The Biography of Tottenham Hotspur by Julie Welch

Author:Julie Welch [Julie Welch]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vision Sports Publishing
Published: 2012-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

‘I’M A SPURS MAN’

Practically the first words spoken by Terry Neill at the press conference to announce Bill Nicholson’s replacement were: ‘I am as surprised as you are to find myself at Tottenham.’ There have been more inspiring rallying cries.

Still, there wasn’t much else he could say. The astonishment that permeated the Spurs part of north London centred on where Neill had spent most of his playing career. It’s claimed that on being informed of Neill’s CV one member of Tottenham’s board of directors said, ‘Oh, did he play for Arsenal, then?’

Yep, just a bit. Neill was centre-back there from 1959 to 1970 and made 241 appearances, a considerable number of them as captain. You can’t be much more indelibly stamped with the Arsenal trademark than that. After he quit, he spent four years as player-manager at Hull City, but for all his assurances that ‘from now on I am a Spurs man’, those intervening seasons at Boothferry Park weren’t sufficient to disinfect him as far as the Tottenham fans were concerned.

Mind you, the Spurs board had what they thought was wisest – a complete break from the Nicholson-Baily duo. Here was a young manager who, at 32, was the wettest behind the ears in the whole of the First Division and who, in contrast to Eddie and Bill, had a talkative, upbeat personality, the kind that would puff out the players’ chests a bit and apply Savlon to egos bruised by the old regime.

‘He was good for me,’ says Steve Perryman. ‘Eddie had decided I’d gone – he said I never sprinted, I never jogged anywhere. So I’m thinking I’m on my way. It had become a drudge for me with Bill. He’d just become all-consumed. With the top players he couldn’t sign, with the young players who waited to take his every instruction. I couldn’t understand what Terry said at first because he had this thick Northern Irish accent, but he was calm. Didn’t shout. And at the end of a session, when we were changing in the dressing room, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, “Just to let you know, you’re going nowhere.”

‘He said I never got in front of the ball, and he was right. He gave us some new ways of playing and the game became more relaxed. I was running forward. I was opening up the game for myself. I think I scored something like six goals in 15 games.’

If Perryman was won over, others were not. ‘It was only when Terry Neill came in that we realised that the great era was over and rebuilding was on its way,’ said John Pratt. ‘I remember one morning turning up for training and saying to Steve Perryman, “Heck, we’re the only ones left.” Until then, everyone had known Bill and had known they were wanted. I was only ever on a one-year contract in 16 years at White Hart Lane. Suddenly we didn’t know what sort of players the new manager was looking for and if we were going to be in a job any longer.

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