‘I CAN’T STAND THE NONSENSE THAT GOES ON NOW’
Steve Perryman looks back on 50 years in the game:
GOODBYE, Mr Tottenham. Seldom, if ever, has a halfcentury in football commanded such affection and universal respect.
Fittingly, Steve Perryman bowed out, after 50 years as a player, manager and director of football, at Wembley.
He played there in front of 100,000 fans for England schoolboys against Scotland in 1967, drove past it every day for 20 years on his way to training at Tottenham and lifted the FA Cup two years running as Spurs captain before taking his final curtain at Exeter’s League Two play-off defeat by Coventry.
Perryman won the FA Cup, UEFA Cup and League Cup twice each in 854 games for Tottenham, but he was revered way beyond his north London constituency.
He was the bloke next door who played football with endearing honesty, ran half a dozen sports shops and became a working-class hero as Tottenham’s greatest captain since Danny Blanchflower.
“It’s too easy to call people heroes these days,” said Perryman at home in Devon, holding court in a living room as spotless and ordered as his playing career. “A hero is someone who goes in the trenches and doesn’t get fed for three days, but there is always room in life for a code of honour.
“I was lucky to be brought up in a culture of football integrity at Tottenham – from Bill Nicholson and Eddie Baily to Keith Burkinshaw and Peter Shreeves – which stood me in good stead and gave me longevity in the game.
“But I can’t be party to a lot of the nonsense that goes on now. If we’re going to play this game, let’s do it right.”
At 66, Perryman is thankful for what he achieved and has no pangs of regret about the titles or England caps that passed him by.
It is six years since he collapsed, at Exeter’s final game of the season, and spent three weeks in a coma after being airlifted to hospital for life-saving heart surgery.
He laughs at the memory of being transferred, drifting in and out of consciousness and “wires hanging out all over the place” when he was wheeled into a lift by porters and an obtuse Exeter fan, who happened to be in the same elevator, leaning over to demand: “Are we going to sign a centreforward, or what?”
With time on his hands, Perryman will be a more frequent visitor to his spiritual home in N17.
He said: “I’m going to attend more Tottenham games – I want to go back home where I feel truly respected because I like the north London opinion on football. We’re not all on the same side in that part of the world, but we are on the same wavelength.
“When I was ill, my wife didn’t let me have the phone for six months, and when I went through all the messages and emails, it was humbling.
“I wish Ray Wilkins had read and heard some of the things that were said about him before he passed away, because not only did I dodge the bullet, but I got the chance to read what people were saying.
“The most respectful message of all came from three friends who said, ‘Dear Steve, get well soon, blah, blah, blah, best wishes... and it might surprise you to learn we are Arsenal supporters, but we know a good opponent when we see one.’ That’ll do for me.
“Although I’m a west London boy by birth, that’s why I regard north London as home: They don’t give you any bull **** , they tell you how it is and they know if you’re on it, and I was on it at Tottenham.
“Without blowing my own trumpet, I always felt that these were my people and I was representing them on the pitch.
“What have I learned most from 50 years in football? Above all, you have to be true to yourself, and when I got a blood clot on my lung at Christmas, I knew it was time to be sensible.”
Naturally, there are aspects of the grand old game Perryman won’t miss – dark arts, people spouting drivel on the airwaves and interminable coach journeys prominent among them. “I won’t miss the lack of respect to wonderful managers like Arsene Wenger from people I considered good professionals,” he said. “He deserved better than twofaced comments saying he should resign one minute and what a great manager he was the next.
“And I won’t miss this modern blight of ‘game management’, which I detest – it’s one of the worst things I’ve witnessed in football.
“People pay hard-earned money to watch matches, and they are being cheated by ways of keeping the ball out of play.
“I’m talking about managers who tell the ballboys not to give the ball back so quickly when their teams are winning, goalkeepers taking a minute over every goal kick, players rolling around feigning injury, substitutions taking forever. If football has come to all that, you count me out.”
After Perryman’s retirement, football is another good man down.