So another transfer window comes to a close. This unlike many others was surprisingly quiet, mainly due to clubs now having to take into account UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. Another reason for the quiet was our gaffer's appearances in court seriously restricting his ability to go on Sky Sports News every five minutes and tell the world which 'top top players' he was looking at.

Here at AANP Towers we are inclined to pay short shrift to those who shuffle our way with puppy-dog eyes and quivering lower lip, complaining of bad luck. "You makes yer own luck," we have been known to roar, with such ferocity that the aforementioned puppy-eyed, lip-quivering urchins have literally exploded into a ball of flames before our eyes; or else we invoke the barely perceptible murmur of a true testosterone-fuelled hero like that chap Stallone, and instruct "Take it like a man"; or indeed we sagely impart the sporting wisdom of some aged American golfing chap, and intone with zen-like calm "The more I practise the luckier I get".

This could be an eventful day. And then again, no- as Elton John would say. I'm not sure what the implications will be of having a whole round of Premier League fixtures on the same evening as the transfer deadline, but to me it sounds a spot iffy. For managers looking to get shot of a bit of dead wood, I suppose, it's probably ideal.

THFC1882 present a guest preview by Rob:

Shamrock Rovers v Tottenham Hotspur, Thursday 15th December 6pm KO ITV4

So here we are, at the last match in the laborious group stage of the Europa League. A competition that is supposed to be the second best European competition to win but in my opinion is just plain second rate as shown by the fact that not that many teams are interested in playing in it.

Well what a relief that that has been cleared up. Apparently the Defoe goal was disallowed because of a foul committed by Pavluychenko in the fixture played back in Greece in September. Or perhaps for a foul by Graham Roberts in our '84 UEFA campaign. Or maybe it was Mackay back in '61. Well, whatever the incident, it was definitely a foul.

Switching from the all-conquering, award-winning, glitz-laden superstars of our rollicking Premiership campaign to the prepubescent kids and want-away squad members on our midweek Europa jaunts is somewhat akin to putting down the Dumas novel in order to tune in to Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds – nobody in their right mind would dispute that it remains quite magnificent entertainment, but the whole forum is perhaps a little more frivolous.

THFC1882 welcomes back guest writer Mike Hooley with a preview of Wednesday's Europa League game:

So, Tottenham Hotspur play a European tie on a Wednesday once again, in what all Spurs fans hope will be a prelude of things to come next season.

However, the fantastic current league run – nine wins and a draw since the Manchester City defeat – is put to one side this week with the return fixture against the Greek outfit PAOK Salonika, current Group A leaders.

My word. This is all going rather well. A one goal swing at the Sports Direct Thunderdome last month and that would've been a perfect ten winning streak since we were duped by both hues of Manchester at the season's start. As it is we're looking at a twenty-eight point haul from a possible thirty.

What ho, and I trust you are in as fine fettle as AANP, for today's basic algebra lesson is that a win today will take us third, and with a game in hand no less. Crivens! Let's ruddy well get out there, dominate, take the lead, sit back, invite pressure, concede one and hang for dear life for those three points!

Strange times these – the first in my living memory that we've gone into a match against that ‘orrible lot from down the road with the bookies sidling over into the lilywhite camp. The noisy babblings of my l'Arse supporting chums ring a little hollow these days. Current form; playing personnel; summer transfer dabbling; inside out; upside down – any way you look at it we have the edge at the moment.

With fourth spot in the Premiership all but wrapped up it's time for everyone to swing around and face this direction once again, just hither. I appreciate it can be jolly dashed mind-boggling these days trying to separate one competition from the next, but my spies tell me that tonight it's Europa.

Europa League or Carling Cup, which ought we to want less? It's a tricky one. The Europa League trophy is a sizeable beast, and its lack of handles gives it a pleasingly Neanderthalic edge – one cannot help but handle it in rough, uncouth manner when raising it aloft, which is rather apt after 90 minutes of blood and thunder.

Never mind the game today, have you seen Sandro's hair? Heavens above. The fellow has done the most extraordinary things... have yourself a perusal at around 1.50 on this clip.

Of secondary importance is the visit of that red mob. In what might as well be a 17-team division competing for fourth spot, Liverpool, along with those relentless purveyors of comedy at the Emirates, represent our principal rivals – which makes this quite the key clash in the grand scheme of things.

Europa League Group A Thursday 16th September 2011

Spurs Team: Cudicini; Walker; Corluka; Bassong; Townsend; Falque (Fredericks 81); Carroll; Livermore; Dos Santos (Parrett 92); Kane; Pavluchenko

'The kids are alright' So sung The Who .

‘Tis held in some quarters that as a whippersnapper the schoolboy ‘Arry would wile away his hours yelping "Wolf!" with tedious regularity, but on Saturday even the cynics amongst us realised that his "bare bones" mantra could be objectively verified. The adage has it that actions speak louder than words, so when young Giovani was shoved out onto the pitch for a few minutes it became evident that ‘Arry spoke sooth, and our lot really were struggling for personnel.

Optimism to follow, but it would be remiss to begin proceedings with anything other than the nasty business of a post-mortem...

The Arnie Approach

In the absence of our recognised midfield enforcers, our glorious leader adopted the cunning tactical ploy of leaving the back-four without any protection to handle a City front-line so shiny and expensive they had Tevez on the bench, while the rest of our team was crammed with attacking types .

An early preview, as I'm off gallivanting for the weekend, and for the second time in a week this all looks rather ominous. City's charming social experiment into whether money can indeed buy you everything has turned them into something approaching the equal of the United side that so emphatically dismantled us last week.

Supporters' etiquette dictates that we ought to be mightily supportive of the emergence of home-bred talent into the first team, but here at AANP Towers constructive criticism of the various whippersnappers is obscured by outrage at how unfeasibly young they all are. With their trendy haircuts and no doubt listening to music that would simply sound like noise to the bastions of AANP Towers, Townsend, Fredericks and Kane appeared to have been plucked from the fresh-faced crowds milling around collecting their GCSE results earlier in the day.

Rejoice, all ye fellow lilywhites. Admittedly it is also with a degree of trepidation (Old Trafford will do that to a Spurs fan) but goodness me it is wonderful finally to be able to look forward to Spurs in Premiership action tonight. ‘Tis with delight therefore that I invite you to gather round and peruse with me the permutations of team selection for the evening's festivities.

Old hat it may be for everyone else, but here at AANP Towers we bounce around the walls like toddlers on a strict diet of fizzy drinks and E-numbers as we await the start of our Premiership season. Still, rather than pacing the corridors, rubbing hands together in feverish anticipation until tomorrow night, it occurred to me that the time is rather ripe for making public the various musings that have echoed around the walls of AANP Towers all summer.

My shout for a guest report from the Brighton game was answered by Mike Hooley, a man who's first game, at the age of eight, was the '81 Cup Final Replay. Good start! Unsurprisingly for someone getting their Spurs education in the '80′s, his favourite player is Glenn Hoddle.

Here's Mike's take on yesterday's match:

Brighton 2 Spurs 3: Pre-season friendly, 30th July 2011.

Big loveable One Michael Dawson popped up on Spurs TV this week to spout the line that he and everyone else pattering away with bibs and cones within the confines of Spurs Lodge are dead confident, honest, of making the Top Four this season. I suspect that anyone viewing the footage particularly closely would be struck by the sight of his nose growing longer and longer with each diphthong uttered, but bless him, who amongst us has not had to tow the company line from time to time?

Such are the rigours of supporting Spurs that I have been happy to bleat away for the last few weeks about how we will despatch Real Madrid over two legs, yet struggle to see us gleaning more than a point at Wigan. Legend has it that even great big burly types like Achilles had the odd weakness or two, and the chink in Spurs' armour seems to be opposition that is near-enough fit for life in a division below us.

Well if this doesn't get your juices flowing I suggest you go and boil your head. Tottenham Hotspur vs AC Milan. It's the sort of fixture that makes me want to don nothing more than a loin-cloth and go wrestle a bear, then save a small child - and svelte, scantily-clad brunette – from a burning building, before reducing Colonel Gadaffi to tears with a devastating best-of-five demolition in Scissors-Paper-Stone.

Spurs fans born yesterday – or at least since around 2009 – may disagree, but following up victory at the San Siro with defeat at Blackpool would not be the most unlikely turn of events at for the heroes of N17. Mercifully the current vintage seem just as capable of digging out tricky away wins to lower-table scrappers as they are of churning out a never-to-be-forgotten glory night in one of Europe's premier arenas – which ought to prove jolly handy tonight, as our walking wounded leave a blood-stained trail from N17 to Blackpool pier.

Come now, really – did anyone in their wildest dreams expect that? Really? That was not just a victory away to AC Milan, it was an absolute ruddy masterclass in the much-vaunted but rarely achieved art of Navigating Fiendishly Difficult Away Legs in the Champions League. Novices? Fie upon the very suggestion.

MILAN, Italy - Peter Crouch's goal 10 minutes from time handed Tottenham Hotspur a 1-0 win over below-par AC Milan in a bad-tempered Champions League last-16 first leg on Tuesday. Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso, who will miss the second leg after a booking, is likely to face UEFA repercussions after appearing to headbutt Spurs assistant [.

And now for something completely different. At third (and, later fourth) round stage the FA Cup hardly constitutes fixture congestion, so the question of where it stands in our list of priorities can probably be deferred to another day.

Bingo cards out then, as we look to cross off the names of various squad members last season posing merrily in the club photocall back in August.

Around ten days ago I mused that I would have settled for eight points from our four Christmas-New Year games. Three games in and we already have nine, which means that the riotously good fun continues into 2011 – still not yet out of the title race, most definitely still in the Top Four race and looking down upon the rotters from Stamford Bridge, languishing beneath us.

Blinking heck, that was dashed hard work – to which end our vanquished opponents deserve credit, while we can also direct sneers of ill-disguised derision at those fools who suggested beforehand that while there is no such thing as an easy game in the Premiership, if there were then Fulham at home would probably be it.