This thread has really made be think back to those times. In the nineties I'd look at the league table and be happy if Spurs were top half. Then BMJ came along and there was finally some optimism. Some belief that we were a decent team. I was GUTTED when the big man was given the boot. Ignoring Juande Ramos, our next significant manager was Redknapp...and that was one hell of a ride. Suddenly being a Spurs fan was fun. I mean, really fun. But I completely understood why he had to go.
AVB was great at first as well, but then it went sour. I don't necessarily buy into it all being Bale's incredible rise. Sure, he bailed us out of a few games, but generally we were attracting better players and, actually, AVB had a system and a structure. I think it got found out, or perhaps became less effective as more teams adopted 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 / 5-4-1 formations. There's probably a Michael Cox article on it.
Bale probably papered over the cracks as AVB lost the dressing room, then suddenly he was gone and AVB wasn't able to integrate the Magnificent Seven that replaced him. Sherwood came in, "reset" the players -- including Adebayor, who has always been an exceptionally talented player -- and reaped the benefit. For a while. He was never good enough to be more than a temporary appointment, and Levy knew it.
I see Sherwood's excellent win ratio being down more to Levy than Tactics Tim. It was a step in the squad getting to where we are now. Look at the lineup in the 2-1 win at Old Trafford:
Lloris
Walker Dawson Chiriches Rose
Lennon Capoue Dembele Eriksen
Soldado Adebayor
Used subs: Bentaleb, Kane, Chadli
Unused subs: Lamela, Friedel, Fryers, Fredericks
Not sure I've got the formation right, but that's not a terrible 1st XI. I've bolded the ones who I think would get into our current squad (ignoring any attitude problems). We also had Kaboul, Vertonghen and Paulinho around. I've bolded Bentaleb as he would probably occupy the Winks role in the current squad. Kane wasn't quite ready.
The 4-0 thumping of Saudi Sportswashing Machine, when I genuinely thought we were on the cusp of something great, features a similarly good lineup:
Lloris
Walker Kaboul Vertonghen Naughton
Capoue Bentaleb
Lennon Paulinho Dembele
Adebayor
Used subs: Soldado, Townsend, Chadli
Unused subs: Dawson, Eriksen, Friedel, Kane
Seriously, give Poch that squad, keep Kaboul and Adebayor happy, and I reckon we qualify for CL.