‘So Gascoigne climbs up on to the stand to clear pigeons – and falls right through’
White Hart Lane enjoys its last hurrah today. Jonathan Liew hears some cherished memories
The legend
Gary Mabbutt 1982-1998 One of my highlights was winning the Uefa Cup in 1984 and receiving the trophy at White Hart Lane. I remember that after the game, we all went out on to the balcony and the whole of the High Road was filled with tens of thousands of Spurs fans. It was about midnight and they had to close the road. Those memories are still fresh in the mind. It’s strange. I have been involved with the club for 35 years, which is almost a third of the whole time White Hart Lane has been there. In one way it is going to be a very sad day. But we are also intending it to be a celebration of what has been achieved there.
The manager
David Pleat
1986-1987
2003-2004 (caretaker manager)
A favourite memory? There are too many. Beating West Ham United in February 1987 was fantastic. We played them off the park. We beat them 4-0 in the league on Boxing Day, and then about five weeks later we played them again in an FA Cup replay and won 5-0. We had a wonderful team, and my abiding memory of White Hart Lane will be that Tottenham Hotspur teams, over the years, have fully embraced Danny Blanchflower’s memorial. The game is about glory. We can win a boring 1-0, and that’s fine. But to entertain and to win, that’s what counts. This club has always been about glory, which Mauricio Pochettino has done magnificently this season.
The stalwart
David Howells 1980-1998 After training, we always used to go back to White Hart Lane and spend some time there, have a card game, mooch around with the groundsmen. One day the head groundsman was having terrible problems with pigeons pooing everywhere. So Paul Gascoigne climbs right to the upper echelon of the stand to get rid of them. The stand was being redeveloped, and he has gone through a plank of rotten old wood and fallen through. He was hanging from the girders about 40ft up. We managed to save him, or else it could have got quite nasty.
The commentator
Martin Tyler Sky Sports In 1983, Glenn Hoddle was coming back from injury and he had to prove his fitness in a reserve game to play against Bayern Munich in the Uefa Cup. But then the game got called off. At the time we had a commentators’ team, and we had arranged to play a match against the Tottenham coaching staff. So they called up and said: “Do you mind if Glenn plays?” So I had the experience of playing against Glenn Hoddle in his pomp – and, of course, he had to play properly, as well. We were all over the place. They won something like 9-3. But it was a real privilege.
The fan
Sarah Bassett
Paxton Upper, 2004-2017
Jan 22, 2008. Spurs 5 Arsenal 1 in the semi-final of the League Cup. I had never seen us beat them, and I don’t think we had done so since 1999. I have never skydived, but I have been on enough roller coasters to know that nothing prepared me for the rush of putting five goals past our greatest rivals. It stands out even more because it was my father’s birthday, and I just felt so ridiculously happy for him, because we did not foresee a pleasant day for him, or for any of the White Hart Lane faithful. It was the best present that I could have ever wished for him.