Every team, indeed every fan, has to dream. If you didn’t think your side is capable of reaching the heady heights, then you probably wouldn’t be renewing your season ticket on a regular basis. But is it realistic for Martin Jol to aim for the highest honours any time soon?

A huge amount of investment has been thrown into bringing in the kind of players who could make any dream a distinct reality. Thankfully, Daniel Levy and Co have also balanced the books by letting players of varying talents (Michael Carrick to Mido for instance) leave to help fund further purchases. But are we now living a Premiership era which will be ruled by the same four sides for the foreseeable future? Has the chase for a Champions League top four spot inadvertently created a top table that is almost out of reach, with the exception of the odd freak season with sides like Everton punching above their weight.

Five-year plans belong in the business world, but as football is now more business orientated, it makes me wonder what Tottenham’s big wigs have outlined for the future. Successive fifth-place finishes will have got Spurs fans very excited indeed, leading many to believe that this year may be the one that sees them break into the Champions League for the first time. Reaching such a heady place means financial rewards as well as some much appreciated respect (Everton were unfortunate enough to fall at the qualifying hurdle which must have hurt greatly everyone concerned at Goodison Park).

'There is a sentiment in the golden quartet that could be seen as patronising, a sense that the idea any team could breach them would be absurd'


So how do Spurs match up on a playing level with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man United? I am sure that fans of each of those clubs will think otherwise but I don’t think that Martin Jol’s men are a million miles behind their rivals in terms of the strength, size and quality of their playing squad. If someone was to make a composite squad from the five clubs in question then surely a few Tottenham players would fit in - Aaron Lennon, Dimitar Berbatov, Paul Robinson, and Ledley King spring to mind. Even non-spurs fans, although maybe not Gunners, would be looking behind them and including White Hart Lane as a venue where things of note are beginning to happen.

There is a sentiment in the golden quartet that could be seen as patronising, a sense that the idea of any team breaching them would be absurd. I guess the fact that arch-rivals such as Everton and Spurs could be the ones to displace them irks them even more. Now that money has become such a key ingredient and vast sums of money have been pumped into Manchester City and Aston Villa, there is a very real prospect of a mini-revolution in the Premiership. But we could well be looking at a new-look top four. The fact that the  Premiership has become even more of a carrot to attract the top players in the world means that even so-called ‘lesser’ teams are picking up world class talent.

Well Chelsea's 'Special One' Jose Mourinho thinks that Spurs are already a force to be reckoned so why can't anyone else see it?  Maybe fans of the 'current' top four should not be sitting quite so comfortably because history can and is often re-written.

It's a long time since 1961. Tottenham's double has become something of an albatross. Maybe by the time the year ends in a figure one once more they could be chasing the title - 50 years after their last triumph. The fact that I can say that and not be consigned to an asylum means that Spurs are moving in the right direction.