Hugo Boss. Superb Lloris offer Spurs hope.

The usual football clichés were rolled out for this one. A game of two halves, an entertaining nil - nil etc. Me?, as much as I enjoyed the game, especially the second half, I was pretty brassed of that both halves ended goalless. You see, I chucked a small fortune at the bookies that neither half would be goalless. After all both teams had previous for entertaining matches full of goals, brilliant keepers and shaky defences. I should have got the missus that fancy necklace and banked a load of brownie points. Now I'll have to take her to a mid range restaurant rather than the top end one I was going to take her with my winnings. A bit like the market Spurs shop at for players.

On the match itself, it was an intriguing contest between Daniel Levy's first choice manager Louis Van Gaal and his second choice Mauricio Pochettino. A contrast of personalities, philosophies and off course transfer budgets. Manchester United unleashed a strike force featuring Falcao, Robin Van Persie and Rooney costing the thick end of £100 million in transfer fees. Spurs threw the might of academy graduate Harry Kane and er.. that's it. In the circumstances, a point was a creditable enough and had Ryan Mason been more composed, we might be talking about another famous late win. Hugo Lloris won man of the match on the strength of his first half display when he single handedly kept United at bay. Lloris is having to make too many saves in each game for a team with top four aspirations. The irony is the busier he is, the better he looks and bigger clubs than Spurs could come knocking.

So as we say farewell to 2014, (sorry it doesn't end in one!) where do we stand? The philosopher, Mauricio Pochettino is the fourth different manager/head coach in successive years, following the sherminator (Tim Sherwood 2013), the project planner (Andre Villas Boas 2012) and the wheeler dealer (Harry Redknapp 2011) to try and take Spurs to the promised land of the European big time. I believe that Spurs have actually punched above their weight in the last six years but the inevitable failure to match unrealistically heightened expectations, the cherry picking of our best players by two of the worlds biggest clubs ( our best players in the last 7 years have gone only to Manchester United and Real Madrid)and the media obsession with Spurs created a perfect storm of a frenzied sense of crisis. The truth is in the absence of middle eastern money, Daniel Levy has managed to raise Spurs level while balancing the books. For this, he deserves immense credit, not criticism. At heart, he is just a fan who wants Spurs to compete at the highest levels, playing good football. He is clearly a fan of the continental style of club management and after giving Martin Jol a good chance achieve that, he has come full circle with Pochettino, a young tactically astute coach with a good reputation in Spain. Unlike Juande Ramos, he has used Southampton to learn the premiership.

December is Pochettino's best month results wise since taking over, Spurs superior fitness is showing in matches, young players are getting games and although progress is slow, I feel cautiously optimistic about Spurs prospects for the future. There's another cliché. Oh the life of a Spurs fan. A very happy 2015 to my readers and all Spurs followers. Altogether now, come on you Spurs!