27 years ago today … Spurs signed Portsmouth winger Darren Anderton for 1.75 pounds. Anderton had shone during Pompey's Cup run - which ended with penalties v Liverpool in the semis - which meant there was stiff competition for his signature. But the chance to work with Terry Venables proved decisive in the end. The sad facts are that his tenure with Spurs (1992-2004) coincided with our worst extended period of the post-war era and his injury problems toward the end led to a dissatisfaction from fans that belied his abilities. But he was a brilliant winger whose talents deserved better than a single League Cup win. And, of course, it didn't help that he was often playing alongside some proper shite. 3 June, 1992
for each of two or three days leading up to Jennings' b-day, I knew that I'd post it on this thread first thing when I sat it front of the box that day. But come the day I'd discovered a disturbing rattling noise from the right rear of my Spitfire, and I spend the whole bloody day trying to sort it out.* I never got on the computer last Wednesday, and it wasn't until the day after that I realized I'd missed it. *the rubber bushing on a very old shock absorber was decomposing, which led to a louder and louder - and highly disconcerting - metal-on-metal sound over rough pavement. new rear shocks (due to arrive tomorrow) will sort it. rest easy. I know you were all concerned.
26 years ago today … Spurs legend Ossie Ardiles was named manager of the club. It was just a matter of time (the beginning of Ossie's second season in charge) before we would see the 'famous five', the attacking quintumvirate of Teddy Sheringham, Jurgen Klinsmann, Darren Anderton, Nicky Barmby, and Ilie Dumitrescu. Spurs were long before and ever after established as a club of attacking football, but this was perhaps the most blatant aspiration to 'the Tottenham way' that would ever take the pitch. Scoring goals in bunches but conceding them in bunches more, Ossie's ambitions wouldn't, in the end, see him through November of '94. Why was summed up nicely by center half Colin Calderwood when, during one of Ossie's team meetings with his typical admonitions of "play! play! play!", the dour Scotsman interjected with, "gaffa, you keep talking about the fab five, but what about the shit six?" If 'the Spurs way' is a cross every manager at the club has had to bear, no one ever picked it up with greater enthusiasm and determination than Osvaldo Ardiles.
The Spurs Way was not about conceding 5 or 6 against crap teams. Ardiles was out of his depth as a coach, simple as. I didn't see Bill Nicholson or Keith Burkinshaw's sides conceding 5 or 6.
The burden of 'the Spurs way' is about the need to play positive, attacking football. You don't try to play … you get battered for it (see: Graham, George & Villas-Boas, Andre), not only when you fail (the former), but even if you succeed (the latter). I'm not crediting Ossie with successfully playing 'the Spurs way' - he wasn't even close. I'm just saying he sure as hell tried to. As to being out of his depth, his promotions at Swindon and West Brom suggest that the profession wasn't beyond him. But he didn't try playing with five in attack there, either. Ergo, it might be a reasonable contention that it was the burden of 'Spurs way expectations' was a driving contributor to his failure at WHL. More than a few have referred to these expectations as a hindrance for anyone in the job. I'm just pointing out that Ossie embraced them - and paid for it - as much as anyone.
I was in England at the time and what shocked me about that team was that whether we had the ball or not, he would send BOTH fullbacks forward, so that when we invariably lost possession, we only had 3 players to defend counter-attacks and were completely destroyed on the break. Even the weaker sides were licking their lips whenever Spurs came to town because they knew they would be able to fill their boots. Off the top of my head, I can remember us losing 5-2 at Man City (the old Maine Road City), 4-3 at Chelsea (after leading 2-0 and 3-2) and 6-0 at Leeds. Gerry Francis came in and settled things down and the football was pretty entertaining. Ardiles is a Tottenham legend, but unfortunately he was a lousy coach, there is no way around it - if he had stayed on, we were certs to be relagated.
Yes, he was a lousy coach … at Spurs. No one is saying otherwise. And to be fair, he was poor with Newcastle in the second division, as well. But he was unambiguously successful at both Swindon and West Brom. The only point of the post (beyond merely pointing out that it was the anniversary of his hiring) is to link him - positively - to the broadly accepted principle that the culture at Spurs of demanding positive, attacking football can, to the extent to which it is acquiesced, adversely affect a manager's chances of success. He clearly acquiesced with clearly negative consequences.
Right. But we did that because Ossie was ridiculously overly committed to trying to play the Spurs Way. He had lots of gigs. He didn't try that stuff anywhere else. I've gone back and changed 'expression of' to 'aspiration to' in the original post. Hopefully that clarifies my intent. But to be crystalline … Ossie Ardiles' results as Spurs' manager do not represent 'The Spurs Way'. Crikey.
The thing I like about this thread: Learning history of Spurs. The thing I dislike now seeing in this thread: Arguments about that history's meaning, value, validity, etc.
43 years ago today … Terry Neill resigned as manager of Spurs … to manage Arsenal. Neill - a former Arsenal center half for over ten years - was a controversial replacement for the legendary Bill Nicholson. The fact that Bill Nick had wanted Danny Blanchflower appointed as his replacement and that Chairman Sydney Wale saw differently poisoned Nicholson's relationship with the club, and did Neill no favors on the popularity front. Neither did Neill's first season, which saw Spurs narrowly avoid relegation. During his second year, though, he led the club back to mid-table solidity and a League Cup semifinal (losing to Newcastle) and appeared to be gaining traction. Rumor has it that Neill had fallen out with the board during Spurs recent Australian tour, but we know he was recruited by Arsenal's board to replace Bertie Mee and he took over at Highbury just a few weeks later (9 July). Whether Neill's resignation inspired, or was in inspired by, Arsenal's interest we don't know (or at least I don't). But off he went. It's easy enough, in hindsight, to see that he was replaced by Keith Burkinshaw and say 'good riddance'. That he took Pat Jennings with him a few weeks later, though, still hurts. 22 June, 1976
Might even wanna rethink that part, Balance. In looking into the particulars of Terry Neill's tenure at Spurs, I discovered that he'd taken over for Bill Nick in September of '74 - not in the offseason, as I had believed. This makes my post about the '74 UEFA Cup final being Nicholson's last game in charge at Spurs just dead wrong. I've amended said post (#67 in this thread). It's no shock being wrong - that happens all the time. And I've always been clear that my 'support' of Spurs back in the 70s was, shall we say, loose. But still, the length of time under which I held that incorrect assumption as fact really is something.
110 years ago today … Spurs had no match scheduled during their tour of Argentina and Uruguay and so they decided to go out and watch a couple of local sides play. The crowd turned out to be larger than anticipated, and at one point the excitement resulted in a pitch invasion from the fans. This would've been nothing new to the folks from North London, as they would have seen pitch invasions often enough. What was a bit of a surprise, though, was the response, as Argentinian cavalry took to the pitch and set upon the invaders, beating them back with the flats of their swords - to the desired effect, as order was restored and the match played out without further incident. 23 June, 1909 addendum: the tour was an unqualified success, Spurs' only loss coming at the hands of fellow tourists Everton in an exhibition game. Following that game, the touring party boarded the ship due to take them back to England. During the course of their journey, the passengers organized a fancy dress (costume) party/contest. Two Spurs players attended as Robinson Crusoe and his good man Friday*, complete with a parrot. The players were judged the winners and were allowed to keep the parrot as part of their prize. According to legend, the parrot died on the day that Arsenal was foully awarded Spurs place in the League on that infamous day in 1919! *this thought invites a reflexive 21st-century cringe in considering how Friday might have been represented at the time. After the initial revulsion of envisioning of some Spurs player in blackface, I wondered if it might be possible that Walter Tull - one of the first mixed heritage players in the Football League and later WW I war hero - had been part of the squad and on the tour. In seeking to determine whether he was at the club in the summer of 1909, I discovered that he was not only at the club, but was on the tour, and was, in fact, the first black player to play in Latin America! One suspects that it would have been Tull in the Friday role, and while it still might not sit well with modern sensibilities, it must surely have been better than alternative considerations. At any rate, this addendum was added not for the costume party, but for the parrot legend … and extended for Walter Tull's pioneering contributions beyond England's shores.
41 years ago yesterday* … Spurs engineered the mother of all shock transfers when gaffer Keith Burkinshaw announced that they had signed a pair of Argentine World Cup champions, Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa - the former from Huracan (for 325k quid), the latter from Racing (for 375k) - to 3-year deals. Given the cosmopolitan nature of the Premier League, it is difficult to envision just how exotic these signings were. It was nothing like what City or United can stir up today just by writing a huge check. These were different times, and this was real game-changing stuff. The two midfielders (alongside talisman Glenn Hoddle) would go on to become key components of our most successful era since the Blanchflower age - a stretch that saw us win two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup. They are legends still, and so shall remain. 10 July, 1978 *damn. I worked from 10am-6:30pm yesterday, and went straight out for dinner and pints with ex-colleagues after. I didn't spend so much as a second on t'web and simply didn't have a chance to post it on 'the day'. normally, if it's late, it's left out - but this one was just too big.