NOT one but two Spurs fixtures last night gave the manager and fans alike the chance to check on the players' readiness for the coming season, and there was actually plenty to cheer about.

Ledley King reassured anyone fraught with worry about the state of his delicate knee joint by emerging unscatched from a 45-minute stint against Ipswich, which was the first bit of action he's seen since the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Gareth Bale – a player who could be as important as any other for us next season – capped a superb performance with a goal in the 1-0 win against Portuguese outfit Benfica in Lisbon.

Peter Crouch also looked sharp and had a goal disallowed in the first half. Hopefully all talk of him moving on has now been put to bed, after Harry Redknapp said that the flightpath-bothering striker was going nowhere.

Entirely unnecessary and moronically-scheduled international friendlies notwithstanding, our clash with Fiorentina this weekend will be the last outing for the players before taking on swaggering moneybags Manchester City in the first match of the new Premier League campaign.

Our opponents that day have recently begun to resemble a greedy schoolboy desperately trying to complete his sticker album, as they try to snap up just about every half-decent player going with the promise of regular, albeit very infrequent, first-team football and astronomical wages.

Although hopefully by the time we come to play them we will have loaned half their squad until January so they won't be too much of a threat.

All eyes will be on the Champions League play-off draw this Friday, when we will learn which semi-professional Maltese pub team stands between us and our debut appearance in competition proper.