Nuno Espirito Santo should win the Premier League’s manager of the year award if he can complete the leap from 17th to the top five in a year and take Nottingham Forest back into Europe’s elite.

You could make a very good case for Arne Slot in his debut season at Liverpool or for Eddie Howe, ending Newcastle’s long wait for a trophy and on track for a Champions League return.

Perhaps for Unai Emery or Oliver Glasner if they end further progress with an FA Cup win. Going into this weekend’s semi-finals, though, Nuno is in that conversation too.

A year ago, they were fighting relegation and fearing points deductions. Now an era of lavish overspending is heralded as a model for promoted clubs. Strange indeed.

Then there is Nuno’s redemptive arc since Tottenham sacked him after four months and eight wins in 17 games. As much as results, it was his austere football and taciturn persona that made Nuno such an ill fit for a club that likes its swagger.

Nuno Espirito Santo (pictured above) has transformed the fortunes of Nottingham Forest after his arrival at the City Ground

Forest have shocked the world by mounting a bid to qualify for the Champions League this term

All of which seems pertinent as the clubs collide again on Monday night. One savouring its most successful season in decades and the other trapped in another existential crisis. What is it they really want? Success, they will tell you. Don’t we all? And what is success anyway?

For Forest, it has been to tackle elite opponents without fear and to rattle some of the best teams in the country — and who cares if the damage is done on the counter-attack with 30 per cent possession.

To compete to qualify for the Champions League, a trophy they won twice in its guise as the European Cup, or to lift the FA Cup for the first time since 1959 are measures of success fans did not dare consider in August.

Spurs approach the debate from a different angle, having spent all but one of the last 75 years in the top flight. They have not toiled in exile nor dipped into the third tier like Forest.

Call it aristocratic arrogance if you like. Or the entitlement of the rich. As one of the wealthiest clubs in the world they expect to challenge for the big prizes even though they have won only three in 40 years. And they want to do it with flair because that’s how it used to be. Occasionally, romance gives way to urgent materialism, principles shelved to tolerate the appointment of George Graham or Jose Mourinho.

Graham brought in the League Cup. So did Juande Ramos. Mourinho reached a League Cup final only to be fired less than a week before the game.

None of them were truly embraced. Graham, who was in charge when I first reported on the club, could never offset his Arsenal legacy. He had led Spurs into an FA Cup semi-final against their north London rivals when he became Daniel Levy’s first sacking.

Glenn Hoddle came in and lost the semi to Arsenal and so began the spiral of madness. Hirings and firings. Managers variously condemned as too tactical or not tactical enough. Too remote and detached or too involved and emotional.

Ange Postecoglou has come under immense criticism this season but the Australian still has the chance to lead Spurs to silverware this term

Forest have slipped to sixth in the Premier League after suffering back to back defeats

None of them able to get a grip on something they can pass off as success. Not even five exceptional years under Mauricio Pochettino fuelled by the goals of Harry Kane. And now Ange Postecoglou is fighting for his job.

Those glorious weeks in autumn 2023 have unravelled into what could end up as Tottenham’s worst season of the Premier League era. Those who sang Postecoglou’s name have lost faith and most want him out even though they suspect the root of the problem lies elsewhere.

And yet in football’s world of fine lines, everything could still turn upside down for these two coaches before the season ends. Forest have faded, engulfed by the chasing pack. The Champions League dream is hanging in the balance, and they really could do with beating Spurs who, despite all their problems, are tantalisingly close to getting their hands on the Europa League.

Bodo/Glimt, Athletic Bilbao and Manchester United will have other ideas but what an obtuse reversal of fortune it would be if Forest fizzled out to nothing much and Spurs ended up with a major trophy and a place in next season’s Champions League after such a stinking campaign.

Nobody will be voting for Postecoglou as the manager of the year. In fact, there is no guarantee winning the Europa League would spare him the sack.

FIVE THINGS WE LEARNED THIS WEEK

1. Tony Bloom and Matthew Benham show no sign of ending their personal feud. Bloom mingled with Brighton fans in a nearby pub and watched from the away end on Saturday. He always swerves the Brentford boardroom, despite knowing reclusive Benham stays hidden away in his private box. Bloom must have cringed, though, when away fans around him aimed a chorus of, ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ at his head coach Fabian Hurzeler.

2. Premier League clubs are jostling for 19-year-old Tyler Dibling, lured in by his youthful promise despite Southampton’s valuation of £100million, but I can’t help thinking those with money to spend big on a forward would be better off circling for the consistently brilliant and proven talent of Jarrod Bowen of West Ham or Bryan Mbeumo of Brentford.

Premier League clubs are jostling for 19-year-old Tyler Dibling, lured in by his youthful promise despite Southampton’s valuation of £100million

Nine goals were scored in extra time across three European ties on Thursday – five at Man Utd

3. Nine goals were scored in extra time across three European ties on Thursday. Five at Manchester United, two at Lazio and two at Rapid Vienna. A timely reminder of the value of another 30 minutes of actual football and the thrills it can deliver, despite what seems to be a BBC-led campaign to send drawn cup ties straight to penalties for extra TV drama.

4. Michael Cheek of Bromley scored his 22nd goal of the League Two season on Good Friday. Aged 33, he is the top scorer in the EFL in his first season in the competition. Cheek worked part-time in a coffee shop when setting out on the goal trail with Stanway Rovers and Marks Tey in the Essex Senior League. He has 127 goals in six years at Bromley.

5. Antonio Conte is up to his old tricks, I see. His Napoli team are duelling with his former club Inter Milan for the Serie A title as he casts threats he may leave if not backed in the transfer market. ‘I’m not stupid, I don’t see the resources to do this,’ said Conte. Some things will never change, to paraphrase his parting shot at Tottenham.