Nuno Espirito Santo has taken over at Tottenham Hotspur

THE wait is over.

Spurs have a boss.

If you’d ask many a fan two and a half months ago if they would have been pleased with the appointment of Nuno Espirito Santo, the answer would have been overly positive.

Forged in the same mould as the ever popular Mauricio Pochettino, he has shown through his work at Valencia and then Wolves that he creates a togetherness and a shared work ethic to provide a platform for stand out talents to be expressed.

He has a reputation for developing youth players and having a canny eye in the transfer market; helped or hindered by his close relationship with super agent Jorge Mendes, depending on where you stand.

As Nuno settles in at Spurs this summer, he will have to work out who needs a fresh start away from the club – the list is long and will include stalwarts such as Eric Dier, Serge Aurier, Harry Winks, Moussa Sissoko, Ben Davies, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura, Dele Alli and Davinson Sanchez.

Then there is the Harry Kane issue.

Will Nuno paint a vision of what is to come that makes him enthused to go again?

Or will he be forced to stay another year, producing sullen performances, before getting his wish for pastures new next summer?

Or will the stack of cash waved be enough to say goodbye and thank you?

What a thing to have at the top of your in-tray, and whether he manages to deal with it is based on two things.

Firstly, his own ability – and his track record is good.

Secondly, if he is given the right support.

The appointment of Fabio Paratici as Director of Football suggests Nuno will be given time to get things right on the training pitch, while more strategic work on transfers will be done upstairs.

That’s the plan – and we’ll know in two years time, when first choice Mauricio Pochettino’s Paris St Germain contract, is done, whether it’s been a success or not.

The trepidation felt is based on past experiences.

Spurs have made a long run of decisions, stretching back to the end of the 1980s that haven’t gone as planned. Sometimes it feels you can chart the recent history of the club through mistakes that with hindsight are missed opportunities.

How about the sneaky sale of Chris Waddle to Marseille in 1988, after signing Gary Lineker from Barcelona? The centre forward recalled one of the draws of signing the deal was the idea he would be getting on the end of the Geordie’s crosses.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to have Waddle, Lineker and Gazza on the same pitch?

This same era saw us buy Gazza for £2m, and then be forced into selling him to stop the club going bankrupt after following such stellar ideas as investing in casual clothing firm Joe Bloggs.

There was Alan Sugar pulling off the marvellous coup of signing Jurgen Klinsmann, but after just a season failed to hang on to him when Jurgen discovered there were no plans to build on the success and try to create a genuine title challenge.

Sugar, angered by this, made a comment about how he wouldn’t wash his car with Jurgen’s Spurs shirt – which then caused a bungle that had long term effects.

Having felt that Klinsmann had been a burned fingers experience, when he was offered childhood Spurs fan and Dutch maestro Dennis Bergkamp, he made some ill informed comments about signing ‘Carlos Kickaball’ from abroad.

Bergkamp quietly toddled off to Arsenal instead and helped kick start an era of success for our rivals.

Will we ever learn?

After Mauricio Pochettino’s side bossed the league for 18 months – annoyingly, their performances were spread across two seasons instead of one, and was not enough to win the title.

Danny Rose told the board to sign players whose name he didn’t have to Google.

Instead the focus was on knocking down the dear old Lane and building a grand hall, which so far has been a Palace of Illusions.

Both Poch and Danny knew the team were in touching distance of competing for the biggest trophies if the right signings were made.

But no – instead, Levy squeezed as much as he could from Poch’s management brilliance, and once the poor fellow was drained and exhausted, and pleaded for the rebuild to begin, he was unceremoniously dismissed for the poisonous football of Jose Mourinho.

This track record means fans are naturally nervous how this one may end.

But of all the appointments that could have been made, Nuno represents the qualities that six years ago made Pochettino an unexpected but successful appointment in the perpetually uncomfortable Spurs dug out.

Only time will tell if it’s another false dawn, or whether we are about to embark on the Poch Project, Mark II.