History of Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

The club became unwittingly involved in a controversy known as the Payne Boots Affair in October 1893. A reserve player from Fulham, Ernie Payne, agreed to play for Spurs but arrived without any kit as it had apparently been stolen at Fulham. As no suitable boots could be found, the club gave him 10 shillings to buy his boots. Fulham then complained to the London Football Association that Tottenham had poached their player, and accused them of professionalism breaching amateur rules. On the latter charge, the London Football Association found Tottenham guilty, as the payment for the boots was judged an "unfair inducement" to attract the player to the club.[23] Spurs were suspended for a fortnight, had to forfeit their second-round match against Clapham Rovers in the FA Amateur Cup and were therefore eliminated from the competition.[32] Despite the punishment, the controversy had an unexpected positive effect on the club. Press coverage of the incident raised the national profile of what was then a local amateur club, and gained them sympathy for what many thought was unfair treatment. Invitations from other clubs to play games increased, and attendance at their matches rose.[33] The publicity also brought on board local businessman John Oliver, who became chairman in 1894 after Ripsher retired, and provided funding for the club.[34]

With an increasing number of teams to play against, the quality of Spurs' opposition also improved. To compete against better teams, the club committee, led by the second club president John Oliver, agreed that the club should turn professional. Robert Buckle made the proposal at a meeting on 16 December 1895, which was accepted after a vote, and the club gained its professional status on 20 December 1895. Spurs made a failed attempt to join the Football League, but they were admitted to Division One of the Southern League in mid-1896.[35] They also participated in other leagues, initially the United League and later Western League, in which they did not always field the full first team.[23][36] The team was almost entirely rebuilt over the next two years; the first two professional players, Jock Montgomery and J. Logan, were quickly recruited from Scotland (a number of Scottish footballers would have significant influences in the club's history), and in 1897 they signed their first international, Jack Jones.[36]

On 2 March 1898, Spurs decided to become a limited company—the Tottenham Hotspur Football and Athletic Company—to raise funds and to limit the personal liability of its members. Eight thousand shares were issued at £1 each, but only 1,558 were taken up by the public in the first year.[37] A board of directors was formed with Oliver as chairman, but he retired after the company reported a loss of £501 at the end of the season in 1899.[23] Charles Roberts took over as chairman and remained in the post until 1943.[38]

Soon after the club became a limited company, on 14 March 1898, Frank Brettell was appointed the first manager of Spurs.[39] He signed several players from northern clubs, including Harry Erentz, Tom Smith and, in particular, John Cameron, who signed from Everton in May 1898 and was to have a considerable impact on the club. Cameron became player-manager the following February after Bretell left to take a better-paid position at Portsmouth, and led the club to its first trophies: the Southern League title in 1899–1900 and the 1901 FA Cup. In his first year as manager, Cameron signed seven players: George Clawley, Ted Hughes, David Copeland, Tom Morris, Jack Kirwan, Sandy Tait and Tom Pratt. The following year Sandy Brown replaced Pratt, who wanted to return to the North despite being the top goalscorer. They, together with Cameron, Erentz, Smith and Jones, formed the 1901 Cup-winning team.[40]

First game at White Hart Lane, Spurs vs Notts County for the official opening on 4 September 1899

On Good Friday 1898 a match was held against Woolwich Arsenal at Northumberland Park, attended by a record crowd of 14,000. In the overcrowded ground, fans climbed up onto the roof of the refreshment stand to get a better view. The stand then collapsed under their weight causing a few injuries, which prompted the club to start looking for a new ground. In 1899 the club moved a short distance to a piece of land behind the White Hart pub.[41] The White Hart Lane site, actually located behind Tottenham High Road, was a nursery owned by the brewery chain Charringtons. The club initially leased the ground from Charringtons, but development of the ground was restricted by the terms of the lease. In 1905, after issuing shares towards the cost of purchase, Spurs bought the freehold for £8,900 and paid a further £2,600 for a piece of land at the northern end.[42] By then the ground had a covered stand on the west side and earth mounds on the other three sides.[43]

The ground was never officially named, but it became popularly known as White Hart Lane, also the name of a local thoroughfare.[44] The first game at White Hart Lane was a friendly against Notts County on 4 September 1899 that Spurs won 4–1,[45] and the first competitive game on the ground was held five days later against Queens Park Rangers, a game won by Spurs 1–0.[46] With an effective attacking triangle of Jones, Kirwan and Copeland, Tottenham won 11 games in their first 13 games in the 1908–09 season. On 28 April 1900, they finished top of the Southern League, and won the club their first trophy.[47] After the win, the club was dubbed "Flower of the South" by the press.[48]

Tottenham first took part in the FA Cup in the 1894–95 season, but never got beyond the third round proper in six years.[49] In the 1901 FA Cup, Spurs managed to reach the final after beating Preston North End, Bury, Reading and West Bromwich Albion; all apart from Reading were Football League Division One teams of the 1900–01 season. The final against Division One Sheffield United was played at Crystal Palace and attended by 110,820 spectators, at that time the largest crowd ever for a football match.[50] The game ended in a 2–2 draw, with both of Spurs' goals coming from Sandy Brown, and a disputed goal from Sheffield. The final was the first to be filmed, and it contained the first referee decision demonstrated by film footage to be incorrect, as it showed that the ball did not cross the line for the Sheffield goal.[50][51]

The squad for the 1901 FA Cup final against Sheffield United

In the replay at Burnden Park, Bolton on 27 April 1901, Spurs won 3–1 with goals from Cameron, Smith and another by Brown. By winning the FA Cup, Spurs became the only non-League club to have achieved the feat since the formation of the Football League in 1888.[52] The club also inadvertently introduced the tradition of tying ribbons in the colours of the winning team on the FA Cup when the wife of a Spurs director tied blue and white ribbons to the handles of the cup.[53] The win started a trend for Spurs' success in years ending in a one, with further FA Cup wins in 1921, 1961, 1981 and 1991, the League Cup in 1971, the league in 1951, and in 1961, which is the double winning year.[54]

Following the 1901 Cup win, Spurs failed to repeat the success in the next few seasons but they were runners-up in the Southern League twice, and won the London League in the 1902–03 season as well as the Western League in the 1903–04 season.[55][56] They went on their first overseas tour, to Austria and Hungary, in May 1905.[57] Cameron left on 13 March 1907, citing "differences with the directorate",[23][58] and he was replaced in April 1907 by Fred Kirkham, a referee with no managerial experience. Kirkham was disliked by players and fans alike, and he left on 20 July 1908 after a year as manager.[59]

Tottenham resigned from the Southern League in 1908 and sought to join the Football League. Their initial application was unsuccessful, but after the resignation of Stoke from the league for financial reasons, Tottenham won election to the Second Division of the Football League for the 1908–09 season to replace them.[60] As Spurs had no manager following Kirkham's departure, the directors took on the role of choosing the team, while the club secretary Arthur Turner was tasked with overseeing the team's affairs.[61] Spurs played their first league game in September 1908 against Wolverhampton Wanderers and won 3–0, with their first ever goal in the Football League scored by Vivian Woodward.[62] Woodward was also instrumental in the club's immediate promotion to the First Division after finishing runners-up in their first year. Before the start of the following season, Woodward left football to pursue other interests, although he soon returned to the game and joined Chelsea. Spurs struggled in their first year in the First Division, but avoided relegation by beating Chelsea in the last game of the season with goals from Billy Minter and a former Chelsea player Percy Humphreys, sending their opponents down instead.[63]

Spurs cockerel in a 1910 official programme

The club started an ambitious plan to redevelop White Hart Lane in 1909, beginning with the construction of the West Stand designed by Archibald Leitch. The North and South stands were then built in the early 1920s, with the East Stand completed in 1934, bringing the capacity of the finished stadium to almost 80,000.[42] A bronze cockerel was placed on top of the West Stand in 1909. The cockerel was adopted as an emblem because Harry Hotspur, after whom the club was named, was believed to have gained the nickname wearing fighting spurs in battles, and spurs were also worn by fighting cock.[64] Tottenham had initially used spurs as a symbol in 1900, as Harry Hotspur was said to have charged into battles by digging in his spurs to make the horse go faster, a symbol that evolved into a fighting cock.[65]

In April 1912 Jimmy Cantrell, Bert Bliss and Arthur Grimsdell arrived at the club.[66] Late that year Peter McWilliam was appointed manager. He became a significant and popular figure at the club, managing the team in two separate periods, both interrupted by world wars.[67] The first significant signing by McWilliam was winger Fanny Walden, who was signed for a record £1,700 in April 1913,[68] later signings included goalkeeper Bill Jaques and right-back Tommy Clay.[69] McWilliam's record in the early years was poor, and Tottenham were bottom of the league at the end of the 1914–15 season when league football was suspended owing to the First World War that had started a year earlier. During the war years, White Hart Lane was taken over by the government and turned into a factory for making gas masks, gunnery and protection equipment.[70] The London clubs organised their own matches, and Tottenham played their home games at Arsenal's Highbury and Clapton Orient's Homerton grounds.[71]

When football resumed in 1919, the First Division was expanded from 20 to 22 teams. The Football League offered one of the additional places to 19th-placed Chelsea, who would otherwise have been relegated with Spurs for the 1915–16 season, and the other, controversially, to Arsenal, who had finished only sixth in Division Two the previous season.[72][73] This decision cemented a bitter rivalry that continues to this day,[30] a rivalry that had begun six years earlier when Arsenal relocated from Plumstead to Highbury, a move opposed by Tottenham, who considered Highbury their territory, as well as by Clapton Orient and Chelsea.[74][75] Matches between the two clubs, called the North London derby, became the most fiercely-contested derby in London.[76]

Tottenham Hotspur captain Arthur Grimsdell displays the cup to fans on Tottenham High Road after Spurs' victory in the 1921 final, the first win by a London-based team in 20 years.

In the first season after the war McWilliam took Tottenham straight back to Division One when they became Division Two Champions of the 1919–20 season. They won with what was then a league record of 70 points, losing only 4 games all season with 102 goals scored.[77] Two players signed that season, Jimmy Dimmock and Jimmy Seed, became crucial members of the team together with Grimsdell.[78] Other notable players of the period include Tommy Clay, Bert Smith and Charlie Walters. The following year Spurs reached their second FA Cup final after beating Preston North End in the semi-final with two goals from Bliss. On 23 April 1921, in a game dominated by Walters, Spurs beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1–0 in the final at Stamford Bridge, with 20-year-old Dimmock scoring the winning goal.[79][80] They also won their first Charity Shield the same year. Following their FA Cup victory in 1921, Spurs players started to wear the cockerel emblem on their shirts.[30]

At McWilliam's instigation a nursery club was established at Northfleet in about 1922, an arrangement that was formalised in 1931 and lasted until the Second World War.[81][82] Thirty-seven Spurs players, nine of whom became internationals, started their playing career at Northfleet. They include Bill Nicholson, Ron Burgess, Taffy O'Callaghan, Vic Buckingham and Ted Ditchburn.[82]

In the 1921–22 season, Spurs finished second to Liverpool in the league, their first serious challenge for the title. After the success of the two post-war seasons, Spurs only managed to finish mid-table in the next five. The team had begun to deteriorate, and new signings Jack Elkes and Frank Osborne could not overcome weaknesses in other positions.[83] They were in first place for a while in 1925, until Grimsdell broke his leg and they dropped down the table.[80] McWilliam left for Middlesbrough in February 1927 when Middlesbrough offered him significantly better pay while the Tottenham board refused his request for a smaller increase.[84] Billy Minter, who first joined the club as a player in 1907 and became the first player to score 100 goals for the club in 1919,[85] took over as manager. In the 1927–28 season, his first full season in charge, Spurs were unexpectedly relegated despite finishing with 38 points, only 6 points behind 4th-placed Derby County. One factor in their relegation may have been the sale of Jimmy Seed to Sheffield Wednesday—Wednesday had looked certain to be relegated, but Seed helped them escape, beating Tottenham twice along the way, and they went on to win the League Championship title in each of the next two seasons.[86]

Minter struggled to return Spurs to the top flight despite signing Ted Harper in February 1929. Harper was a prolific goalscorer in the few years he was at the club; his 36 league goals scored in a season in 1930–31 remained a record until 1963, when it was broken by Jimmy Greaves.[87][88] The stress of being manager affected Minter's health; he resigned, and was given another position at the club in November 1929.[89] Percy Smith was appointed manager at the start of 1930, and he strengthened the team with imported and home-grown talents including George Hunt, Willie Hall and Arthur Rowe. The team, aided by the goal-scoring exploits of Hunt, were nicknamed the "Greyhounds" in the 1932–33 season as they raced up the Second Division from near the bottom of the table, and won promotion after finishing second to Stoke City.[90] Spurs only managed to stay in Division One for two seasons; injuries (especially to Rowe and Hall) left the team weakened and at the bottom of the table in the 1934–35 season by April 1935. Smith then resigned, claiming that the club's directors had interfered with his team selection.[91]

Jack Tresadern took over from caretaker manager Wally Hardinge in July 1935, but failed to lift the club out of the Second Division in the three years of his tenure. He promoted centre-forward Johnny Morrison in place of fans' favourite George Hunt, and decided to sell Hunt to rival Arsenal in 1937, a decision that made him unpopular. He left in April 1938 for Plymouth Argyle when it became apparent that he would likely be sacked at the end of the season.[92] Peter McWilliam was brought back as manager, and he tried to rebuild the team by promoting young players from Northfleet including Nicholson, Burgess and Ditchburn, but his second stint at the club was again interrupted by world war.[67] Spurs also failed to advance beyond the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in the 1930s, getting that far three years running from 1935 to 1938. Despite Tottenham's lack of success in this period, 75,038 spectators still squeezed into White Hart Lane in March 1938 for a cup tie against Sunderland—the club's largest gate until it was surpassed in 2016 when more than 85,000 attended the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League home match against Monaco held at Wembley Stadium.[93]

On 3 September 1939 Neville Chamberlain declared war, and league football was abandoned with only three games played. Nevertheless, matches continued to be arranged and played during the Second World War. The London clubs first played in the Wartime League and Football League War Cup, and Spurs won the Regional League South 'C' in 1940. After a reorganisation in 1941, they also competed in the Football League South. Owing to the difficult wartime conditions, Spurs along with other London clubs refused to travel long distances for the matches drawn up by the Football League and decided to run their own competitions: London War League and London War Cup. They (eleven London clubs and five other clubs from the south) were temporarily expelled from the Football League; after paying a £10 fine they were readmitted, but they played in the Football League South in the way the London clubs had suggested.[94] McWilliam went back to the North during the war and the team was managed by Arthur Turner; under him Spurs won the regional league twice.[95][96] Charles Robert who had been chairman since 1898 died in 1943, and he was replaced by Fred Bearman.[97] As it was difficult to field a full squad in the war years, many young players, among them Sonny Walters, Les Medley, Les Bennett and Arthur Willis, gained their first playing experience for the club in this period.[94] Spurs also shared White Hart Lane with Arsenal when Highbury was requisitioned by the government and used as an Air Raid Precautions centre.[98]

After the war ended, McWilliam decided that he was too old to return to the club, and a former Arsenal player Joe Hulme was given the job of managing Tottenham. Hulme failed to win promotion for the club, although Spurs managed to stay in the top half of the Second Division for the three seasons he was manager,[97] and they reached the semi-final of the FA Cup in 1948.[99] Players who joined the squad under Hulme include Eddie Baily, Len Duquemin, Harry Clarke and Charlie Withers. Football was popular in the post-war era, and although in the three post-war seasons during which Spurs languished in the Second Division, some games still drew large crowds, particularly for cup ties.[100] Hulme was sacked after he refused a suggestion to resign following an illness in March 1949.[99]

In May 1949 Rowe became Spurs manager at a salary of £1,500 a year. He inherited the squad assembled by Hulme except for the one crucial signing he made when he took over, Alf Ramsey.[101] Rowe introduced a new style of play, Push and run, which proved to be highly successful, and transformed the players into a team that were hard to beat in the 1949–50 season. Rowe started his tenure as manager with a 4–1 victory at Brentford, the beginning of an unbeaten run of 23 League and Cup games between 27 August 1949 and 14 January 1950. With a free-scoring attack force, the team won the Second Division convincingly with six games yet to play. They ended the season nine points in front, elevating them back into the top flight.[102][103]

After a shaky start to their 1950–51 season when they were trounced 4–1 at home by the Blackpool side of Stanley Matthews, Tottenham won eight consecutive games in October and November that included a 7–0 defeat of Jackie Milburn's Newcastle.[102] Some considered the team of this season the best in Tottenham's history;[104] guarding the goal was Ditchburn, one of Spurs' best ever goalkeepers, who was aided in defence by Ramsey, Clarke, and Willis; also influential were the captain Burgess and Nicholson, with the five forwards of Baily, Medley, Duquemin, Bennett and Walters completing the regular starting eleven.[102][105] They finished the season ahead of Manchester United by three points, having won their First Division Championship title in the penultimate game of the season by beating Sheffield Wednesday with a solitary goal from Duquemin. That was Tottenham's first ever League title.[106]

The push and run tactics developed by Rowe were successful in his early years as manager.[107] Rowe credited McWilliam for learning to play a quick passing game,[108] which he developed into a style involving players playing in triangles, quickly laying the ball off to a teammate and running past the marking tackler to collect the return pass. Keeping to Rowe's maxim of "make it simple, make it quick", this method proved an effective way of moving the ball at pace with players' positions and responsibilities being totally fluid. It became an attractive fast-moving attacking style of play regarded by Tottenham fans to be the Spurs Way, which was adjusted and perfected in the later period under Bill Nicholson.[102][109]

Spurs finished second in the 1951–52 season, beaten to the title by a young Manchester United team. A bad winter and the poor state of the White Hart Lane pitch were contributory, as the "push and run" style of play required a good firm playing surface. The following years witnessed a period of decline, as great players aged but younger players such as Tony Marchi and Tommy Harmer were not yet experienced enough, and with injuries and other teams adapting to Spurs' revolutionary style of play, it meant a struggle for the once-dominant team.[102][111] Spurs could only finish tenth in the 1952–53 season. The "push and run" team also started to disperse; Medley, Willis, Bennett and Burgess left to join other teams while Nicholson moved into coaching.[102] In 1954 Rowe signed future captain Danny Blanchflower for a club record fee of £30,000. Blanchflower won the FWA Footballer of the Year twice while at Tottenham.[112]

The stress of managing the team had affected Rowe's health, and he suffered a breakdown in 1954; he resigned after falling ill again the following year. Rowe's assistant and long-time club servant Jimmy Anderson stepped into the breach as manager, but the season ended with Spurs in the lower half of the table.[113] With Blanchflower in the team, Ramsey was dropped from the line-up, and he soon left to start his managerial career with Ipswich Town, later guiding England to a World Cup win.[114] Spurs were almost relegated at the end of the 1955–56 season, finishing just two points above the drop zone. In the 1956–57 season, under the guidance of Bill Nicholson as coach, the creative pairing of Blanchflower and Harmer, and the scoring prowess of Bobby Smith, the club experienced a revival and finished in second place, albeit eight points behind the winners, the "Busby Babes" of Manchester United. Tottenham also fared well in the following season, finishing third.[115][116] As manager, Anderson started to build a new team by signing, bringing in or promoting some of the players who became members of the team that saw major success later: Cliff Jones, Terry Medwin, Peter Baker, Ron Henry, Terry Dyson, Maurice Norman and Smith.[117]

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. in 1960 with Danny Blanchflower and both goalkeepers, Bill Brown and John Hollowbread, among others in the team with Bill Nicholson as manager

The 1960–61 season started with a 2–0 home win against Everton, the beginning of a run of eleven wins.[124] The winning run was interrupted by a 1–1 draw against Manchester City, followed by another four wins before the unbeaten streak was broken by a loss to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in November.[125] It remained the best ever start by any club in the top flight of English football until it was surpassed by Manchester City in 2017.[126] The title was won on 17 April 1961 when Spurs beat the eventual runners-up Sheffield Wednesday at home 2–1, with three games still to play.[127]

In this Double-winning season only seventeen players were used in all forty-nine league and cup games, three of them playing only once.[116][128] The team was built around the quartet of Blanchflower, Mackay, Jones, and White; completing the side were Smith (top scorer of the season), Allen, Henry, Norman, Baker, Dyson and Brown, with Medwin, Marchi, and a young Frank Saul among the reserves.[128][129] Spurs reached the final of the 1960–61 FA Cup, beating along the way Sunderland 5–0 in the sixth-round replay and Burnley 3–0 in the semi-final. Spurs met Leicester City in the 1961 FA Cup final and won 2–0, with Smith scoring the first and setting up the second for Dyson,[127] helped in part by Leicester being effectively reduced to ten men owing to injury (no substitutions were allowed at that time). Spurs became the first team in England to win the Double in the 20th century, and the first since Aston Villa achieved the feat in 1897.[128][130]

Danny Blanchflower with the Cup Winners' Cup trophy in 1963, carried by other Spurs players

Tottenham competed for the first time in a European competition in the 1961–62 European Cup. Their first opponents were Górnik Zabrze, who beat Spurs 4–2. After the match the Polish press described Spurs players as "no angels"; in response, in the return leg at White Hart Lane, some Spurs fans dressed up as angels holding placards with slogans such as "Glory be to shining White Hart Lane", and other fans joined in by singing the refrains of "Glory Glory Hallelujah". Spurs won 8–1 to the sound of fans singing "Glory glory hallelujah, and the Spurs go marching on", which became an anthem for Tottenham from that night onwards.[131] Spurs eventually lost in the semi-final to the holders Benfica, who went on to win the competition.[132]

A month later Spurs won the FA Cup again after beating Burnley in the 1962 FA Cup final.[133] The first goal of the game was scored by Jimmy Greaves, who was signed in December 1961 for £99,999 (so as not to be the first £100,000 player).[134] Greaves became the top goal scorer for Tottenham with 220 league goals and 321 goals in all appearances for the club, and the most prolific scorer ever in the top tier of English football.[135]

In the 1962–63 European Cup Winners' Cup, Spurs reached the final, beating Rangers 8–4 on aggregate, Slovan Bratislava 6–2, and OFK Belgrade 5–2 on aggregate. Spurs' 5–1 win in the Cup Winners' Cup final against Atlético Madrid in Rotterdam on 15 May 1963, during which Terry Dyson scored a goal from 25 yards out, made Tottenham the first British team to win a European trophy.[136]

By 1964 the Double-winning side was beginning to break up owing to age, injuries and transfers. Captain Danny Blanchflower hung up his boots that spring at the age of 38, troubled by a knee injury, and Dave Mackay was sidelined for a long period with his leg broken twice—the first occurred during Spurs' defence of the Cup Winners' Cup against Manchester United, resulting in the 10-men Spurs being eliminated from the competition.[137] In the summer of 1964, John White was tragically killed by lightning on a golf course.[138] Nicholson rebuilt the team with new players, most of them imports, including Alan Mullery, Pat Jennings, Cyril Knowles, Mike England, Terry Venables, Jimmy Robertson, Phil Beal, Joe Kinnear, and Alan Gilzean who formed a goal-scoring partnership with Greaves.[139] The rebuilding culminated in a win at the 1967 FA Cup final over Chelsea with goals from wingers Robertson and Saul, and a third-place finish in the league.[140][141]

The team failed to make much of an impact in the following two seasons, reaching only in 1969 the semi-final of the League Cup, a competition created in 1960 but one in which Tottenham did not participate until 1966.[142] Mackay, Jones and Robertson left the club in 1968, followed by Venables in 1969. In their place came the home-grown players Steve Perryman, Ray Evans and John Pratt,[142] and new signing Martin Chivers. Martin Peters also arrived from West Ham United for a record fee of £200,000 in 1970 in part-exchange for a reluctant Greaves,[142][143] while Ralph Coates was signed in the summer of 1971 for £192,000 from Burnley.[144] Gilzean recreated the goal-scoring partnership with Chivers that he had with Greaves, this time aided by the blindside runs of Peters.[145] The revitalised team reached the League Cup final in 1971, where they beat Aston Villa 2–0 to win their first League Cup with Chivers scoring both goals.[145] They won the League Cup again in 1973 after beating Norwich City by a single goal from Coates in the final.[146]

The 1971 Cup win and a third-place finish in the 1970–71 season earned Spurs a place in the inaugural UEFA Cup. They reached the final after a battling performance to draw against A.C. Milan at the San Siro stadium in the second leg of the semi-final, giving them a 3–2 win on aggregate.[147] In the first leg of the UEFA Cup final against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Chivers scored twice to give Spurs a 2–1 lead. In the return leg at White Hart Lane, team captain Mullery headed in a goal in his last game for the club for a 3–2 win on aggregate.[148][149] With this victory, Spurs became the first British team to win two different European trophies.[147] In total Nicholson had won eight major trophies in sixteen years; his spell in charge was the most successful period in the club's history.[119]

In Burkinshaw's first year as manager in the 1976–77 season, Tottenham slipped out of the First Division after 27 years in the top flight. Many of the early '70s Cup-winning team had by now left or retired. This was followed in the summer of 1977 by the sale of their Northern Ireland international goalkeeper Pat Jennings for a bargain £45,000 to Arsenal as Burkinshaw had started to use Barry Daines, a move that shocked the club's fans and one that Burkinshaw later admitted was a great error. Jennings played on for another seven seasons for Spurs' arch-rivals.[155][156]

Despite relegation, the board kept faith with Burkinshaw and the team immediately won promotion to the top flight, although it took until the final league game of the season for them to be promoted. A sudden loss of form at the end of the 1977–78 season meant the club needed a point in the last game at Southampton. To Tottenham's great relief, the game ended 0–0 and Spurs returned to the First Division. Early in the season, Spurs had won 9–0 at home to Bristol Rovers, with four of their goals coming from debutant striker Colin Lee. The glut of goals proved significant later on as Tottenham won promotion through goal difference.[157]

Ajax vs Spurs Cup Winners' Cup first round in 1981. Notable Spurs players in this match include Steve Perryman, Osvaldo Ardiles, Graham Roberts, Steve Archibald, Ricardo Villa, and Glenn Hoddle (not all shown here).

In the summer of 1978, Burkinshaw caused a stir by signing for £750,000 two Argentinian internationals Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa—players from beyond the British Isles in English football were rare at the time.[158] This was also a period of rebuilding as young players were brought in from the youth team, such as Mark Falco, Paul Miller, Chris Hughton and Micky Hazard, as well as other players signed from other clubs such as Graham Roberts, Tony Galvin, and in particular the twin strike force of Garth Crooks and Steve Archibald.[159][160]

Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa holding the FA Cup trophy won in 1981

Spurs opened the 1980s by reaching the 100th FA Cup final in 1981 against Manchester City, and won the replay 3–2 in a match notable for the winning goal from Ricardo Villa.[161] They lifted the FA Cup again the next season, beating Queens Park Rangers in the 1982 final. Although they were also in contention for three other trophies that season, they finished fourth in the First Division, lost to Liverpool in the League Cup final in extra time, while Barcelona won at home in the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final after a 1–1 draw at White Hart Lane.[162]

The club began a new phase of redevelopment at White Hart Lane in 1980, starting with the rebuilding of the West Stand initiated by a new chairman Arthur Richardson.[163] The West Stand was demolished and a new stand, which took 15 months to complete, opened in 1982. Cost overruns on the project, which rose from £3.5 million to £6 million, as well as the cost of rebuilding the team in the return to Division One resulted in financial difficulties for the club. In this period, property developer and Spurs fan Irving Scholar began buying up shares in the club. He took advantage of a rift in the boardroom between Richardson and former chairman Sidney Wale, and persuaded Wale to sell his shares.[163][164] Scholar bought up 25% of the club for £600,000, and with the help of Paul Bobroff who had bought 15% of shares from the family of previous chairman Bearman, took control in December 1982.[165][166] Scholar inherited a club in debt to the tune of nearly £5 million, what was then the largest debt in English football, but a rights issue after he took over brought in a million pounds. In 1983, a new holding company, Tottenham Hotspur plc, was formed with the football club run as a subsidiary of the company. With a valuation of £9 million, the company was floated on the London Stock Exchange, the first sports club to do so.[164][167] Together with Martin Edwards of Manchester United and David Dein of Arsenal, Scholar transformed English football clubs into business ventures that applied commercial principles to the running of the clubs to maximise their revenues, a process that eventually led to the formation of the Premier League.[168]

In 1984, Tottenham reached the final of the UEFA Cup. After 1–1 scores in both legs against Anderlecht, Tottenham emerged the victor when Tony Parks saved a penalty in the penalty shootout.[171] This was the third of the major trophies won by the club under Burkinshaw in the 1980s. Several weeks before this victory, Burkinshaw announced that he would be leaving at the end of that season after disagreements with the directors and becoming disenchanted with the club.[172][170]

By the end of the 1980s and the beginning of 1990s, Spurs had become mired in considerable financial difficulties, with a debt reported to be £20 million in 1991.[187] The East Stand was refurbished in 1989 but its cost had doubled to over £8 million, while the company's attempts to diversify into other businesses such as the clothing firms Hummel UK and Martex failed to generate the income expected and were in fact losing them money.[167][188] July 1989 saw the arrival at White Hart Lane of England striker Gary Lineker from Barcelona for a fee of £1.2 million; however, the cash-strapped club was unable to pay Barcelona in full even though Waddle was sold days later to Marseille for £4.25 million.[182] Scholar had to organise a secret £1.1 million loan from Robert Maxwell, which caused an uproar and resulted in an attempt to oust Scholar from the boardroom when it was revealed.[188][189] Maxwell, who first owned Oxford United and then Derby County, became interested in the club, putting Derby County up for sale so that he could acquire Tottenham.[167] Venables, who had previously attempted to buy the club but failed, then joined forces with businessman Alan Sugar in June 1991 to forestall a takeover by Maxwell and gain control of Tottenham Hotspur plc, buying out Scholar for £2 million.[165][190][191]

With Lineker and Gascoigne in the team, Spurs finished third in the 1989–90 title race won by Liverpool.[192] In the following 1990–91 season, they began the season unbeaten in ten games, but failed to rediscover their earlier league form in the second half of the season, eventually finishing tenth in the final table.[193][194] Despite the middling ranking, this season remains a highlight for Tottenham for their performances in the 1990–91 FA Cup. A 3–1 semi-final win over Arsenal featured a 30-yard free kick from Gascoigne considered to be one of the best goals ever seen in the competition.[195] In the final against Nottingham Forest, Gascoigne suffered serious cruciate ligament damage in his knee when he made a reckless tackle on opponent Gary Charles.[196] Winning the match 2–1 after extra time, Spurs became the first team to collect eight FA Cups, a record later surpassed by Manchester United in 1996.[197] The excitement in North London over the win also had the unexpected result of prompting Sugar, who had little knowledge of the club's history (and was alleged to have asked "What Double?" when someone mentioned Tottenham's Double),[198] to contact Venables and jointly buy the club.[199]

Gascoigne was a transfer target for Italian club Lazio, but his knee injury (aggravated later in a nightclub incident) meant that he missed the 1991–92 season, and his transfer to Lazio was put on hold. By the summer of 1992, his knee had recovered and he completed his move to Lazio for £5.5 million, reduced from the £7.9 million fees agreed before his injury.[199] Gary Lineker then announced in November that he would be leaving Spurs at the end of the season to play in Japan, while Paul Walsh and Paul Stewart also left the club.[199]

In the 1991–92 season, Venables became chief executive of the club, and Shreeves again took charge of first-team duties. During the summer of 1992, Venables decided to return to team management; Shreeves was sacked, and a European style of management was instituted with Doug Livermore the head coach and Clemence the assistant. Although Sugar and Venables began as equal partners with each investing £3.25 million in the club, Sugar's financial clout allowed him to increase his stake to £8 million in December 1991, thereby gaining control of the club.[199] In May 1993, after a row at a board meeting, Terry Venables was controversially dismissed from the Tottenham board by Sugar, whose decision was overturned in the High Court but reversed on appeal.[200] Despite being initially seen as a saviour of the club, the ousting of a popular figure, later aggravated by a perceived lack of investment in the club, earned Sugar long-lasting animosity from some fans who repeatedly called for his resignation.[201][191]

The departure of Venables saw Tottenham return to a conventional management setup after two seasons of a two-tier structure. Former player Osvaldo Ardiles took charge of the first team. In the 1993–94 season, Sheringham's injury in October 1993 impacted on Spurs' performance, and relegation became a real possibility.[205] In the end, the club managed a 15th-place finish, its survival only guaranteed by a win in the penultimate game of the season.[206] By this time Spurs had come under investigation for financial irregularities alleged to have taken place in the 1980s while Irving Scholar was chairman, and in June 1994 the club was found guilty of making illegal payments to players. Spurs were fined £600,000, had twelve league points deducted for the 1994–95 season and were banned from the 1994–95 FA Cup. Following an appeal the number of points deducted was reduced, but the fine was increased to £1.5 million. A further arbitration (after Sugar threatened to sue the FA) quashed the points deduction and FA Cup ban, although the fine remained in place.[207]

Despite the penalty, the club aimed to have a successful season in 1994–95, and signed three players who had appeared at that summer's World Cup: German striker Jürgen Klinsmann and two Romanians, Ilie Dumitrescu and Gheorghe Popescu.[208][209] Forward players in Spurs line-up already included Sheringham, Anderton and Nick Barmby, and Ardiles chose to play five attacking players, dubbed the "Famous Five" of Klinsmann, Sheringham, Anderton, Barmby, and Dumitrescu.[210] Their debut in the 1994–95 season against Sheffield Wednesday in August 1994, which Spurs won 4–3, was described as a "breathtaking exhibition of football", but the imbalance in the team also leaked goals (33 in 15 games).[211][212] Spurs struggled in September with a series of defeats, and after the team lost 3–0 in the League Cup in October,[213] Ardiles was dismissed. At that time Spurs were just two places above the relegation zone, although they would have been 11th in the table with the deducted points that were later restored.[212]

Ardiles was replaced by Gerry Francis, who alleviated relegation fears and oversaw the club's climb to seventh place in the league, just missing out on a 1995–96 UEFA Cup place. When the FA Cup ban was lifted, Spurs reached the FA Cup semi-final where they were defeated 4–1 by eventual winners Everton.[214] Klinsmann was top scorer at the club with twenty-nine in all competitions, but he felt that Spurs would not be able to challenge for the title in future seasons, and returned to his homeland to sign with Bayern Munich.[215][216] Barmby, Dumitrescu and Popescu also departed, and Francis signed the likes of Ruel Fox and Chris Armstrong for more than £4 million each but spurned the chance to sign Dennis Bergkamp who was a fan of Glenn Hoddle and was interested in joining Spurs.[215][217] Other signings include future captain Ledley King who did not start in the first team for a few years. Francis' transfer dealings failed to deliver European qualification or higher, and Spurs finished eighth in 1996 and tenth in 1997. Sheringham left in the summer of 1997 for Manchester United while Les Ferdinand joined the team for a record £6 million and David Ginola for £2.5 million from Newcastle. Ferdinand was soon hit by injury, and in November 1997, Francis decided to resign after Spurs were beaten 4–0 by Liverpool.[218][219]

White Hart Lane as it appeared from the late 1990s until 2016

Christian Gross, coach of Swiss champions Grasshoppers, was chosen as the successor to Francis. Gross failed to turn around the club's fortunes in the 1997–98 season, and the team battled against the drop for the remainder of the campaign.[220] Klinsmann returned to Spurs in December on loan, and four goals in a 6–2 win away to Wimbledon in the penultimate game of the season was enough to secure survival. By the end of the season, the renovation of the White Hart Lane stadium was completed. White Hart Lane was converted into an all-seater stadium in the 1990s, the South Stand was rebuilt, and a new tier added to the North Stand, leaving the stadium with a capacity of about 36,240.[42] The stadium remained in this form bar some minor changes until 2016.[42]

After losing two of the first three games of the 1998–99 season, Gross was sacked, and former Arsenal manager George Graham was hired to take over.[221][222] Graham signed Steffen Freund, who became a fans' favourite, as well as Tim Sherwood.[223][224] Fans were critical of Graham due to his association with Arsenal and disliked his defensive style of football, especially when Arsène Wenger was starting to achieve major success at Arsenal with an attacking football style previously associated with Spurs.[225] Nevertheless, in Graham's first season as Spurs manager, 1998–99, the club secured a mid-table finish and won the League Cup. In the final against Leicester City at Wembley Stadium, full-back Justin Edinburgh was sent off after an altercation with Robbie Savage, but the ten-men Spurs secured a dramatic victory through Allan Nielsen's diving header in the 93rd minute of the game.[226] To cap a good season, David Ginola won both the PFA Players' Player of the Year and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards in the year Manchester United won the Treble.[227][228]

The club finished mid-table the following year. In May 2000, Tottenham signed Ukrainian striker Serhii Rebrov from Dynamo Kyiv for a club record £11 million. But Rebrov was not a success at White Hart Lane, managing just ten goals over the next four seasons.[229]

In late 2000, Sugar decided to sell his share holding in the club,[230] a decision he blamed on the hostility of fans towards him and his family.[231] 27% of his 40% share holding in Tottenham were sold for £22m to ENIC Sports PLC,[232][233] and he stepped down as chairman in February 2001 on the completion of the sale.[54][234] The rest of his shares were sold in 2007 for £25m.[235] ENIC, owned by Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy with the latter responsible for the running of the club, would eventually acquire 85% of Tottenham.[236][237] The club was transferred into its private ownership in 2012.[238] A month after Levy took over as chairman, George Graham was sacked as manager for alleged breach of contract by vice-chairman David Buchler after Graham commented on the financial position of Spurs.[239]

Team management passed to former Tottenham player Glenn Hoddle, who took over in the final weeks of the 2000–01 season from caretaker manager David Pleat. His first game was a defeat to Arsenal in the 2001 FA Cup semi-final.[240] That summer, club captain Sol Campbell joined Arsenal on a Bosman free transfer. The loss of a transfer fee by Spurs, the move to their bitterest rivals, and the perceived underhanded fashion in which he negotiated his move (claimed to be a record £100,000 per week)[241] led to long-term enmity towards Campbell from Spurs fans.[242] Hoddle turned to more experienced players in the shape of Teddy Sheringham who returned to Spurs in May 2001, as well as new signings Gus Poyet and Christian Ziege. Spurs played some encouraging football in the opening months of his management, but they ended the 2001–02 season in ninth place. They reached the League Cup final, where they lost to Blackburn, despite being seen as the favourites after their 5–1 defeat of Chelsea in the previous round.[243][244]

The only significant outlay before the following campaign was the £7 million signing of Robbie Keane, who joined from Leeds United. Jamie Redknapp also joined earlier on a free transfer.[245] The 2002–03 season started well, with Tottenham top of the league after three successive wins, and Hoddle voted manager of the month in the division for August.[245] They were still in the top six as late as early February, but the season ended with a tenth-place finish, the result of a barren final ten games of the league campaign that delivered a mere seven points. Several players publicly criticised Hoddle's management and communication skills. In the following 2003–04 season, Spurs started the season poorly, gaining only four points out of six games. With Spurs struggling third from bottom at the table, Hoddle was sacked by Levy, and Pleat again took over as caretaker manager.[246]

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was appointed as Ramos' replacement, and Tottenham reverted to a traditional setup with Redknapp responsible for both coaching and player transfers.[261][263] Redknapp took the club out of the relegation zone by winning 10 out of the 12 points available in his first two weeks in charge, and finished the 2008–09 campaign eighth in the league table. The January transfer window saw the return of Keane and Jermain Defoe to the club after spells at Liverpool and Portsmouth respectively,[264] later joined by Peter Crouch signed in the summer,[265] and Rafael van der Vaart in 2010.[266]

North London derby at the Emirates in 2010 that finished 2–3.[267] Spurs players here include Luka Modrić, Jermaine Jenas, and Gareth Bale.

The team's performance improved in the two following seasons. Notable matches in the 2009–10 season include the 9–1 home win against Wigan Athletic, with Defoe scoring five, a record win in the top flight for the club,[268] and a 2–1 against Arsenal, with goals from Bale and debutant Danny Rose, giving them their first Premier League victory against their rivals.[269] Spurs finished the 2009–10 season in fourth place, and reached the qualifying rounds of the Champions League for the first time in their history.[270] In the 2010–11 season, they qualified for the group stages of the Champions League,[271] came top of their group and went on to beat A.C. Milan 1–0 on aggregate in the knockout stage.[272] At the quarter-finals, Spurs suffered a heavy defeat against Real Madrid after Crouch was sent off early in the game, and the 10-men team was beaten 4–0 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, and 5–0 on aggregate.[273][274] Earlier in the season they won at the Emirates with goals from van der Vaart and Bale, their first win at Arsenal in 17 years.[267]

At the start of the 2011–12 season, the home league game to Everton was cancelled because of rioting in Tottenham a week before the game, and Spurs then lost the next two games.[275][276] Tottenham managed to record ten wins and one draw in their next eleven Premier League matches,[277] and finished the season in fourth place in the Premier League but failed to qualify for the Champions League.[278] On 13 June 2012, after brief contract renewal talks during which Redknapp and the Tottenham board failed to agree terms, Redknapp was dismissed by the club.[279]

Following Redknapp's departure, the club appointed former Chelsea and Porto coach André Villas-Boas as manager. Shortly after his appointment, the club pipped Liverpool for the signature of Swansea City midfielder Gylfi Sigurðsson. Several days later, the club also resolved the protracted transfer saga surrounding Ajax defender Jan Vertonghen.[280] They were soon followed by Hugo Lloris and Mousa Dembélé, while Modric left for Real Madrid.[281] In the 2012–13 season, they finished fifth. Despite winning a dramatic match against Sunderland with a goal from Gareth Bale in the final match of the season, Arsenal won their last match to take the 2013–14 Champions League spot, and Spurs dropped to the Europa League for the second successive season.[282] In their concurrent 2012–13 Europa League campaign, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Swiss side Basel on penalties.[283]

At the beginning of the 2013–14 season, Bale moved to Real Madrid for what was then a world record transfer fee of €100.8 million (£85.1 million).[284] This money paid for several players signed in that transfer window, including Christian Eriksen and Erik Lamela.[281] Following a 6–0 defeat against Manchester City and a 5–0 defeat against Liverpool, Villas-Boas was dismissed from his role on 16 December 2013.[285] A week later, former Spurs player Tim Sherwood became Villas-Boas' replacement as manager as a stopgap measure.[286][287] Although Sherwood led Spurs to a sixth-place finish in the Premier League,[288] his results against the top teams were disappointing, and he was sacked on 13 May 2014.[287][289]

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

The construction of a new stadium was initiated at on land adjacent to White Hart Lane in 2015.[304] The new stadium has a seating capacity of 62,062, considerably greater than the 36,000 of White Hart Lane. A section of the North Stand was removed to allow building work on the new stadium to proceed next to the old stadium.[305] The removal of part of the stand reduced the capacity of the stadium, and European matches were held at Wembley Stadium for the 2016–17 season to comply with the ticketing requirement for European games.[306] A club attendance record of 85,512 spectators was reported for the 2016–17 UEFA Champions League game against Bayer Leverkusen, which Spurs lost 1–0.[307] Spurs played their last game at White Hart Lane on 14 May 2017, a 2–1 victory over Manchester United that secured their second place in the Premier League.[308]

In the summer of 2017, White Hart Lane was demolished to allow the new stadium to be completed, and all Tottenham's home games were played at Wembley for the 2017–18 season.[309] As the stadium has a higher capacity, this season saw a series of record attendances for Premier League games, the highest at the North London Derby on 10 February 2018 when 83,222 spectators witnessed Spurs' 1–0 win over Arsenal.[310][311][312] Tottenham failed to make any new signings in the summer transfer window of 2018, the first club not to do so in the Premier League.[313] They also failed to sign anyone in the next transfer window in January.[314] They nevertheless had their best start in the Premier League in the 2018–19 season,[315] ended by a home defeat against Manchester City.[316] After some delay, the new stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, was completed and opened on 3 April 2019.[317] The first game at the stadium, the Premier League game against Crystal Palace, was won by Tottenham 2–0, with Son Heung-min scoring the first-ever official goal at the new stadium.[318]

Tottenham started the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League poorly, gaining only one point in the first three games of the group stage.[319] They managed to qualified for the knockout phase with a late equalising goal against Barcelona.[320] After beating Borussia Dortmund in the Round of 16, the team staged a dramatic win on away goals (4–4 on aggregate) against Manchester City in the quarter-final,[321][322] followed by a last-gasp victory over Ajax in the dying seconds of the semi-final, achieved with a hat-trick by Lucas Moura to overcome a 3–0 deficit on aggregate in the second half of the return leg. Tottenham reached their first ever Champions League final.[323][324] However, they were beaten 2–0 in an uninspiring final, and finished runners-up.[325]