Frank Arnesen is the first piece in a jigsaw which, when completed, Spurs fans hope will be a picture of the return to the Glory Glory days. By making Arnesen their sporting director, Spurs are appointing a man who will have no input in picking the first team.
He will have little day-to-day involvement in deciding who runs out for Spurs in the Premiership, and his biggest assets are a little black book and a sharp eye.
So what makes his appointment so important to Tottenham's future?
WHO IS FRANK ARNESEN?
Many football fans will remember Arnesen as a great player, not only with Denmark, but with some of Europe's top clubs such as Ajax, Anderlecht, Valencia and PSV Eindhoven.
 PSV brought Ronaldo to Europe |
He won 52 caps for Denmark and was a pacy, alert and mentally cute midfielder in the Danish team that reached the last 16 of the 1986 World Cup.
After finishing his playing career at PSV, he passed his coaching badges and became part of the coaching staff where his talent for spotting and developing players was soon recognised by the club.
Since his appointment as technical director, he has become a very shrewd and intelligent operator in European football.
WHAT IS HIS TRACK RECORD AT PSV?
According to Henk van Weert, of Eindhoven's Dagblad newspaper: "Arnesen's most important asset is his contacts book.
"He was a highly-respected player who everybody liked, and as a result, he has built up a huge network of contacts throughout Europe and elsewhere."
It is those contacts which enabled Arnesen to identify and develop some of Europe's most exciting talent.
Spurs will be hoping that contacts book will be opened up to bring in the likes of Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mateja Kezman, Arjen van Robben - all players that were developed by PSV before moving elsewhere.
Despite being bankrolled by electrical giants Philips, the finances of Dutch football mean PSV have been unable to hold on to the likes of Ronaldo, van Nistelrooy, Stam and Robben.
But if nothing else, their nurturing has brought money into the club.
Arnesen's role as technical director never required him to have a hands-on role with the first team. On the continent that is the responsibility of the first-team coach.
In the pecking order of Dutch football, he was responsible for supplying the players for the coach to mould into a team.
Because of what he brings to a club, a good technical director is considered more important than a good coach. As van Weert explains: "Coaches come and go at a club, but technical directors tend to stay".
WHAT WILL HE BRING TO SPURS?
Spurs are breaking the mould of English football, whereby the manager is responsible for the running of the football aspects of a club from soup to nuts.
On the continent, the English-style role of manager is carried out by two people, the coach and the technical director.
 |  The technical director can bring players in but if the coach doesn't want them, you have a problem |
Ironically, Arnesen has been eased out of PSV by their desire to give Guus Hiddink more power in the vein of an English-style manager.
As van Weert says: "They want to make Hiddink into the Sir Alex Ferguson of Dutch football, and by doing that there is no room for Arnesen's technical director role."
One of Arnesen's first jobs will be to find Spurs a first-team coach. Arnesen's role as technical director means the new man will have to be familiar with the continental way of doing things.
A new coach will have to be comfortable with the fact that Arnesen will provide most of his players for him, although there will obviously be close dialogue.
As van Weert says: "In Holland the job is divided between two people. The coach forms the team and deals with how they play.
 Ruud van Nistelrooy was another PSV discovery under Arnesen |
"At home in the office, the technical director takes decisions together with the board, on which players to bring in.
"There has to be team work. The technical director can bring players in but if the coach doesn't want them, you have a problem.
"If the technical director keeps bringing in players he doesn't want, you have a big problem."
If Arnesen's little black book coughs up the type of players for Tottenham that he produced at for PSV, Spurs fans will consider it a problem they are happy to have.
MMIX
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