People’s reading habits are changing all the time, advancing.
“The great fallacy is that the game is first and foremost about winning. It’s nothing of the kind. The game is about glory. It’s about doing things in style, with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.”
I occasionally see a West Ham fan on the bus. Yesterday he was positively breezing through his latest summons for shoplifting with just a finger tracing along as he silently mouthed the words. Not once did I see him ask anyone for assistance.
That Blanchflower quote has become almost an unofficial club motto at Spurs. And it has also proved something of a millstone for every team that has followed in the footsteps of the Double winners. It is taken as evidence that the way the team plays is more valued than the results it gets. But this, I would argue strongly, is to misunderstand the point Blanchflower was making. It’s the “first and foremost” bit that gets overlooked. Blanchflower never dismissed the importance of winning. He was a professional footballer with enormous ambition, after all.
The section that talks of “going out and beating the other lot” is a pretty clear indication that winning was foremost in his mind. The point is that for Blanchflower, winning was a given.
Of course you were there to win, because that is the nature of sport. But how you win is what distinguishes mere success from glory and, as he said, the game is about glory.
Mde De Hotspur has a kindle apparently. I only know this as it one of the things with a red sticker on it and I’m not allowed to play with anything that has a red sticker.
He was, in the words of sports journalist and long-time admirer Julie Welch “football’s stylish song-and-dance man, playing the game the way Gene Kelly danced”.
And let’s not forget that point, because for all that can justifiably be said about Blanchflower the thinker and personality, he was without a doubt one of the finest footballers to grace the turf.
Martin Cloake and Adam Powley are quite rightly among other things highly respected authors. This is another reason to appreciate their literary efforts. The pair have teamed up yet again to produce a series of ebooks called Sports Shots.
The Danny Blanchflower Sports Shot is 12 chapters of all you need to know about a revered Spurs legend. After all, aside from that Connor MacCleod bloke and Cliff Richard, non of us are immortal. This is the stuff that keeps the new blood in our tribe well and truly in touch with the past and how important that it is kept alive.
Blanchflower was a clever man, but he recognised the simple pleasures of football and much of his intellectual application was dedicated to debunking the efforts of those who would make it overcomplicated.
At just £2.99 this includes VAT & free wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet. HERE
Make someone’s Christmas and watch them get merrily stuck in to a great slice of Tottenham’s past (readers purchasing for themselves will have to use a mirror to achieve this).
my wife was told to f- off by shakin stevens when she was a kid back in the 80’s.
Good God, not old Shaky!! When I go home Im going to burn that 7inch single of ‘A little boogie woogie’ that I have as pride of place on my mantlepiece…
actually…no im not!
Ps. Not that I want to detract from the footy here but when my mum was young Rod Stuart came walking out of a restaurant in a bright yellow banana suit…she approached and asked for an autograph to which he replied ‘sorry luuurve, if I sign yours, I gotta sign everybodies aint I’
Ar5ehole…if he didn’t want to be noticed, can I suggest some different attire…
..Still, at least I aint bitter about it :-)
Rod the Mod :freu Wot a Cad!
After all those wonderful stories, mine is extremely down market, but I was once called “That London Bastard” by John Prescott.
You should have punched him….. :ninja:
Danny joined us from Aston Villa in 1954 for £30,000, he was a thinker, tactically astute and did not suffer fools gladly.
His leadership and vision and sheer determination to win meant he rose to become team Captain, in a time when that honour meant something. We won the double in 60-61 and Danny was the first Team Captain of the 20th Century to lift both trophies in the same season. He won the coveted Footballer of the year for the second time as a result. He was both an Enigma and a Legend, how honoured we were that he spent 10 years of glory at “The Lane” and the lump in my throat is one of sincere appreciation.
My favourite Blanchflower story was when hee was introducing the players to the the Queen Mother. The Leicester City players had their names on the track suits, and the QM asked DB why the Spurs team didn’t have their names on the track-suits.
DB replied. “We don’t need to. We all know each other”
Magic
We won League Division One by 8 points in 60-61 when there was only 2 points for a win and with a month to spare.
When the new stadium gets up and running (eventually), one of the ‘stands’ has to be named after the great man, along with Bill Nic.
Who the other two sides/stands are gonna be named after, jeeez…….thats a debate in itself!
Good question. Arthur Rowe (created the push and run team)? Ron Burgess? John White? Jimmy Greaves? Gary Mabbutt? Ledley King? Syeve Perryman? Arry Redknapp? Glenn Hoddle?
Steve!
And how could I forget Dave Mackay??
Or Pat Jennings??
The Perryman stand is a must, an absolute must. Record appearance holder, most decorated player and the nicest bloke you could ever wish to meet. Add to that 110% commitment to the cause every time he played and the fact he turned the bin dippers down when we were relegated famously stating that I took this team down as captain and I will lead them back up……oh and we could go back to the old traditional floodlights and name them after….Peter Crouch, Anthony Gardner, Willem Korsten and Timotea Attoba :-p
Redknapp!?!?……..steady on there fella!
Stuart Nethercott?…….. :whistle:
“the ginger pele stand”
“the sergei rebrov stand” (most expensive stand to date, but collapses after a year)
That`s easy Billy……..Greaves & Gilzean and White & Mackay (might even get a whiskey company to sponsor it). COYS.
Lucky we didn’t have player’s called Pyotr Smirnoff and Jack Daniel on our books……..we’d need a hexagonal sided stadium to get all the names on!