A different kind of title race

It's what the neutrals and all genuine football fans have been crying out for for years. A title race that doesn't involve the usual suspects. Since 1995, when Blackburn won the league (and even then, they were aided by Jack Walker's money), the title has been shared between just four clubs: Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal. Big money also aided City and Chelsea's rise to the summit, although you still have to go and win the thing, billions or no billions.

We're no paupers, but we have spent significantly less than our nearest rivals in recent seasons (the spending spree post-Bale sale excepted) and our net spend is way better than any other club. We've also promoted from within, bought up the best young British talent and, on the whole, played the transfer market very well. Other than Lamela, none of our current first XI cost big money.

We can't afford the wages of the top, top talent, so we had to go one rung down or take a risk on young players with plenty of potential - Dier, Eriksen, Alli, Son, Trippier. Or rely on a bit of Levy magic to nab a bargain (Lloris, Jan, Toby, Dembele). Or, as we've seen with Kane, find an absolute gem in our youth ranks. The lack of a star, a big name, a massive ego, has been one of the main reasons why we have performed so brilliantly this season. A team that is more than the sum of its parts, a collective, cohesive unit all fighting for each other, the manager and the shirt.

Poch has built a team with no weak links and a first XI that is good as any in the league and probably the most complete, consistent, balanced and solid Spurs XI I've ever seen.

No-one expected us to be title challengers this season. Obviously the Leicester story is more remarkable, given where they were this time last year and how far they've come since Ranieri took over, but Tottenham winning the league would cause just as much of an earthquake. We might have been a top 5 team (one blip aside in 2013/14) for the last seven or so years, but we only threatened to be title challengers once (and that was only very briefly). It was never a genuine, authentic title challenge like it is now.

But the best thing about all this is how fresh and exciting it all feels. Leicester and Tottenham in 1st and 2nd. Leading the way, knowing that one of us will be champions. It still feels very strange, but also kind of normal at the same time. It's a strange sensation to describe. I've got used to us being so high up now, although a part of me is still waiting for it to all go wrong, for the brittle, weak, soft touch Spurs of my childhood to return at any minute.

But I think we can enjoy the ride, as Leicester fans can, because it was so unexpected. I thought we had a good-ish chance of top 4 this season, assuming one of the traditional top 4 slipped up. We'd be there or thereabouts, as we always are, and maybe able to pounce to get that coveted 4th place. Never did I expect us to be in 2nd place in mid-April, with a +39 GD (+39!), comfortably the best defence in the league, the league's top scorer, the league's second best assist-maker and a team that has only lost 4 games all season. It's the stuff dreams are made of.

In typical Spurs fashion, of course, we decide to have our best season in decades while Leicester come out of nowhere to have the best season in their whole history. Leicester, from relegation certs to champions-elect, in the space of a year. The stuff Hollywood films are made of.

But the lack of animosity between the two main contenders is quite refreshing. We're both in uncharted territory. We're both riding the crest of a wave. Other than the odd chant - "Are you watching Tottenham?" and "Leicester City, we're coming for you" - there has been very little bad blood between the two clubs. I've been urging Leicester to slip up in the last few weeks, as it became clearer that we would be their closest challengers, but if we weren't to win it, I'd want it to be Leicester. I'm sure Leicester fans feel the same.

We might be seen as the party-poopers, the fairytale spoilers, but I think people will be happy to see us win as well. Our very likeable, attacking, free-flowing side make us hard to hate too much.

The classiness of the managers also helps. Ranieri is the nicest bloke in football. Everyone wants him to succeed. He's an absolute gent. But Poch is in the same mould. Humble, amiable, funny and entirely focused on the job at hand. Neither manager has any interest in mind games or stirring up controversy. There is none of the tedious spats that were so commonplace when Mourinho, Wenger, Mancini, Benitez and Fergie were battling for a title. It might not be such good news for the media - although the Leicester and Spurs success stories have given them plenty to write about - but it's refreshing nonetheless. Two managers that most football fans like battling it out for the league, when could that last be said? COYS.