You despair after a victory like today's? Christ, I take your point about learning to play like contenders, but I don't remember contenders losing 6-0 away and then 5-0 at home within the space of a few weeks, or scoring eight goals in nine home league games, or taking twenty shots from outside the box during a laboured draw and then claiming superiority by virtue of statistics.
I supported AVB. I understood what he was trying to do. I appreciated his earnest desire to see us succeed. But I also realise that he was getting something horribly, unspeakably wrong, that he was freezing out players who would have been immensely useful if motivated properly (see: Ade) and that the more criticism he received, the more he retreated into his shell and played suicidally high defensive lines with no midfield pressing against the likes of Liverpool and City.
He did a lot of things wrong. Today, Sherwood got almost everything right, and his plucky 'smash and grab' football gave us the same result with largely the same performance included as AVB's most memorable day: the win at Old Trafford. His 'smash and grab' football has rejuventated the side and given them the confidence to score ten goals in five games, unimaginable mere weeks ago. And his 'smash and grab', 90's era football has given us three wins, a draw and a loss so far.
AVB's tactical tinkering gave us a side that lost 5-0 at home to Liverpool, and drew 2-2 with United at home, conceding two soft goals in the process. Sherwood's 'backs to the wall' football gave us a 2-1 win, i.e one less goal conceded than AVB's game against Moyes' side at home.
Given the circumstances, I know which one I prefer at the moment. My earnest hope is that if we do end up succeeding under Sherwood, you'll drop your grudge, stop suppressing the happiness I know you feel after results like these (you are a Spurs fan, after all) and let the ghosts of the AVB era go, difficult as it might be.
If Sherwood succeeds, 'learning to play like contenders' won't be necessary. And if he doesn't, I have no doubt he'll have given us a decent few months to watch and enjoy, and I'm confident that Levy will appoint someone in the summer who will try to get us playing like the contenders again, AVB 2.0 if you will. So either way, we'll win (or at least come out of it relatively unharmed). So sit back and enjoy this end-to-end Spurs spectacle for a while: you owe it to yourself. At least we're scoring now, eh?