Each new trip to the Lane this season is that little more special, more poignant - there are an increasing number of 'this is the last time' moments. The last time we played Liverpool at the Lane has been and gone; the last time we'll have a night time cup game might already have happened, the last time.... well you get the idea.
Those heavy emotions are as one both heightened and offset by the ever more imposing skeleton of the new stadium which is no longer emerging from the ground but rather it is now towering over most of its surroundings. It won't be long before the concrete and steel of the new world dwarfs what increasingly feels like the cosy, warm, familiar home of hundreds and thousands of precious memories. The excitement at the future is tangible - every trip to the Lane now reveals staggering progress on the new ground, but it's tinged with very real sadness.
And so it was that before the Leicester game I had the task of articulating those emotions to a camera crew for Chinese TV. The globalisation of the Premier League, AIA as shirt sponsors and a plethora of other Asian facing brands with various corporate partnerships with the Club (some specifically associating themselves because we are the current residence of Son) means that Spurs are worthy of non match day air time in the most populous country on earth. I did chuckle at the task facing the translators as they sought the right mandarin characters to accurately nuance my north west London parlance!
That sense of impending loss of the Lane feels especially heightened after another chastening visit to Wembley - a venue we've lost at every time we've played there since the 2008 League Cup Final win over Chelsea. Whilst I don't blame the size of pitch or the change of scenery for the poor performances (a five-yard pass is still a five-yard pass be it at Wembley Stadium or on the bobbly almost-grass at West Hendon Playing Fields!) it does feel manifestly different in the stands and that is impacting my personal experience as a fan.
It's curious really, it happens almost unnoticed but the people I've sat near at the Lane for more than 20 years have become very much part of the fabric of my match-day experience. There's the family members of course but then there are others, some who are friends from long before (school and youth groups), some who have become friends over the course of hundreds of shared memories at Spurs, and others whose names I don't even know but who I've shared those emotional post goal-scoring embraces as bodies go tumbling over seats in celebration.
At Wembley, whilst the family group is there, suddenly the familiar faces of decades give way to different faces, different perspectives on the game, different targets for the ire of frustrated fans - it's discombobulated: where is Bradley, the legendary fifth official, two rows in front of me who gets every offside call nailed before the ref, and looks back over his shoulder at me with a knowing glance when Lamela misplaces a pass? Or Gary whose knowledge of every ref and the laws of the game is encyclopaedic? Or Jeff who inevitably arrives seconds before each game, red and dripping with sweat from running to the ground because there's been bad traffic en route? Instead at Wembley I'm surrounded by some West Standers who revel in moaning, or the chap behind who bellows his disdain for Harry Winks.
If this is a sneak preview of life at a new stadium then for once perhaps I have some sympathy for West Ham's fans making the adjustment to the London Stadium and perhaps a little allowance for the years of dead atmosphere at Ashburton Grove.
The growing pains of moving ground are getting real and present off the pitch, whilst on it perhaps a little perspective is needed. A couple of bad results do not a poor team make. We remain ahead of our points tally from last season and (at least at the time of writing) remain unbeaten in the league. November is a key month – three London derbies to come and a must-win game in Monaco.
We'll know a lot more about what this season has to offer Spurs fans by the time we are next back at Wembley in a month’s time.
Jonathan Adelman is a season-ticket holder at Spurs, and also co-manages North London Raiders B in the MGBSFL
