The Boys From White Hart Lane by Martin Cloake & Adam Powley

Author:Martin Cloake & Adam Powley [Cloake, Martin & Powley, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907637100
Publisher: Vision Sports Publishing
Published: 2011-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

7

GRAHAM ROBERTS

“MY GAME WAS ALL ABOUT HEART”

“I love this club,” says Graham Roberts. “I really love this club.” Of all the clichés footballers both past and present are likely to utter, it is declarations of undying affection that supporters view with most scepticism. In the modern game a player expressing emotional ties to a club, like the maximum wage and terraces in the stands, seems to be a relic of another age, a quaint but outdated symbol of the fabled good old days.

Sitting in a west London café, over mugs of tea and the background chatter of builders, Graham Roberts is having none of it if such cynicism is aimed at him. “I love Tottenham. I actually pay now to go and watch them play, I’ll always do it. Tottenham gave me my opportunity in football and I’ll always love the supporters. Always.”

There are plenty of fans for whom the feeling is mutual. A generation on, Roberts is still one of the most popular players from this Spurs team. Right on cue, as he settles down to reflect on his own glory days, a passer-by bids him ‘Hello’, her greeting warmly reciprocated. “She’s wonderful – a big, big Tottenham fan. When I went to Rangers she travelled up on the coach for my first game just to wish me luck. That’s what you call a fan. Either that or she’s a stalker.”

Laughing along with the joke is Paul Merson, with whom Roberts has an appointment to open a new bookmakers down the road. “Is this just going to be about Spurs?” Merson asks. “In that case, I’m off.” Roberts takes the opportunity to remind him about Tottenham’s recent humiliation of the Gunners in the Carling Cup. “5-1, Merse.” Spoken like a true Tottenham fan.

It is this bond with his supporters that marks Roberts out. Ask anyone among the generation that saw him play, and his or her favourite will probably be cited as Hoddle, Ardiles or one of the other magicians that graced that flair-packed side. Yet push them further and Roberts will invariably be mentioned as the one they really cherished most – the superstar footballer they could identify with. A rugged centre half who provided the definition of ‘no-nonsense’, his committed, fearless and often match-winning displays granted him enduring cult status.

For someone reared in the school of hard knocks, he’s aged well. Dressed in a smart suit, he looks every inch the businessman and media performer he has become, but with the relaxed, confident demeanour of a middle-aged man in good physical nick. Twenty years on from his playing days and with a slight burr, he talks as he performed: direct, forthright and uncompromising. Matters he takes issue with are tackled head on the same way he did on the pitch: fairly, for the most part, but always firmly. It’s a style that occasionally got him into trouble during his playing career and has done so since he retired, but as one of the few genuine hard men in a sport awash with pretenders, Robbo was and still is a terrace hero.

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