New Football FanCast columnist Daniel Mitchell is delighted with Spurs' progress in pre-season, which has filled him with great optimism.

These should be exciting times for Spurs fans, a new(ish) manager, a board willing to spend big, some fantastic signings and a promising pre-season. These should be exciting times, but as a Spurs fan of 12 years I can't help but think I've seen this all before.

Remember Hoddle's heralded arrival, like the messiah had returned? Remember Jacques Santini, the internationally respected coach who arrived with a lesser-known assistant manager called Martin Jol? Remember (or indeed try to forget) Christian Gross?

The new dawn of Spurs, the awakening of the forever slumbering giant has been wrongly touted so many times even in my relatively short time supporting them that my standard response is to be pessimistic.

But why should I feel pessimistic? If I forget about the last 15-20 years, the false dawns and abject failures, the great but ultimately losing performances and that infamous dodgy lasagne, why should I be pessimistic? Just looking at the squad the club is amassing and the backroom staff supporting it, this is a team which has absolutely no right finishing in the mid-table.

We have an internationally recognised manager in Ramos who unlike Santini seems to understand that North London isn't blessed with a tropical climate and beach houses for all.

We have a chairman in Daniel Levy who is willing to spend the big bucks and make the hard decisions. Sacking Jol and bringing in Ramos must have been a very hard decision to make, and undoubtedly the board went about it the wrong way, but ultimately it was the right decision for the club.

Jol never had the tactical astuteness to compete with the Wenger's, Mourinho's and Ferguson's of this world and he didn't have the influence to bring in the high-calibre players Spurs needed.

Now with this duo of Levy and Ramos working in the transfer market we find ourselves looking at some cracking new signings to go with our already talented squad. For me this close-season has been a joy to watch and here's why:

Bentley - This has been a case of realising good isn't good enough. I love watching Aaron Lennon play but it drives me berserk that the man crosses like a doped up Ramon Vega. We needed a quality right midfielder who could put a ball on a striker's head and we got one in David Bentley; a man with a devilishly accurate cross and a genuine desire to succeed at Spurs his childhood club. I see no reason why he can't become a Spurs great.

Modric - A player that only came to my attention in the Euro 2008 qualifiers against England, but how he came to my attention. He is not a spectacular player in the conventional sense. He doesn't score huge amounts of goals and he doesn't hit many passes longer than 10 yards. However the precision of those 10 yard passes, the way he moves into space to receive and release the ball and the way he spots a pass is spectacular and it's what Spurs have been craving since Carrick left. A regular berth for Luka in centre mid with a hard-hitting DM alongside him would be formidable.

Dos Santos - This is a young man who is spectacular in the conventional sense. He can beat a man in a flash and whip in a deadly accurate cross or unleash a thunderbolt of a shot and there's plenty of video footage out there to prove it. He may have never broken through completely at Barca but that's pretty damn understandable when you consider that he was competing with the likes of Messi and Ronaldinho. The fact he actually made the first team at all at that age was remarkable. At an initial 4.5 mill I think he is going to turn out to be a fantastic buy.

Gomes (potentially) - I'm not convinced with this guy yet, if you listen to PSV fans then we just bought one of the best GKs in the world, but if I go on what I saw of him against Spurs and in pre-season friendlies so far he's an outstanding shot stopper who flaps unnecessarily at times. I worry we may have spent big money on a keeper who is no better than the one we just sold to Blackburn for the criminally low price of 3.5 million. However I'm trying to be optimistic here so I'm putting my faith in those PSV fans.

The return of Bale and King - These two players importance cannot be underestimated. They were both out of contention for huge swathes of last season and look how our defence performed. Had it not been for the January signings of Woodgate and Hutton, I think we could have been in dire straits. However with King's return we have a centre back pairing in King/Woody which is perhaps only surpassed by Vidic/Ferdinand and Terry/Carvalho. However King's knee is a big question mark and you can never be sure with Woodgate's hamstring and though Dawson is great as cover, I don't think we have a strong enough CB if King and Woody are both out of contention. Bale was outstanding in the short time he played at LB last season and hopefully he can pick up where he left off as that position became a huge problem after his injury.

Darren Bent's pre-season form - 8 goals in the last 3 games is not a bad return for a "flop of epic proportions" as a friend of mine put it the other day. Yes he cost a lot of money but that's because he's English and had been banging goals in for fun playing up top alone in a poor Charlton team. The price tag was high, but not overtly so in my opinion. He was never given a proper chance to settle last season with Keane/Berbatov being the preferred pairing and Defoe also getting match time. However I feel with solid match-time under his belt and good supply from the likes of Modric, Bentley and Dos Santos (and perhaps Arshavin?) he can be a 25 goals a season striker again.

Potential signings to come - The new squad we are assembling is exceptional, however it is still not top four material. The back 5 on paper now is outstanding, with Gomes, Hutton, King, Woodgate and Bale we should not leak goals anything like as badly as we have done in past seasons.

The midfield is now at its strongest in a very long time, with Bentley on the right, Modric in the middle and Dos Santos on the left. However what about the other CM? I am at the end of my tether with Jenas, people have been speaking of potential and natural ability for too long, he has had more match time and more chances than he really deserves and I don't think he should be a first team player any longer. Huddlestone shows flashes of brilliance, but they are only flashes, and his lack of mobility is a big issue for me. Zokora is a very useful player to have, but he has never been outstanding in any position. Bringing in a Gattuso style player would complete our midfield for me, though sadly we haven't been linked to many, and the ones we have been linked to have not been of the calibre I think we need.

Up front we have lost Keane, but the moment he said he wanted to leave, I didn't want him at the club. I was shocked and annoyed when I first read Levy's statement stating Keane had asked to leave, however if he truly has supported Liverpool since childhood then why shouldn't he go? He's a player good enough for the Champions League and Spurs haven't provided it despite years of good service and hard work from him. I hold no grudge against him and hope he isn't booed when he returns to the Lane. And anyway, 20 million is a lot of money for a 28 year old.

Berbatov's departure has seemed certain for some time; however with no bidders offering a fair price (25 mill) perhaps he won't go. I personally don't want him at the club as long as he wants to leave, however I still harbour some hope that he will see the quality of signings coming in and make a conscious decision to work hard for Spurs for one more season to see if he can get the CL football he wants so badly with us. If Dimi is to go however, it sounds as though we have replacements on standby. There has been much talk from Zenit, Spurs and both player's agents suggesting Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko want to come to Spurs. The problem seems to lie in Zenits high valuations and strong financial position. However if these two transfers do go through I would be delighted. These are two excellent technical players who have consistently performed in a physically demanding Russian league. The major advantage to this transfer is that if they were to come together, they could help each other settle and we would be buying an established strike pairing.

So I suppose I am actually optimistic for the new season, I really shouldn't be going on my beloved clubs past form but I just can't help it. The potential Spurs first team next season with Ramos and Poyet guiding it is not only top 4 material, but title challenging material on paper. However on paper means nothing in reality, and I would be very happy with a clear 5th place finish this season and a push for 4th next season.

Though I did see some odds of 80-1 for Spurs to win the Premiership this season and this new-found optimism of mine's telling me to pop a fiver on...