Blanchflower’s Tottenham were poetry in motion
EIGHT years after the first season of European football, when Real Madrid won the inaugural European Cup, British football had its first continental trophy to celebrate. Tottenham Hotspur won it, the 1963 European Cup-Winners’ Cup.
Spurs thumped Atletico Madrid 5-1 in the final in Rotterdam, Jimmy Greaves (2), John White and Terry Dyson (2) getting the Tottenham goals.
Their captain and inspiration, Danny Blanchflower, was 37 and approaching the end of his glorious decade at White Hart Lane. He was carrying an injury in Rotterdam but chose to play because Dave Mackay was unfit. It was an indication of Blanchflower’s status that he decided whether he would play, not manager Bill Nicholson.
As Greaves later recalled, Blanchflower even interrupted Nicholson’s team talk before the final. Nicholson had been praising the Atletico team, who were the holders of the cup.
‘Bill began to go through the strengths of each player, only for Danny to jump in and stop him in full flow,’ Greaves said.
‘Danny poured cold water on the merits of the Spaniards and reminded us all of our — to his mind — superior qualities as individuals and as a team. Bill Nicholson took a back seat and Spurs’ success in that final was in no small way down to Danny and the proactive stance he took in our dressing room before the game.’
Greaves called Blanchflower the ‘poet’ of Tottenham Hotspur.
Nicholson had appointed the idiosyncratic, eloquent Northern Irishman as ‘assistant to the manager’. Together they powered Tottenham to the first Double of the 20th century in 1960-61, then to the FA Cup again in 1962 and on to European success.
These were Spurs’ glory years. Bus parades were regular. Blanchflower was voted Footballer of the Year in 1958 and 1961.
As league champions in 1961, Tottenham went into the following season’s European Cup and reached the semi-final. There they lost to the eventual winners, Benfica, 4-3 on aggregate.
Spurs had three goals disallowed over the two legs but Blanchflower, whose brother Jackie was at Manchester United where his playing career was ended by injuries suffered in the Munich air crash, said: ‘ Spurs lost a semi-final but United had lost a team.’
The Benfica second leg came five days after Spurs had beaten United in the semi-final of the FA Cup and they went on to defeat Burnley 3-1 in the 1962 final. That brought a place in the Cupwinners’ Cup, a competition begun in 1960 offering a European stage to domestic Cup winners.
Rangers had been beaten in the first final by Fiorentina and now Spurs drew the Glasgow club in the first round, winning 8-4 on aggregate. Slovan Bratislava and Belgrade club OFK were then overcome to set up the final with holders Atletico.
Atletico were favourites, particularly with Mackay out for Spurs and Blanchflower nursing a knee twisted in Glasgow. But thanks to Blanchflower’s team talk and his aura on the pitch, Tottenham were 2-0 ahead by half-time.
Atletico scored immediately after half-time but following a period of Spanish pressure, Tottenham pulled away. ‘ We finished the thing off properly,’ Blanchflower said, adding of his own performance: ‘It was the last really good match I played.’
By the end of 1963 his playing days were over and he retired aged 38. Again his situation paled beside the tragedy of John White, killed at 27 by a bolt of lightning while playing golf in Enfield.
As Cup-Winners’ Cup holders, Spurs were back in the competition and drew England’s 1963 FA Cup winners United in the second round. In front of more than 57,000 at White Hart Lane, Spurs won the first leg 2-0. But United took revenge a week later at Old Trafford, winning 4-1.
For Spurs, there would be a return to the competition after the 1967 FA Cup final win over Chelsea. That was ended by Lyon in the second round.
There was greater progress in 1982 when Tottenham reached the semi- final only to lose to Barcelona. Having retained the FA Cup Spurs were back in Europe in 1983 but were well beaten by Bayern Munich early on.
When they regained the FA Cup in 1991, it brought another return to the competition but Tottenham lost to Feyenoord in the last eight. With the expansion of the Champions League, the Cup-Winners’ Cup lost prestige and became a casualty in 1999, Lazio being the last winners. Today there are only two European trophies but the way Mauricio Pochettino’s team has played brings hope of a breakthrough almost as historic in feel as that 1963 triumph.