On Saturday afternoon, just as the temperature in Madrid was approaching its fearsome peak, a group of Tottenham legends, led by former captain Gary Mabbutt, were chaperoned into the club’s designated fanzone.
By this point in the day, Plaza Colon in the city centre had descended into joyful delirium and adoring Spurs fans were quick to mob their heroes with handshakes and chants from the archive.
As Ricky Villa edged passed, one sunburnt supporter turned to a friend and yelled: “I think we’ve gone to Tottenham heaven!”
However painful the Champions League Final defeat to Liverpool remains for Spurs’ players, staff and supporters, they will always have these memories: an incredible journey, a series of unforgettable moments and a little taste of ‘Tottenham heaven’.
The next step for the club is to ensure there is no return to the state of purgatory in which they so often existed before Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival in 2014.
Pochettino has described this summer as his biggest at Tottenham and, when the pain from this weekend has subsided, he will hold talks with chairman Daniel Levy over the focus, ambition and strategy of the club.
After “living a dream” for the past month, the manager wants to ensure Saturday is just the start, rather than an anomaly.
In Pictures | Tottenham vs Liverpool Champions League Final | 1/6/2019
Most pressing is the issue of his own future, which remains an open question, largely because he has made it so. Pochettino refused to discuss his situation immediately in the wake of the 2-0 defeat at the Wanda Metropolitano, saying only there would be “time to talk” later.
Pochettino has already confirmed that Levy is “not going to give us more money”, but it is thought he is seeking assurances he will be backed to reshape his squad and build on this season’s successes.
It is possible that Pochettino, who has four years remaining on his contract, has encouraged the speculation as leverage over the chairman while he pushes for support, and certainly the club believe he will be in charge next season.
The comings and goings must also be decided, with a number of first-team players, including Kieran Trippier, Christian Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld, expected to be sold in the summer.
Spurs are already working on a shortlist of transfer targets but, while the squad desperately needs refreshing, they would go backwards if they did not replace those players properly.
After so much effort and expense on finishing the new stadium, Pochettino believes it is time for everyone to focus solely on on-field issues, but his resources will continue to be shaped by Levy’s business nous.
The chairman will already be trying to maximise the exposure from a first European Cup Final with a series of commercial inroads, the most significant of which will be to secure a lucrative naming rights deal for the new stadium, which should be worth more than £200million across five years.
Levy had long been rumoured to want to sell the club after finishing the project and, while this seems unlikely for the time being, he could possibly seek outside investment as another means of raising funds.
Pochettino is expected to be given a modest budget, as well as money to spend from player sales, which could ultimately amount to a sizeable figure, but clearly Spurs will have to be at their shrewdest in the market to ensure they start next season with a stronger squad which can close the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool.
They must be wary that with improvement comes raised expectations and, regardless of how improbable their run to Madrid felt, it will naturally set a higher bar. Next season, it would be impossible to spin a valiant last-16 exit as any sort of progress, while supporters will expect continued competitiveness in the League.
Ever the realist, Hugo Lloris has admitted Spurs will not challenge for the Champions League every season, but he has urged the club to build on this season’s fairytale European run.
“[The future] depends which direction the club wants to go,” the Spurs captain said. “As a player, you only want to build from this Final, but we have to be humble and realistic. We’re not the type of club that can pretend to win every trophy in every competition. We have a project with a different idea.”
The goalkeeper says Spurs will continue to work towards winning a first trophy under Pochettino but suggested that getting closer to Europe’s superpowers, rather than matching them, would remain the grand aim.
“Just look how the other big clubs built success after defeat,” he said. “Probably the experience of last season helped Liverpool a lot. There are some clubs that don’t play Champions League Finals: they just win them. And today we are quite far from them.
“We’re working every day to win a trophy with the club. But we all know the competitiveness of the Premier League and it becomes tough year after year, because many clubs have the possibility to invest in very good players. The target is still to reduce the gap with the best teams.”