IT IS hardly surprising, but when Tottenham Hotspur’s great teams and players are discussed, the conversation rarely moves beyond 1951 and 1961. The latter’s achievement, the then-hallowed double, would be something of a millstone round the neck of the club and its long-serving manager, Bill Nicholson, but 10 years on, Spurs did manage to rekindle […]
Tag: Football League Cup
Great Reputations: Tottenham 1970-73 – Bill Nick’s final flourish
IT IS hardly surprising, but when Tottenham Hotspur’s great teams and players are discussed, the conversation rarely moves beyond 1951 and 1961. The latter’s achievement, the then-hallowed double, would be something of a millstone round the neck of the club and its long-serving manager, Bill Nicholson, but 10 years on, Spurs did manage to rekindle […]
72 Classic: London’s lost cup
LONDON’s top clubs had a mixed start to the 1971-72 season. Not everyone was surprised, however, for despite the capital city scooping all the domestic prizes and a European trophy, the football establishment still looked to the north of England as the hub of the game in the early 1970s. “I wonder sometimes if the […]
City and the dangerous pursuit of excellence
REMEMBER Leeds United in 1970? They were chasing a treble and ended with nothing. They finished in second place in the league, runners-up in the FA Cup final and lost in the “Battle of Britain” against Celtic over two legs in the European Cup semi-final. They were worn-out, heart-broken and stressed – above all, they […]
When and where trophies are won
PRIOR to the 2018-19 season, the most successful Premier League team, in terms of domestic trophies won over the past decade, was Chelsea with eight wins. Just behind the Blues were the Manchester duo, City and United, with seven apiece. City have since drawn level with their League Cup victory earlier this season and in […]
1971: Geoffrey and Gordon
ONE OF the privileges of being born in the late 1950s was that your formative years, from a footballing perspective, were the late 1960s and early 1970s. This was a great time for English football as the nation basked in the glow of World Cup 1966. As the passage of time moves on, and history […]
London cooling? Not quite yet
IT MAY not be the most successful city across Europe, or the most productive in terms of league titles in the UK, but if you want to see top division action in the European Union’s capitals, London has the highest percentage of clubs among the leading leagues. There are six London clubs in the Premier […]
Great Reputations: Swindon Town 1969, winners of the “People’s Cup”
IT COULDN’T happen today, could it? A third division (league one in the current money) team winning at Wembley. It didn’t happen much then, but for two out of three years in the late 60s, two teams from that level of the game created major shocks that have never been forgotten. Arsenal fans won’t need […]
Johnson’s Bristol cream and the margin between success and failure
JOSÉ MOURINHO might have felt Bristol City were lucky to have won their English Football League Cup quarter-final tie with Manchester United, but their 2-1 triumph was a much-needed and much-welcomed reminder that shocks can still happen in top level football. Everyone outside the United support base must have raised their hat to the Robins, […]