Steve Perryman: super Spur
The midfielder made a record 854 Spurs outings and lifted six trophies from 1969- 86, yet England honours eluded him
What’s the secret to staying with one club for 17 years, and did you ever come close to leaving during that time?
I’m a Londoner, albeit from the west, so was settled. We were relegated in 1977 and I felt it was my problem. I’d played in all 42 league games that season, so wasn’t going to leave Tottenham in the lurch. You need freshness in your career, but mine came from moving positions and the odd change in manager – I only had four during my time at White Hart Lane. There was one time I nearly left Spurs. Bill Nicholson decided I was worth swapping for a couple of Coventry players. He asked me if I’d ever thought about leaving, and I said yes – I thought by then that he was almost throwing a blanket over my abilities. He told me to go home and think about it, but then I came in the next day and Bill had resigned.
What do you remember about your early days breaking into Tottenham’s first team?
I got picked to face Sunderland in September 1969 after a good summer tour in America, and played well, but by the end of the month the team was failing. We had some fantastic individuals, but no one who could really get it other than Alan Mullery. That’s what I had to deliver – and I had to learn quickly. It was a hell of an era to come through – Denis Law, George Best, Bobby Charlton, Billy Bremner, Johnny Giles – and it made you grow up fast. I don’t consider myself the best footballer of all time, but I was as loyal and consistent as they come. I didn’t miss that many matches.
How intimidating was Bill Nicholson when you came into that team?
I first met him as a 15- year- old and he said, “My name’s Bill Nicholson and you only call me Bill.” It’s things like that which stay with you. Forget the name: you’re judged by your actions, not what you’re called. He was scary in the fact that you wouldn’t want to let him down. He put so much faith in you. You also knew if he said, “well done” to you, by Christ you must have done well – he didn’t throw it around lightly. He was tough, hard- nosed and didn’t give money away – he spent it like it was his own. You couldn’t treat anything lightly where the game was concerned. He would say things like, “Never turn your back on the ball unless you have eyes in the back of your f** king head.” As simple a message as that is, it stuck when delivered by him. We hear a lot about football terminology these days, but none of it has taught me anything that Bill Nicholson didn’t.
You scored 39 goals in 17 seasons at Spurs, two of them coming in the 1972 UEFA Cup semi- final first- leg against Milan. Discuss...
I think it was the only time I scored twice in a game in my whole career – what a match. Italian sides were so physically and mentally tough to play against in that era, and if you went a goal behind – which we did – you had an awful battle on your hands. The closer you got to their goal, the more brutal they were. Our frontline – Alan Gilzean, Martin Chivers, Martin Peters – were all finding it hard to get an inch. The only way we were going to score was from further out, which is exactly what happened… twice. My shots often flew about eight feet over, but thankfully they didn’t that day. We backed it up with a 1- 1 draw at San Siro before beating Wolves in the final.
Which Spurs cup final was your favourite?
The 1981 FA Cup Final replay victory against Manchester City. I’d not long joined the club when they won it in 1967, but somehow we went down in 1977. Keith Burkinshaw kept his job, we rebuilt and ended up winning the FA Cup. We got back up into the First Division straight away, but this took us back to the top in a different sense. I’ve met so many Spurs fans who were kids when Ricky Villa scored that amazing goal. They were never going to support another team after that.
So how did Spurs get relegated in 1976- 77?
It was coming for a few years and landed on Keith’s plate. Bill Nicholson’s judgement went a little towards the end, and he took too long to make some decisions. Spurs had lost their mid- 60s glamour, and all of a sudden the top players were moving on. From what I’ve read, other teams weren’t being as truthful about their transfer dealings as Spurs. They missed out by doing things the honest way.
“MY SHOTS OFTEN FLEW ABOUT EIGHT FEET OVER, BUT THANKFULLY THEY DIDN’T AGAINST MILAN”
They made up for it when Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa arrived following promotion in 1977- 78, though. Er, how?
I only found out about it by going downstairs one morning to find that ‘ SPURS SCOOP THE WORLD’ headline. Keith confided in me with 99 per cent of the stuff he did, but he didn’t tell me about this, nor that there was another player coming with him. Ossie admits Keith never told him that Tottenham had just been re- promoted to the top flight, and later said he probably wouldn’t have signed for us. We thought Ricky was going to be this animal of a player, because all we knew about him was that he’d recently smashed a Brazilian at the World Cup. He was everything but.
You won only one cap for England – is that a source of pride, annoyance or both?
I’m annoyed that I accepted it. I was Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year in ’ 82, and Ron Greenwood said I’d get a cap – but only as a favour to him. He’d pick 40 players, half of whom would travel to Finland and the others to Iceland – but he told me I wouldn’t be going to the 1982 World Cup. I was there to make up the numbers and wished I hadn’t done it; either I was good enough or I wasn’t. I went to Iceland and Bobby Robson led the team, but I think he said about four words to me over three days and I played about eight minutes. It was back- handed, disrespectful and not done right. I should have just said no.
How do you look back on your time at Spurs assisting Ossie as manager?
I fell out of love with Tottenham around that time. I went back when the Alan Sugar- Terry Venables war was over and it was a different club; football wasn’t the priority any more. Respect was lacking, and it wasn’t a good environment. When I left I should have been devastated, but I was happy. We went over to Japan after that, though, won some cups and proved everyone wrong. People say, ‘ it’s only Japan’, but Arsene Wenger had Toyota supporting him at Nagoya and he didn’t win what we did. Ossie’s the one I feel sorry for, because he’d have shown himself as one of English football’s brightest tactical minds if things had been handled a bit differently. At Spurs, he was put in a bracket that his team couldn’t defend. He took stick for it, but there was a lot going on that wasn’t his fault.
Is it true you recommended Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to Spurs in 1995?
It is. After I left, I coached Start in Norway on a short- term contract. I phoned Tottenham’s [ chief scout] John Moncur and said I’d seen someone: only on the highlights, but the way this little boy – as that’s what he looked like – scored goals, he seemed special. John went to watch him and sent me his report, saying: “Do not look at this player again.” Tottenham offered a few hundred grand; six weeks later he joined Manchester United for £ 1.5 million.
Perryman’s book, ‘ A Spur Forever’, is out now