It’s that time of year when a young man’s fancy turns to... errr... two or three pints and a tikka masala after the match!

Yes, we’re on countdown to the start of a new season. You can almost hear the adrenalin starting to churn. Just think of it, a few days to go and it all starts again - yellow cards, red cards, punch-ups (on and off the field), arguments, moments of magic and anguish, delirium and despair. Can’t wait!

Spurs fans have been drawn out of hibernation early by the sound of Daniel Levy preparing to break the bank in an ambitious recruitment campaign. David Bentley has already been signed from Blackburn – that’s the Robbie Keane money from Liverpool taken care of – and Levy is now reported to be romancing Russia’s top two players in the Euro 2008 tournament.

Zenit St Petersburg’s Andrei Arshavin and Spartak Moscow’s Roman Pavlyuchenko are next on the list at a combined cost in the region of £40m. Seems they hit it off together and it is thought that they might travel and settle in London better as a pair - which is good thinking on Tottenham’s part considering the abysmal time Andrei Shevchenko has had at Chelsea over the last season or two.

That takes Juande Ramos’s spending to more that £100m since his arrival from Sevilla less than a year ago, but he’s not the only big spender.

Everton, Aston Villa, Blackburn, Portsmouth and Manchester City have all been busy in the market, all in the search of one important goal. And that is breaking into the Premier League’s top four, where the BIG prizes are stored.

But I’ve got news for all of them. The Big Four – Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool – are WIDENING the gap between themselves and the rest. It’s going to take a monumental effort by any one club to unseat one of them.

Over the past 16 seasons the gap between the fourth and fifth clubs has generally been no more than three or four points, But the season before last a startling eight points separated Arsenal in fourth from Spurs in fifth - and last season the gap widened to 11 points between Liverpool and Everton.

Villa were 16 points adrift, Blackburn 18, Portsmouth 19, Manchester City 21 and Spurs a staggering 30 points off the pace.

To make up that enormous leeway, Spurs will need to win at least 10 games more than they achieved last season. Will they be able to do it, even with an England fringe player and a couple of Russians on board? That’s a tough call in my opinion.

I don’t know whether I’m right in this estimation, but I always get the impression that Spurs fans would be happy to escape relegation by one point if only they could manage to trash their bitter rivals Arsenal just once during the season. Perhaps it’s time to put aside the local prejudices and re-focus the attack elsewhere.

I can’t see Everton making much of a move this season, Villa are trying desperately to hold on to their one genuine class act in Gareth Barry, Manchester City have signed a man called Jo and Mark Hughes will undoubtedly add more newcomers, and Portsmouth have done their usual transfer tinkering.

Spurs are the club who have made the bold moves. But will it be enough to mount a serious challenge to the Big Four this time around? Will it be a season of revolution or roulette?

I can’t help feeling that it might take at least another season to recover from the loss of Keane and (possibly) Dimitar Berbatov before Spurs are up to full speed. In the meantime, don’t invest too much or your cash on them becoming a member of the Big Four elite just yet.