Gazza

I grew up in the 80's watching Spurs, the likes of Ardiles, Hazard, Hoddle and Waddle (Diamond Lights gents seriously what was you thinking?) and then Gazza. No one has polarised fans more than Gazza. Loved for all his faults by some and despised by others for those faults. For me, Id rather think of the footballer, and what a player he was!

Signed under the noses of Man Utd in the summer of 1988 for £2 million Gazza was already popular amongst football fans, and was seen as a coup by then Tottenham manager Terry Venables, who wanted to build a team around him. Gazza was in his peak a character, who was able to bridge the gap between football fans and non football fans. Compared on a regular basis with George Best and others he helped us reach 6th in his first season and 3rd the season after.

It was during the 1989-1990 season that he made his England debut, just before the World Cup in Italy that year, and this for me is when things started to change for Gazza. He had a brilliant World Cup, we started slowly but managed to get out of the group. Beat Belgium and Cameroon and then faced Germany in the Semi-final.

With the biggest game of his career in front of him he was booked and would miss the final if we got there. The tears flowed and an icon of the time was born. Coming home on the bus he wore that fat belly and breast vest, and you couldn't go anywhere without seeing his face. Singles were released, public appearances were everywhere and he started to go off the rails. This wont be popular, but its my opinion, Veneables should have stepped in and stopped it. The fact he didn't, for whatever reason, led to the demise of one of the greatest footballers we ever saw.

Gazza played out of his skin in the FA Cup that year, getting us to Wembley in the first ever Wembley FA Cup Semi Final between us and Arsenal. I will always remember his goal,as will many others, It was typical Gazza that year, utterly brilliant. Arsenal already odds on to win the league now couldn't do the double. It was one of the best days of my life as a Spurs fan watching that game.

The Final against Forest was shrouded in negative news coming out of White Hart Lane, Scholar (Ill save the full story for another blog) had almost bankrupted the club, and Venables along with Alan Sugar stepped in and saved us from bankruptcy, we were days away from going out of business. The downside to this was the announcement the day before the Cup Final that Gazza had been sold for £5.5 million to Lazio.

With English clubs banned from Europe due to Hysel if players wanted to play in Europe they went abroad. Gazza was going to be one of them. In that Final the occasion got to him and he lost his head. All the good he had done that season caught up with him and the expectation and press got too much. The signs were there but no one did anything about it. The rumours had started about his drinking, he was being followed by the press all the time and everything he did was poured over in the smallest detail. He was under the microscope and he cracked on the biggest stage in the country.

He kicked Gary Parker in the chest within the first two minutes and should have been sent off there and then but wasn't. It would have taken a strong referee to make that discussion and fair play to Roger Milford in not doing so. Gazza has since said he was given Valium the night before the game to calm him down, he was so pumped for that day it was an accident waiting to happen and just before half time it did. A missed timed tackle on Gary Charles and down he went clutching his knee. It was over. The Gazza we knew was no more.

Carried off on a stretcher, his move to Lazio in ruins, Gazza was a sorry sight. Lazio to their credit stuck by him and didn't cancel the deal, even after he broke his knee cap falling out of a night club. In my opinion going to Italy was the worst thing he could have done. Alone for 90% of the time in a hotel room his problems mounted. Burping into the microphone of the Italian press, telling Norway to Fuck off when interviewed on England duty, and the continual stories of his drinking problems and his subsequent marriage to Sheryl Failes, the allegations of wife beating and abuse that followed that.

Gazza was a lost soul and continues to be to this day. Hounded by the press that once feted him, yet now intent on destroying him at every opportunity they get, he is seen by some as a failed genius and others as getting what he deserves. Personally I don't condone his behaviour away from football, he has done some terrible things, but and to me its a big but, he was let down by the very people who should have been protecting him.

If Gazza had gone to Man Utd he would probably have had a completely different career. Ferguson wouldn't have tolerated the press intrusion and the hangers on and Gazza would probably have benefited from it massively. Coming to London at such a young age, being as immature as he was, the freedom that Venables allowed him, caught up in his own wishes of owning a football club, he let Gazza down.

The hangers on attached themselves to him and the great footballer he could have been was washed away down the drain with the drink and the women that followed. Trouble seems to find him where ever he goes. I feel Gazza just wants, as perhaps hes always wanted, is to be loved. He needs help now more than ever and I hope he gets that help and finds some sort of peace with his life.

Ill always remember the goal against Arsenal, the game against Portsmouth in the mud, the way he always said hello and spent time talking to me when ever I used to hang around the ground after the game. Ill always have the Teenage Ninja Mutant Spurs shirt he signed for me. That's the Paul Gas

coinge I want to remember and chose to remember. The rest of the stuff that came after that, which I don't condone and agree with, to me makes me wish that perhaps he should never have pulled a Spurs shirt on and gone where he would have been looked after properly, but then I wouldn't have the memories I now hold so very dear, and that part of me, perhaps selfishly after all Ive said, is grateful that he did.

'Theres only one Danny Thomas'

                                                         
As fans we have players that we remember fondly, players that we took too when we first started supporting the team, or players that we think are going to take us to places we haven't been before. They maybe a Gazza type player who we feel will lead us back to the glory days, or they maybe a Kyle Walker or Danny Rose that remind us of a player that we took to our hearts as kids.

I mention the latter two because they remind me of a player I fell in love watching when I was kid in the mid 80's, Danny Thomas. Bought from Coventry in June 1983 for £250,000, I know we could get decent players for a week of Rooneys salary back in the day, Danny was already a full capped international when he arrived.

Danny struggled with injuries at first, and then was up against Perryman, Mabbutt and Hughton for a place in the starting line up but eventually his class showed through and he became a regular first teamer. Danny was one of those players in my opinion who was ahead of his time. Comfortable on either flank he had pace and a vision for perfect pass.

Nowadays he'd be worth millions, he would also be classed as more of a wing-back than a fullback. I used to love watching him get the ball and charge of down the line with it, or watch an attacker think he had got the better of him, only for Danny to appear and perfectly time his tackle.

He was absolutely brilliant in the 1984 UEFA Cup Final, played over two legs in May of that year we drew 1-1 with Anderlecht at their place then 1-1 at home at ours. Graham Roberts scoring in the 84th minute to level the tie and take it into extra-time.

I remeber that game like it was yesterday, too young to go to the game, I was allowed to stay up and watch it. I sat there in my Spurs kit hoping that we would win the game and lift the trophy. I remember Mickey Hazzard leaving the pitch to put his contact lenses back in, I remeber Tony Parks having the game of his life in normal time before saving two penalties in the shoot out to win us the game.

Most of all though I remember Danny walking up to take that first penalty and missing it. He was devastated, but the ground began to sing his name 'Theres only one Danny Thomas' poured down from the Paxton end and I sat there at home singing it as well. Hopefully letting him know that whatever happened he had won his place in our hearts.

This was a team full of characters, Hoddle, Roberts, Hazzard, Falco, Crooks, Perryman, Ardiles, yet this young right back was the one we were all singing for. Danny could and should have gone on to have a very successful career within the game, who knows he may have out grown us one day and moved onto Liverpool, who were dominating the game back then and were well known to have watched him a few times.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be, bringing the ball out of defence he was tackled recklessly by Kevin Maguire a young player himself with QPR at the time. His knee shattered, and medicine not being at the level it is now eventually he called time on his career and retrained as a physio himself, starting at West Brom then eventually moving to the States. Its worth noting that Maguire never recovered from that tackle either. Footballs a contact sport and injuries happen, was it reckless yes most definatley did he mean it? No he didn't. The fall out from it hindered his own development as well as Dannys and thats a shame. Two careers destroyed in an instant.

Danny Thomas is always in my team of the 80's and he is always in my greatest Spurs team of all time. His was a talent that went unfulfilled, he could and should have been one the best right backs we ever had and also one of the best the country ever produced. He was that good. In a day without wall to wall TV coverage he perhaps has become a forgotten player to the newer generation of Spurs fans.

To those who were lucky enough to see him play? There will always only be 'One Danny Thomas'.

Could Mauricio Pochettino be our greatest ever manager?

I started following Spurs as 9 year old in 1981, the reason being wasn't due to some family loyalty, my Dad was and still is a West Ham fan. The year before he had tried desperately to get me to follow West Ham but it didn't feel right. I sat there one Thursday night, in the front room watching the FA Cup replay and watched jaw wide open as Ricky Villa jinked his way past the Man City defence and scored what is the best ever FA Cup Final goal bar none. I was hooked. That was it, I wanted to score a goal like that. My Dad bless him didn't stop me and a lifetime of hurt was opened up to me.

Hungry for the history of this fantastic new team I'd discovered, I poured over the history of this club and read all about a man called Bill Nicholson, how he had created the first ever Double winners, for those of you born since the 1990's this wasn't something that happened all the time. It was extremely rare and difficult to do. I was in awe of this place called White Hart Lane and the history that it was steeped in.

I was spoilt as a new fan back then, we won the FA Cup the following year, were quite successful in the league, Arsenal were awful, so were West Ham and Chelsea and we won the UEFA Cup in 1984. I thought this was it, we would will all the time. Keith Burkinshaw was the manager back then, and I believe him only to be second to Bill Nicholson in our history of managers that have been in charge of our club. Could that be about to change though? Have we got at the moment the manager that could surpass both of them?

Lets be honest until Mauricio turned up at Southampton who had heard of him? I personally thought that he was just another foreign manager who would probably fail and get Southampton relegated. How wrong I was. He brought through home grown talent and got Southampton playing attractive and stylish football. In his first full season they finished 8th and got them their highest ever Premier League points total. We pounced in the May 2014 after the disaster of Sherwood's reign and the rest so far is history.

Weve had some awful managers down the years, Gross, AVB, Ardilies (Loved him as a player), Francis, Sherwood, Shreeves, Pleat, and yes Im going to say it Venables. I dont buy into all the messiah rubbish with him, he was out to line his pockets and his business interests were detrimental to us a team. We should have pushed on in the 90,s except we didn't, we stagnated and got worse. Eric 'the monster idiot' Hall cherry picked our best players and led them away from us.

Since Mauricio has been here we have a core group of young English players, hungry talented players, that some of us have written off before. Kyle Walker and Danny Rose spring to mind for me. I saw them as non reliable and not good enough for us. However under Mauricio and his team they have become England regulars. He has added well to the squad in the summer, strengthening where needed to make us more competitive going forward.

In the past we were known as a cup side, no one took us seriously, now all you hear is ex Arsenal players talking about us, they are worried because they know with Wenger in charge they have stagnated and not pushed on. Money speaks volumes in football nowadays, look at Man City and Chelsea, but under Mauricio we are building a new stadium, a new team, and the future is very bright.

The players are signing new long term contracts, where in the past we have lost our best players we are now keeping them. They know something special is about to happen. we as fans can feel it, and as long as we keep Mauricio we will get there.

It took Ferguson 6 years to win the league, with a club far more advanced than we are now, with the ability to get the best players and a network that produced some of the greatest young English players weve ever seen. In two years Mauricio has finished 5th and 3rd, developed 5 England regulars, kept the best players weve seen in years at the club and has recruited wisely through the summer. This man, given time, will be the greatest manager weve ever had.

I would be happy this year with finishing in the top four and winning a trophy. I feel thats realistic for us. History will judge Mauricio on what he won as a Spurs manager, he will be judged on his trophies and his success with the team. Only then will we say that he is the best manager weve ever had, only then will he be able to be judged alongside, Nicholson and Burkinshaw. I think he can and will surpass both of these men, given time and patience, by us the fans, and by the board. Lets give the man time, because I personally believe he is going to surpass all of our expectations in the next few years.