BoringOldFan
It's better to burn out than to fade away...
- Sep 20, 2005
- 9,955
- 2,498
As it's the international break and no Spurs games for a couple of weeks, here's a write up of another legends evening I went to a few months back.
“I’m a bit different – I tell the truth!”
The words of Graham Roberts, two-times FA Cup winner and UEFA Cup winning Tottenham captain. From 1980 to 1986 he scored 23 goals in 209 league appearances and 12 goals in various FA, League and UEFA Cup appearances.
On Friday 8 June he met up with some fans at Cheshunt FC to talk about old times and new.
Bygone Days
Where better to start than in the past? Graham Roberts joined us from Weymouth, and his opening comment was that clubs don’t look at non-league teams now. He had a lot memories about our illustrious Argentines, who were already at Spurs when he joined.
“Ricky and Ossie loved playing cards. They took all our money! Ricky was a better football player – when we had five-a-side games in training, no one could get the ball off him.”
“After the first game in the 1981 Cup final, Keith Burkinshaw came into the changing room and told Ricky that he would be first on the team sheet for the replay. So having been so down after being taken off, Ricky was really happy. That showed what a good man manager Keith was.”
“Before my hat trick against Southampton, I went to see John Syer. He was brought in by Keith Burkinshaw to help with the mental part of our game. He would get us to visualise the game we were about to play and think how it would pan out.”
“Steve Perryman taught me how to be a professional player. He was the most under-rated player ever. He only played two minutes for England, in an away game in Iceland.”
“Steve Archibald was a miserable bastard. Everything had to be perfect for him. We used to room together on away trips. Eventually he fell out with Keith over money.”
“We had a great team spirit. That’s why we were successful, it wouldn’t happen now. I enjoyed every game I played for Tottenham”
“I was a good goalscorer. In one season I scored 25 goals for Chelsea. [the records show he got 22 in his career there].”
The UEFA Cup Final
“To captain Spurs in the UEFA Cup final will live with me for the rest of my life. We started without Clemence, Crooks, Ardiles, Perryman and Hoddle.”
“Before the UEFA Cup final, the players had a meeting. ITV were broadcasting the game live and the club was getting £1 million. Steve went to see Irving Scholar to see how much the players would get. Scholar said we would get nothing. So we decided we wouldn’t play. Fine said Scholar, I’ll play the youth team. So after the training session on the day before the match, the players went home. At 12.20pm on the day of the game, Scholar changed his mind.”
“I still think I’ll miss when I see myself shoot on TV!”
“We gave away a sloppy goal. Ossie hit the bar and Micky Hazard crosses the ball. If you look, you’ll see Mark Falco pushes their centre half out of the way, it came to me and I side-footed it in.”
“I wasn’t nervous when I went up to take my penalty. It would have been worse if we were playing away. When Danny Thomas missed his penalty, I could have killed him. Tony Parks had been diving the same way for all the penalties. But at the last moment he changed his mind and saved the last kick.”
“We knew in our hearts that we’d win the Cup.”
“I thought we’d win the UEFA Cup again this year [2006/07]. But the tactics in the second game [home to Seville] slaughtered us.”
High Jinks in Jersey
GR had a great story to tell about one of the close season tours.
Peter Shreeves took the squad to Jersey. He decided to get cars instead of one coach for the players. The speed limit there is 40mph [I think you can see where this is going]. One day Clive Allen and Mark Falco decided to play tennis. Graham was in a car with Ossie and Glenn and caught up with them at a set of traffic lights. They could see a traffic cop on the other side of the junction.
Graham winds down the window and says to Falco “We’ll race you!” So as the lights turn green, Falco and Allen shoot off, while the Roberts car pulls away at a more sedate speed.
The traffic cop catches up with Falco and Allen, pulls them over and books them. Roberts claimed that no one told Peter Shreeves and they were left in jail for three days!
Shreeves Out Pleat In
“Peter Shreeves had just been sacked and I was at home cutting the lawn when my wife called out “Your manager is on the phone”. It was David Pleat, who told me “You’re not my sort of player and I’m going to sell you”. I put the phone down and went back to the lawn.
After that I trained my hardest to prove him wrong. I got into midfield and he couldn’t keep me out. We played at Manchester United and drew three-all. Then at 4.15 in the morning, Pleat called me to say I’d been sold to Rangers. He wouldn’t even let me back in to collect my boots.”
The Point Of No Return
Graham Roberts almost re-signed for Tottenham in 1988 after his time at Rangers. Chris Waddle had told him that the club wanted him back, so Graham went along to see them pre-season when they were playing a friendly at Dundee. After the game though, all he got was a wave from Terry Venables as he disappeared up the tunnel.
Roberts went on to sign for Chelsea and was voted their player of the year in 1989.
Spurs Today
“Football is quicker now but there isn’t enough skill. The steel? Ledley King is fantastic; we need a left back and a centre back. Bale is a great left back – a fantastic player. Zokora is alright. I’m not a Jenas fan, he doesn’t do enough. Huddlestone is one or two stone overweight. He can’t get near anyone, people just play around him.”
Paul Robinson refused to sign an autograph for on of Graham’s boys, so he doesn’t think much of him.
“Pat Jennings coaches Robinson and wants him to roll the ball out. In Keith Burkinshaw’s day, he refused to let Ray Clemence and Milja Aleksic kick the ball out.”
“Someone needs to get hold of Aaron Lennon and teach him how to cross. If they don’t he’ll just drift away. Jermain Defoe wants to leave and his heart’s not in it. Players need to have the manager’s confidence.”
“Spurs aren’t good enough to shut up shop when they’re leading.”
“I would sell Berbatov if someone came in with a bid of £50 million. Manchester United offered Saha, O’Shea and £15 million for Berbatov. Tottenham will always sell – they’re in that mould. The next step up is the Champions League, not a trophy.”
“My teams are Spurs first, then Rangers and then Chelsea. Spurs will never have a team like the one in the 80s. “
Tale of Bonnie Scotland
“I’ve no regrets about conducting the singing for Rangers fans against Celtic. I had to go in goal after Chris Woods was sent off. We went in 2-0 down at half time. Graeme Souness said to us “Calm down, you’ll get back in the game”.
Then in the second half All McCoist scored. After we got a free kick, Terry Butcher fell on their goalkeeper and was sent off so we were down to 9 men. Richard Gough equalised and we drew 2-2.
After the game, Frank McAvennie, Terry Butcher, Chris Woods and me were locked up in jail.
After Rangers had won 1-0 at Celtic, Ally McCoist asked the coach driver to go home the long route – past all the Celtic pubs. It took over an hour for a normal 15 minute journey. We spent the time playing cards – and Ally usually won every hand.
Ally had his can of Tennants, and when he went to the toilet at the back of the coach, Mark Hately pissed in it!”
Why Management?
“I enjoyed it. Carshalton. Yeovil and Borham Wood won the league and Enfield won the Cup.
When I arrived at Clyde, I had two players. So I put an ad in The Sun and over two thousand people answered it. I looked at the CVs and got 64 players in for trials. I kept 32 of those for pre-season then had to let 12 go.
It’s the hardest job in the world, telling a player that you’re not keeping him. It happened to me three times.
I never cared about money. I was full-time on £130 a week. But we still beat Celtic and took Rangers to extra time. The chairman asked me why I didn’t let Celtic equalise – he said we would have made half a million from the replay!
I left at the end of the season and I wouldn’t go back into management.”
Various Bests
“My best goal was the one I scored against Bruges from about 35 yards. Mind you, most of my goals were scored from 35 yards – I didn’t get many in the penalty area! But the one I enjoyed more was against Neville Southall when we lost 1-2 to Everton.”
“Putting Charlie Nicholas into the stand was the best moment of my life. I nudged him and he went into the stad, while I carried on and ended up in their dug-out. Their physio asked me if I was alright. I said “Yeah”. He replied “Well you ain’t now!” and landed an upper cut on me!”
Toughest opponent? “All of them. But the hardest player I played against was Billy Whitehouse of Sheffield United. I hit him and he went down. Then he got up and asked “Is that your best?” I knew then I was in trouble!”
“I enjoyed playing with Maxi [Paul] Miller. He knew how to defend and was a good talker.”
Dirtiest player? “Kenny Dalglish. Big time.”
Biggest wind-up merchant? “They all were at Spurs. When Terry Gibson got into the team, the lads rubbed Algepan onto his shirt. He went out to warm up and by the time he came back his face was red raw.”
Ally McCoist once put Ajax in Andy Goram’s bath. His skin started peeling off. The club doctor – who was in on it – told Andy that he’d caught a disease.
Best Manager? “[England manager] Bobby Robson couldn’t remember your name. Don Howe did all the tactics. Keith Burkinshaw was good – David Pleat was hopeless – Trevor Hartley did his tactical talk. Bobby Gould was a good motivator, but Ian Porterfield did the tactics there.”
“Walter Smith and Peter Shreeves were both very good.”
Legends Of The Lane
Graham ended the evening by saying that he and Neville (the organiser) were planning to have Q&A sessions before home games to raise money for the old players. They would run from 11am to 2pm and have food and drink. Graham said they hoped to attract between 500 and 600 people at £10 a head. The planned venue is the Royale, opposite Northumberland Road.
“I’m a bit different – I tell the truth!”
The words of Graham Roberts, two-times FA Cup winner and UEFA Cup winning Tottenham captain. From 1980 to 1986 he scored 23 goals in 209 league appearances and 12 goals in various FA, League and UEFA Cup appearances.
On Friday 8 June he met up with some fans at Cheshunt FC to talk about old times and new.
Bygone Days
Where better to start than in the past? Graham Roberts joined us from Weymouth, and his opening comment was that clubs don’t look at non-league teams now. He had a lot memories about our illustrious Argentines, who were already at Spurs when he joined.
“Ricky and Ossie loved playing cards. They took all our money! Ricky was a better football player – when we had five-a-side games in training, no one could get the ball off him.”
“After the first game in the 1981 Cup final, Keith Burkinshaw came into the changing room and told Ricky that he would be first on the team sheet for the replay. So having been so down after being taken off, Ricky was really happy. That showed what a good man manager Keith was.”
“Before my hat trick against Southampton, I went to see John Syer. He was brought in by Keith Burkinshaw to help with the mental part of our game. He would get us to visualise the game we were about to play and think how it would pan out.”
“Steve Perryman taught me how to be a professional player. He was the most under-rated player ever. He only played two minutes for England, in an away game in Iceland.”
“Steve Archibald was a miserable bastard. Everything had to be perfect for him. We used to room together on away trips. Eventually he fell out with Keith over money.”
“We had a great team spirit. That’s why we were successful, it wouldn’t happen now. I enjoyed every game I played for Tottenham”
“I was a good goalscorer. In one season I scored 25 goals for Chelsea. [the records show he got 22 in his career there].”
The UEFA Cup Final
“To captain Spurs in the UEFA Cup final will live with me for the rest of my life. We started without Clemence, Crooks, Ardiles, Perryman and Hoddle.”
“Before the UEFA Cup final, the players had a meeting. ITV were broadcasting the game live and the club was getting £1 million. Steve went to see Irving Scholar to see how much the players would get. Scholar said we would get nothing. So we decided we wouldn’t play. Fine said Scholar, I’ll play the youth team. So after the training session on the day before the match, the players went home. At 12.20pm on the day of the game, Scholar changed his mind.”
“I still think I’ll miss when I see myself shoot on TV!”
“We gave away a sloppy goal. Ossie hit the bar and Micky Hazard crosses the ball. If you look, you’ll see Mark Falco pushes their centre half out of the way, it came to me and I side-footed it in.”
“I wasn’t nervous when I went up to take my penalty. It would have been worse if we were playing away. When Danny Thomas missed his penalty, I could have killed him. Tony Parks had been diving the same way for all the penalties. But at the last moment he changed his mind and saved the last kick.”
“We knew in our hearts that we’d win the Cup.”
“I thought we’d win the UEFA Cup again this year [2006/07]. But the tactics in the second game [home to Seville] slaughtered us.”
High Jinks in Jersey
GR had a great story to tell about one of the close season tours.
Peter Shreeves took the squad to Jersey. He decided to get cars instead of one coach for the players. The speed limit there is 40mph [I think you can see where this is going]. One day Clive Allen and Mark Falco decided to play tennis. Graham was in a car with Ossie and Glenn and caught up with them at a set of traffic lights. They could see a traffic cop on the other side of the junction.
Graham winds down the window and says to Falco “We’ll race you!” So as the lights turn green, Falco and Allen shoot off, while the Roberts car pulls away at a more sedate speed.
The traffic cop catches up with Falco and Allen, pulls them over and books them. Roberts claimed that no one told Peter Shreeves and they were left in jail for three days!
Shreeves Out Pleat In
“Peter Shreeves had just been sacked and I was at home cutting the lawn when my wife called out “Your manager is on the phone”. It was David Pleat, who told me “You’re not my sort of player and I’m going to sell you”. I put the phone down and went back to the lawn.
After that I trained my hardest to prove him wrong. I got into midfield and he couldn’t keep me out. We played at Manchester United and drew three-all. Then at 4.15 in the morning, Pleat called me to say I’d been sold to Rangers. He wouldn’t even let me back in to collect my boots.”
The Point Of No Return
Graham Roberts almost re-signed for Tottenham in 1988 after his time at Rangers. Chris Waddle had told him that the club wanted him back, so Graham went along to see them pre-season when they were playing a friendly at Dundee. After the game though, all he got was a wave from Terry Venables as he disappeared up the tunnel.
Roberts went on to sign for Chelsea and was voted their player of the year in 1989.
Spurs Today
“Football is quicker now but there isn’t enough skill. The steel? Ledley King is fantastic; we need a left back and a centre back. Bale is a great left back – a fantastic player. Zokora is alright. I’m not a Jenas fan, he doesn’t do enough. Huddlestone is one or two stone overweight. He can’t get near anyone, people just play around him.”
Paul Robinson refused to sign an autograph for on of Graham’s boys, so he doesn’t think much of him.
“Pat Jennings coaches Robinson and wants him to roll the ball out. In Keith Burkinshaw’s day, he refused to let Ray Clemence and Milja Aleksic kick the ball out.”
“Someone needs to get hold of Aaron Lennon and teach him how to cross. If they don’t he’ll just drift away. Jermain Defoe wants to leave and his heart’s not in it. Players need to have the manager’s confidence.”
“Spurs aren’t good enough to shut up shop when they’re leading.”
“I would sell Berbatov if someone came in with a bid of £50 million. Manchester United offered Saha, O’Shea and £15 million for Berbatov. Tottenham will always sell – they’re in that mould. The next step up is the Champions League, not a trophy.”
“My teams are Spurs first, then Rangers and then Chelsea. Spurs will never have a team like the one in the 80s. “
Tale of Bonnie Scotland
“I’ve no regrets about conducting the singing for Rangers fans against Celtic. I had to go in goal after Chris Woods was sent off. We went in 2-0 down at half time. Graeme Souness said to us “Calm down, you’ll get back in the game”.
Then in the second half All McCoist scored. After we got a free kick, Terry Butcher fell on their goalkeeper and was sent off so we were down to 9 men. Richard Gough equalised and we drew 2-2.
After the game, Frank McAvennie, Terry Butcher, Chris Woods and me were locked up in jail.
After Rangers had won 1-0 at Celtic, Ally McCoist asked the coach driver to go home the long route – past all the Celtic pubs. It took over an hour for a normal 15 minute journey. We spent the time playing cards – and Ally usually won every hand.
Ally had his can of Tennants, and when he went to the toilet at the back of the coach, Mark Hately pissed in it!”
Why Management?
“I enjoyed it. Carshalton. Yeovil and Borham Wood won the league and Enfield won the Cup.
When I arrived at Clyde, I had two players. So I put an ad in The Sun and over two thousand people answered it. I looked at the CVs and got 64 players in for trials. I kept 32 of those for pre-season then had to let 12 go.
It’s the hardest job in the world, telling a player that you’re not keeping him. It happened to me three times.
I never cared about money. I was full-time on £130 a week. But we still beat Celtic and took Rangers to extra time. The chairman asked me why I didn’t let Celtic equalise – he said we would have made half a million from the replay!
I left at the end of the season and I wouldn’t go back into management.”
Various Bests
“My best goal was the one I scored against Bruges from about 35 yards. Mind you, most of my goals were scored from 35 yards – I didn’t get many in the penalty area! But the one I enjoyed more was against Neville Southall when we lost 1-2 to Everton.”
“Putting Charlie Nicholas into the stand was the best moment of my life. I nudged him and he went into the stad, while I carried on and ended up in their dug-out. Their physio asked me if I was alright. I said “Yeah”. He replied “Well you ain’t now!” and landed an upper cut on me!”
Toughest opponent? “All of them. But the hardest player I played against was Billy Whitehouse of Sheffield United. I hit him and he went down. Then he got up and asked “Is that your best?” I knew then I was in trouble!”
“I enjoyed playing with Maxi [Paul] Miller. He knew how to defend and was a good talker.”
Dirtiest player? “Kenny Dalglish. Big time.”
Biggest wind-up merchant? “They all were at Spurs. When Terry Gibson got into the team, the lads rubbed Algepan onto his shirt. He went out to warm up and by the time he came back his face was red raw.”
Ally McCoist once put Ajax in Andy Goram’s bath. His skin started peeling off. The club doctor – who was in on it – told Andy that he’d caught a disease.
Best Manager? “[England manager] Bobby Robson couldn’t remember your name. Don Howe did all the tactics. Keith Burkinshaw was good – David Pleat was hopeless – Trevor Hartley did his tactical talk. Bobby Gould was a good motivator, but Ian Porterfield did the tactics there.”
“Walter Smith and Peter Shreeves were both very good.”
Legends Of The Lane
Graham ended the evening by saying that he and Neville (the organiser) were planning to have Q&A sessions before home games to raise money for the old players. They would run from 11am to 2pm and have food and drink. Graham said they hoped to attract between 500 and 600 people at £10 a head. The planned venue is the Royale, opposite Northumberland Road.
