Whenever I think of Tottenham Hotspur, I inevitably recall that line from the movie Swingers, when Vince Vaughn’s Trent is trying to give his friend Mike a pep talk before Mike approaches a woman at a bar:

I don’t want you to be the guy in the PG-13 movie everyone’s really hoping makes it happen. I want you to be like the guy in the rated R movie, you know, the guy you’re not sure whether or not you like yet. You’re not sure where he’s coming from. Okay? You’re a bad man. You’re a bad man, Mikey.

The recent history of Spurs suggests that they have become that guy in the PG-13 movie. Their last league title was in 1961. Their last European triumph was a UEFA cup win in 1984. They’ve won three domestic cups since then. These distant distinctions and secondary spoils, however, don’t match up with the club’s lofty ambitions. They’ve been aiming for a spot in the Champions League ever since those spots have been available. Every year, the end result has been the same. The team on the pitch slips up. Points are dropped at inopportune times. Other clubs jump ahead of them. Spurs supporters are left sighing and wondering what might have been.

You can almost hear the self-deprecating laugh of Brazilians, who have been hearing that their country is becoming a world power for so long that they jokingly tell themselves, “Brazil is the country of the future, and it always will be.”

For the denizens of White Hart Lane, today’s results suggest that their bright future still isn’t here yet. Tottenham were haunted by a ghost from their past, as Darren Bent notched a quick brace and would have netted two more if not for the penalty-stopping heroics of Heurelho Gomes. Soon after Spurs’ loss to Sunderland, black-clad Manchester City showed signs that their death star was fully operational, blasting Burnley out of the waters of Turf Moor and reclaiming that all-important 4th and final Champions League position.

Hope isn’t fully extinguished for Spurs yet this season, even if the road before them suggests it might be. Spurs’ next three league matches are against the giants they wish to walk among — Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United. All three are still fighting to lift the Premier League trophy. Manchester City also face two of those clubs in the same time span, but their form puts them in the drivers’ seat, while Liverpool lurk in the background with a healthy Torres and Gerrard and a less stressful fixture list.

Oh, and the game in hand that Spurs and Man City have over Liverpool? It’s against each other on May 5. In Manchester.

Little wonder, then, that Bill Simmons adopted Tottenham Hotspur as his Premier League club several years ago. These are the Boston Red Sox of his youth, the team that always comes so close to glory but never quite lives up to its supporters’ hopes. The Red Sox shed that reputation when they lofted two World Series trophies in the last decade. For Simmons, Tottenham fills that void.

There’s still the FA Cup, of course. Harry Redknapp has a knack for leading clubs to domestic cup glory, even if he has a reputation for leading them to financial ruin at the same time. As the league season draws to a close, however, Spurs supporters are left to watch the fallout and wonder if next year, finally, will be the year. Maybe Aaron Lennon will be healthy for a full season. Maybe that Manute-and-Muggsy combo will be as good as Redknapp thinks it is. Maybe he’ll finally sell that Russian he disparages so much and put that money toward a better goalkeeper.

That brass ring called 4th place dangles right there in plain sight, ready to be snatched by the boys in the white shirts. The song of the calliope, however, remains the same. Tottenham Hotspur is the club of the future. And it always will be.