Throughout last season, a national radio pundit slaughtered Andre Villas-Boas.
He told listeners Villas-Boas was doing so badly, Harry Redknapp’s relegation-bound QPR would finish above Spurs.
And when the season ended, he mocked any Tottenham fan who said their new boss was doing a decent job.
Funny how a few months, and the imminent loss of a world-class player in Gareth Bale, can change things.
On Monday, noting that Spurs were on the brink of taking their summer spending past £100million (and Arsenal had lost to Aston Villa) he declared Spurs weren’t just “certainties” for the top four, but serious title contenders.
To be fair to him, plenty of others seem to agree that one big cash splurge automatically puts you in the box seats.
Apart, that is, from AVB himself and, I’m guessing, most sane Spurs fans.
They have taken too many recent kicks in the teeth, and know that in Bale they are losing one of, if not the, best player the White Hart Lane club has had.
Those fans will be massively relieved Bale’s loss has been minimised by the exceptional work of Franco Baldini and Daniel Levy.
Not just in attracting decent players such as Roberto Soldado, Paulinho and Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli and possibly Erik Lamela, without the lure of Champions League football, but in spending the Bale money before it has arrived, thus avoiding demands for hefty premiums based on the millions burning in their pocket.
But whether the splashing of the Bale cash is money well spent or just money spent has yet to be decided.
No one knows how the new men will adapt to the Premier League or if AVB can integrate them successfully in a season.
Remember Roman Abramovich handing Claudio Ranieri £120m when he took over in 2003?
It went so well, the Italian was sacked.
How about Sheikh Mansour’s first cash spree at Manchester City under Mark Hughes, when the likes of £32.5m Robinho led them to 10th place?
A title-challenging squad is never built in one cash splurge.
You need to keep throwing vast amounts of money at it until enough quality sticks.
But unlike Chelsea and City, Spurs don’t have those vast amounts.
The £90m or so they get for Bale will be a never-to-be-repeated, one-off.
Levy is right to gamble it all in one throw, to try to break into the top four.
And it may work.
But if it doesn’t, he won’t be able to repeat it next summer, indeed his funds will be stretched with an extra half-a-dozen huge contracts to pay.
That’s if these new recruits don’t do a Bale or a Luka Modric and demand “a bigger stage” (Willian has just issued an early warning by having his head turned towards Chelsea as he was about to hold up his new Spurs shirt).
Arsene Wenger is rightly getting mauled for Arsenal's toothless performance so far in this transfer window.
But if Wenger does manage to bring in two big signings in the next 10 days, I would STILL take Arsenal to finish above Spurs.
Arsene may not know it all, but he knows how to guide the Gooners into the Champions League places.
And the point being overlooked about Arsenal is that, for once, they haven’t lost a key player this summer.
Not Jack Wilshere, Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey or Laurent Koscielny.
All very good players who, as they showed in Istanbul on Wednesday, provide the base of a very good team.
Spurs faced an uphill task finishing ahead of Arsenal even if Bale had stayed.
Without him, and with the possibility Wenger may pull his finger out next week, it hasn’t got any easier.
