Bravehearts of White Hart Lane
As Spurs’ 118-year stay at their storied ground comes to an end, Stewart Fisher hears of the role Scots have played in the North London club’s success
WHILE the memories c rea ted there live on, there is often something spiritual and ceremonial about a football club saying farewell to its ancestral home. Who could forget Thierry Henry’s hat-trick before the bulldozers demolished the old clock end at Highbury, or the bubbles which blew at the Boleyn Ground last year?
Now, after today’s match against Manchester United, it is their London rivals Spurs who are moving on to a better place, even if the emerging new structure which will house them from season 2018-19 is only a stone’s throw away.
John White was the original ghost of White Hart Lane. Before he tragically passed away at the age of 27, struck by lightning as he sheltered under a tree at a golf course in Enfield, this inside left from Midlothian had won 22 caps for Scotland, been an ever-present in Spurs’ historic double-winning team under Bill Nicholson and scored a goal as they became the first British team to lift a European trophy, the 1963 European Cup Winners’ Cup.
Rob White, John’s son, was only six months old when he died, but commented: “For a lot of people, going to White Hart Lane is a bit like how American Indians visit their burial grounds – it is somewhere you go to connect, a spiritual experience.
“Although they are only moving down the road which is brilliant, it will be a massive change. I think there will be a lot of lost souls there today, people who have been going to that ground for 40 years or more.”
If Tottenham Hotspur, as a club, have rarely managed to live up to that double-winning glory – despite a decent run at things both this year and last – this Scottish strand in the club’s history has lived on through the likes of Dave MacKay, Steve Archibald, Richard Gough and Alan Hutton.
“There was a period where every Spurs team which won a trophy had a Scottish player in it,” White said. “If you trace it right back to the start of the club, one of the men who founded the club was a Scotsman. A guy called John Cameron, who instigated setting up the team. My dad left me a Spurs fan and a Scotland fan, which hasn’t really served very well, but rather that than an Arsenal fan and an England fan!
“You try to put yourself into his shoes at the age of 20, 21, coming down from Falkirk must have been a big deal. If you come from Musselburgh, even if you know Edinburgh, the culture shock of coming into Kings Cross must have been even bigger.
“The first season he was there he was still doing his national service, so he was playing, travelling back up to Berwick and doing what he had to.
“That double-winning team are a hard act to follow. In fact, from a very selfish point of view, even if Spurs had won the double this season I would have had mixed emotions. But the general consensus from fans is that this is a very fitting team to say goodbye to White Hart Lane.”
As it was, Chelsea clinched the Barclays Premier League title on Friday night and there was no shame in Spurs just falling short.
“The cup semi-final epitomised that,” said White. “Chelsea could bring Hazard and Costa off the bench at half-time to make the difference and we couldn’t quite do that. But what is great about [Mauricio] Pochettino is that he is bringing back a bit of the mindset Nicholson had and if, God willing, we could keep him that would be great. For a while we have been in the shadow of Arsenal, but what I am referring to is the professionalism we have brought in. He wants other teams to fear playing Tottenham.”
Perhaps it put to bed once and for all the Sir Alex Ferguson quote delivered when 3-0 down at half time in one of this ground’s most famous matches. Inspiring his United team to a 5-3 victory, he is reported to have said: “Come on lads, it’s Tottenham.”
There was a period where every Spurs team which won a trophy had a Scottish player in it