- May 12, 2010
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Always thought it was Teddy in that Hoddle team.
If you want to tag a user Cas, just type an ampersand and then type the first few characters of the member you want to tag. A list will come up and you can select or you can continue typing.Great job OP (I don't know how to tag) I always thought David Howells was a captain, guess he was our Hojbjerg back in the day.
Didn't know Danny was captain twice - very interesting.
Yeah I didn't know either. Basically what happened was he was signed by Arthur Rowe who was big (some would say the inventor) on push and run (essentially football based on the exchange of quick short passes) but Rowe became ill shortly after his signing, it's not clear when he was given captaincy, and if Rowe's replacement Anderson did so, or Rowe himself did when unwell. But Rowe signed him to be his future captain as Alf Ramsey was coming to the end of his career.Excellent
2 points from me
1. Blanchflower twice - I didnt know that
2. Gough - captain for 1 season then left?
I'll look into it.I’m pretty sure Ray Clemence had a period as club captain. He took over in 1985/86, when Steve Perryman left for Oxford, and continued into 1986/87 until David Pleat switched the captaincy to Richard Gough part way through the season.
I'll look into it.
Ok there does seem to be a gap, it seems Perryman left on March the previous season. I, however, can't find anything explicitly saying it was Ray Clemence who took the role.
For the few months at the end of the 1985/1986 season you would think Graham Roberts would be the obvious choice, assuming he was still getting games, and I know he captained the side in the UEFA cup but that was through injuries rather than a full-time position. However, it might just be no one got that role permanently until Gough. I'm looking for anything on Clemence, but nothing yet.
Perfect that's awesome.I’d need to find my 1986/87 Handbook for final proof however this blog has videos from various games that season - and you can see Clemence wearing the armband in matches before Christmas
A Moment in Time - 1986-87 When Tottenham Almost Won the Treble
It could be argued this was Tottenham’s finest season since the double in 1960-61, although Harry Redknapp might be one to argue. ...franklymrspencer.blogspot.com
I’ve also found the attached image of the Liverpool v Spurs programme where Ray is listed as captain (with Roberts also in the team)
Additionally, this article from the club website mentions Gough becoming captain in January 1987
https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2018/august/catching-up-with-richard-gough/
Possibly, but if he did it would have been as cover for Redknapps injuries rather than full time.Did Naybet ever captain the side (although he wasn’t at the club for very long)?
A little research through some old programmes from the 1930s produced the following info on captains, from the team lists:
1930-31/31-32: Tom Meads
1932-33: Billy Felton
1933-34: Arthur Rowe (although Felton started the season as captain until losing his place early on)
1934-35: Arthur Rowe until having a serious injury. At first, Tom Evans took over but later it was Wally Alsford
1935-36: Les Howe
1936-37: Bill Whatley
1937-38/38-39/39-40: Willie Hall
Others did captain the team during these seasons but it seems to have been for occasional matches when the 'captain' was absent.
He was just when Ledders or Daws didn’t play! Annoys me when people thought he was captain or commentators think that Kane is captain now.Kaboul made sense as a captain. He was a leader and the first to come to a teammate's aid. There weren't too many in the squad who fit the vocal leader, approach the ref, fiery character, etc mold.
With that being said, wasn't Scott Parker captain at one point? Or am I making that up.
Indeed, and I thought to include it, but decided against it, partly because club captain is easier to deal with. Partly because Robbie Keane didn't get many games to really make the dual captaincy an issue, from a fan perspective at least. The reality is day to day wise Robbie Keane was the defacto captain way before that got formalised on his comeback.An oddity that I just remembered; Robbie Keane was made ‘First Team Captain’ when he returned from Liverpool in 2009, although Ledley remained ‘Club Captain’
On this I am going to assume Tom Evans and Alsford as stand-in captains as Rowe was still at the club at the time, maybe such a distinction wasn't so clear at the time but if I allow it I risk opening up a minefield. Unless you can find something specifically indicating more permanency to the role (even something like Rowe and, say, Alsford playing together).A little research through some old programmes from the 1930s produced the following info on captains, from the team lists:
1930-31/31-32: Tom Meads
1932-33: Billy Felton
1933-34: Arthur Rowe (although Felton started the season as captain until losing his place early on)
1934-35: Arthur Rowe until having a serious injury. At first, Tom Evans took over but later it was Wally Alsford
1935-36: Les Howe
1936-37: Bill Whatley
1937-38/38-39/39-40: Willie Hall
Others did captain the team during these seasons but it seems to have been for occasional matches when the 'captain' was absent.
Very Exciting. Very few question marks left. These are: The Billy Minter vs Thomas Clay vs Arthur Grimsdell issue. We know Grimsdell was Spurs captain from 1921 at the latest. We also know that Billy Minter was almost certainly appointed captain after the world war, before it became obvious he wasn't such a good player. Now some sources say that Clay captained Tottenham promotion in 1919/1920, however, clay is actually absent from team photo's of that season (could have been injured and was only an 11), some sources say Grimsdell led the team to promotion. So I've put clay between Minter and Grimsdell for now but not much clarity. What makes things more confusing in some sources suggest that Clay was captain for a considerable stretch of time, which confuses things even more. Either Clay became captain when Grimsdell had injury problems later in his career, or, what I think, he captained a lot of games during wartime games which I'm not counting in this list. There is very strong evidence to suggest Grimsdell also was club captain between 1920-1929, about as strong as you can get.
Other issues, was Tom Collins captain until the league was cancelled in 1915, or did someone else step in during that time. The last issue. Sources suggest that Bobby Steel was captain of Tottenham (until injury in 1912, possibly after as well). However, when actually looking into it, in archives Danny Steel, his brother, is captain in team photos, furthermore, Danny Steel's grandaughter states he was captain between 1908-1912, all evidence collaborates with this. So, the question mark is if Bobby Steel was actually made captain for a short period in 1912 before being injured and replaced with Tom Collins, or is it just a confusion, where people have confused which of the two brothers actually was captain.
The final issue is, was Walter Bull made captain after Jack Jones or was their someone in between. There is good reason to think Walter Bull might have been made captain early, he was a fairly big player, he came from Notts county a top division side, while we were still in the southern league (though tbf the football league at that time was nicknamed the northern league as very few southern teams played there), and he even represented the league in a special xi to face a Scottish league xi. He also was a reserve for the English national team, though I don't think he ever got a game. He also was out PFA representative and clearly was an important figure. Probably only Vivian Westwood was a bigger player, who never was captain even though he was a director at the club and England captain because at that time if you were in England, you didn't seem to play much club football. However he arrived in 1904, the same year Jack Jones left for Watford, so I'm not sure. I think there probably is another player in between.
EDIT; Sandy Tait was the captain before Walter Bull.
Yes very helpful. I suspect Minter was made captain at the start of 19-20 but didn't last very long. It was post war, so it wouldn't make sense that his legs got too slow.One book I have ('Spurs' by Julian Holland and written in 1957) has Bobby Steel as captain during the infamous tour of Germany in 1914 and the 1914-15 season. It adds that Minter became captain after Bobby Steel and 'when his legs got a bit too slow for first-team football he became trainer'. The same book says that Clay captained the promotion team of 1919-20, with Grimsdell taking over the captaincy in 1920. Quite when Minter captained the team isn't clear then.
Bob Goodwin's 'Essential History of Tottenham Hotspur' has Danny Steel as captain from 1907-08 to 1911-12, Tom Collins from 1912-13 to 1913-1914 and Danny Steel again in 1914-15, but I think that latter entry is wrong and it's Bobby Steel in 1914-15.
Bob Goodwin has Stanley Briggs in 1896-97, John L Jones from 1897-98 to 1903-04 (barring 1899-1900 where Jimmy McNaught gets the nod) and then Sandy Tait from 1904-05 to 1906-07, after which Danny Steel takes over. There's no mention of Walter Bull.
Julian Holland confirms Briggs as captain in 1896 (for our first season in the Southern League). He also refers to McNaught as captain until he missed a game through injury 'and never got back into the side'. His only mention of Walter Bull is that 'opponents would bounce off like boys as they rushed in to tackle him' - there's no reference to him being captain.
Hope that helps.