1 Make White Hart Lane a happier place

The mood at the stadium was impossibly dark after Sunday's 5-0 defeat to Liverpool, and the mutinous feel made André Villas-Boas's sacking the following morning a formality. It has generally been little fun watching Tottenham Hotspur at home in the Premier League this season, with even the wins coated in angst. Villas-Boas complained about the crowd's negativity after the 1-0 victory over Hull City, but they have only been reacting to the football they have seen. More enterprising stuff and more goals are a must.

2 Reintegrate Emmanuel Adebayor

The Togo striker is among the club's highest-paid players and, on his day, can be one of the best. The quality is beyond doubt, yet he has become synonymous with frustration and questions relating to his attitude. Those accusations might have sounded unfair as he coped with the death of his brother in the summer and started the season late but, whoever was right or wrong in the stand-off between himself and Villas-Boas, the bottom line is that he has featured for no more than 45 minutes. That has to change. An in-form Adebayor would also offer the option of playing with two up front.

3 Restore Jan Vertonghen to central defence

This one is for a few weeks down the line, when Vertonghen recovers fitness from his ankle problem but the club's best centre-half really needs to be playing at centre-half, rather than filling in at left-back because of injuries. Before the ligament damage he suffered at Fulham, Vertonghen had become a victim of his own versatility. He is so much more convincing in the middle, where he can provide pace on the cover and also step into midfield with the ball at this feet. Vertonghen himself is desperate to return to his natural position.

4 Get more out of the summer signings

Villas-Boas was dismissed partly because he failed to show why the club had spent £110.5m on seven players. Never mind that not one had kicked a ball in the Premier League; the board wanted more from them than Villas-Boas managed to extract over the first-half of the season. The hope is that, as with Sandro or Luka Modric before them, players such as Roberto Soldado and Erik Lamela will adapt and blossom into stars.

5 Choose personal battles wisely

You had to admire Villas-Boas at times for his conviction and determination to confront matters head-on but he picked some silly fights, which made him look bad and irritated his employer. The way he set himself up in opposition to various medics, including those from his club, over the Hugo Lloris head injury affair was horribly ill-advised, while even the criticism of the White Hart Lane crowd did not feel like a great idea. His suggestion that Franco Baldini, the sporting director, had been chiefly responsible for the summer signings was one of his last utterances in the job.