and again Spurs could not find a way through a well-organized Jose Mourinho defense.

The last few weeks have really demonstrated that Pochettino actually knows what he’s doing and is the right man to lead Tottenham forward. Tottenham fans love a cup run and fantasize about reaching Wembley. Pochettino has taken the Capital One Cup very seriously this year and as a result Spurs are just a victory against a League One team away from the final. The quarter-final against Newcastle was a brilliant atmosphere at White Hart Lane, only topped by the match against Chelsea on New Year’s Day. Pochettino has finally figured out his back line, as Fazio and Vertonghen partner each other very well and there is adequate cover at both left and right-back to keep players fresh. With the size of Tottenham’s squad, it would only be natural for some players to get frozen out. However, almost every player in the squad has played some role this season. Players seemingly disappear only to be inserted back into the lineup and perform extremely well. Andros Townsend, Nacer Chadli and Nabil Bentaleb come to mind. If a player gets injured, Spurs have adequate cover at every position besides center-back and striker to make it feel as if the player was barely missed. Pochettino is also not afraid to use youth players, despite the many expensive purchases left over from Villas Boas. Townsed, Bentaleb, Harry Kane, Danny Rose, Ryan Mason and Kyle Walker are all products of Tottenham’s academy and have all been integral parts of the team this season.

The victory over Chelsea on New Year’s Day was classic Tottenham and further proof that Pochettino is able to mesh his ideas imported from abroad with the Tottenham way. It would not have been a classic Tottenham victory if Spurs scored an early goal and then held on for dear life and won the match 1-0. Leading 3-1 at halftime, Tottenham could have sat back and soaked up Chelsea pressure. Instead, Tottenham continued with their high pressing game and were rewarded with a fourth goal from Kane. The same was true at 4-2, Chelsea were dangerously close to getting a third before Chadli finished them off. The fact that four of the five goals were scored by academy players against a team that has not had an academy player regularly break into the first team in the last eight years was icing on the cake. The sustained high tempo employed by Tottenham in the second half made the match the most memorable I have ever watched.

Things change quite quickly in football and there are often many false dawns but Tottenham truly appear to be on the up at the moment. Pochettino has previous experience with English football and he navigated the biggest quirk of the English game, the congested holiday fixture list, perfectly. He has a good, although not amazing, squad to work with and the team seem to improve with each game. Tottenham are still in all four cups and have realistic aims at winning the Capital One Cup and finishing in the top four. Tottenham are on the verge of greatness, but as recent seasons have proved, proceed with caution.