History
From formation to the first league title
In
1882 the Hotspur Football Club was formed by grammar school boys from the bible class at
All Hallows Church. They were also members of Hotspur
Cricket Club and it is thought
that the name Hotspur was associated with Sir
Henry Percy (Sir Harry
Hotspur) who was "Harry Hotspur" of Shakespeare's
Henry IV, part 1,
and who lived locally during in the 14th century and whose descendants owned land in the
neighbourhood. The team later became Tottenham Hotspur to distinguish itself from another
team called London Hotspur.
At first Spurs played in navy blue shirts. The club colours then varied from light blue and white
halved jerseys, to red shirts and blue shorts, through chocolate brown and old gold and then
finally, in the
1899-00 season, to white shirts and navy blue shorts as a tribute to
Preston
North End, the most successful team of the time.
In
1888 Tottenham moved their home fixtures from the
Tottenham Marshes
to Northumberland Park where the club was able to charge for spectator admission. An attempt to join
an aborted
Southern League, instigated by Royal Arsenal (later
Arsenal), failed in
1892 when they were the only club of the 23 applicants to receive no votes. They turned professional
just before Christmas
1895 and were then admitted to the Southern League and attracted crowds nearing 15,000. Charles
Roberts became chairman in
1898 and stayed in post until
1943.
In
1899 Spurs made their final ground move to a former market garden in nearby High Road,
Tottenham. In time the ground became known as
White Hart Lane,
a local thoroughfare. Tottenham were the considerable beneficiaries of the escalating unionisation
of the northern professional game in the 1890s. Both
John Cameron and
John Bell, formerly
Everton players came to play for Tottenham as a result of the conflict caused by their
organisation of the Association Footballers' Union, a forerunner of the
Professional Footballers' Association. As a direct result of this in
1900, Tottenham won the
Southern League title and crowned this achievement the next year by winning the
FA Cup - becoming the only
non-League club to do so since the formation of
the Football
League. The cup was presented to Spurs captain Jack Jones with coloured ribbons on, tied there
for the first time by the wife of the Spurs director, Morton Cadman, thus starting the long held
tradition of tying ribbons in Cup competitions, which continues to this day.
Tottenham won election to the Second Division of the Football League for the
1908-09 season, immediately winning promotion as runners-up to the
First Division. Their record between
1910-1911 and the Great
War was poor and when football was suspended at the end of the
1914-15 season, Tottenham were bottom of the league.
When football resumed in
1919, the First Division was expanded from 20 to 22 teams. The Football League extended one of
the additional places to 19th-place
Chelsea (who would have
been relegated with Spurs for the 1915-1916 season) and the other to
Arsenal. This promotion
- Arsenal had finished only fifth in Division 2 the previous season - was controversial, and
cemented a bitter rivalry (begun six years earlier, with Arsenal's relocation to Tottenham's
hinterland) that continues to this day. Tottenham were
Division Two Champions in
1919-20 and in the following year, on
April 23,
1921, Spurs went all the way to their
second FA Cup Final victory beating
Wolves 1-0 at
Stamford Bridge.
After finishing second to
Liverpool in the
League in
1922, Spurs experienced a steady decline, culminating in 1928's relegation. Spurs were unable to
advance beyond the quarter finals of the FA Cup, getting that far three years running 1935-1938. On
September 3
1939, as
Neville Chamberlain
declared war, Spurs were seventh in the Second Division. League Football was abandoned for the
"duration".
Following the war, football was an extremely popular interest attracting thousands of supporters
each week-end. By 1949 Arthur
Rowe was manager at the club and developed the “push
and run” tactical style of play. This involved quickly laying the ball off to a team-mate and
running past the marking tackler to collect the return pass. It proved an effective way to move the
ball at pace with players' positions and responsibility being totally fluid. Rising to the top of
the Second Division, Tottenham ran away with their first ever league title, winning the First
Division Championship in
1951. Playing heroes included
Alf Ramsey,
Ronnie Burgess, Ted
Ditchburn, Len Duquemin,
Sonny Walters and
Bill Nicholson and
Danny
Blanchflower.
The 1960s and 1970s
Spurs shirt badge from 1967- 1983
Nicholson had joined Tottenham Hotspur as an apprentice in 1936. The following 68 years saw him
serve the club in every capacity from boot room to president. In his first game as manager on
11 October
1958, Spurs beat
Everton 10-4. This was
their record win at the time and a sign of things to come. He subsequently guided Tottenham to major
trophy success three seasons in a row in the early 1960s: the
double in 1961, the FA Cup
and European Cup
Semi-final in 1962, and the
Cup Winners' Cup
in 1963. Key players included
Danny
Blanchflower,
John White, Dave Mackay,
Cliff Jones and Jimmy
Greaves.
After 1964, the "Double" side began to disintegrate due to age, injuries and transfers. Nicholson
rebuilt a second successful team with imports like
Alan Gilzean,
Mike England,
Alan Mullery,
Terry Venables,
Joe Kinnear and
Cyril Knowles. They
beat Chelsea to win the
1967 FA Cup Final
and finished third in the league.
Nicholson added the
League Cup
(1971 and 1973) and the
UEFA Cup 1971-72
to Tottenham's illustrious history before he resigned at the start of the
1974-75 season due to both a poor start, and his disgust at seeing rioting fans in
Rotterdam in a
UEFA Cup final, which Spurs
lost.
Nicholson had won 8 major trophies in 16 years and his spell in charge was without doubt the most
glorious period in the club's history. However, what he left behind was an ageing squad and Spurs
could no longer claim to be a true force in English football. Nicholson wished to select his
replacement and lined up a 'dream team' of
Johnny Giles and Danny
Blanchflower to take over, but the Spurs board ignored his advice and appointed ex Arsenal player
Terry Neill, who narrowly
avoided relegation at the end of 1974-5. Never accepted by the fans, Neill left the club in 1976 and
was replaced by his assistant
Keith Burkinshaw
that summer.
Tottenham slipped out of the First Division at the end of the
1976-77 season, after 27 years in the top flight. This was soon followed by the unwise sale of
their
Northern Ireland international goalkeeper
Pat Jennings to arch
rivals Arsenal, a move
that shocked the club's fans and proved to be a serious error. Jennings played on for another eight
years for Spurs' rivals, while Tottenham took until 1981 to replace him with a goalkeeper of genuine
class in Ray Clemence
from Liverpool.
Despite relegation, the board kept faith with Burkinshaw and the team immediately won promotion
to the top flight. In the summer of 1978 Burkinshaw rocked the football world by signing two
Argentinian
World Cup stars
Osvaldo Ardiles
and Ricardo Villa
which was the kind of transfer coup never seen before in British football. But it took time for a
new team to be forged into a successful unit.
The 1980s
Spurs opened the 1980's on a high with an
FA Cup replay win over
Manchester
City, 3-2, thanks to Ricky Villa's memorable solo goal. They repeated against
QPR
the next season in another reason and were in contention for four domestic trophies, including the
First Division title in which they threatened Liverpool at Easter but ended up fourth. Liverpool
also denied Spurs in the League Cup Final in extra time and
Barcelona won at home
in the Cup Winners' Cup semis after a 1-1 draw at the Lane.
Key players such as
Steve Archibald,
Garth Crooks,
Glenn Hoddle,
Osvaldo Ardiles,
and long-serving Steve
Perryman inspired Tottenham to
UEFA Cup glory in 1984, but several weeks before this victory Burkinshaw announced he would be
leaving at the end of that season. Spurs had lost a manager who won three trophies in four seasons
and managed a remarkable run at the top that made Spurs a major club.
New manager Peter
Shreeves and owner
Irving Scholar took over with Shreeves managing to a third place finish in 1984-85 and slumping
the following season, while Scholar attempted to restore the club's financial fortunes.
Luton Town
manager David Pleat was
appointed the new manager, and for much of
1986-87 it looked as though it would be a very successful season. Playing with a five man
midfield (Hoddle, Ardiles,
Hodge,
Allen, Waddle)
backing Clive Allen,
Tottenham remained in contention for all domestic honours. Arsenal stopped Spurs in the League Cup
final,[1]
they missed on the first division title, and as favorites for the FA Cup over newcomers Coventry,
stumbled 3-2 in a disappointing end to a great season. Pleat quit in October 1987 following
allegations about his private life. He returned a decade later, but his short spell in charge was
one of the great 'if only' stories in the club's history. Former Spurs player
Terry Venables was
named Pleat's successor, and after two league seasons, guided the club to third place in
1989-90 and an FA Cup win in 1991. The new-look Tottenham team included two players who starred
in England's run to the semi-finals of the
1990 FIFA
World Cup – Paul
Gascoigne and Gary
Lineker.
Premier League
In 1990, a slump in the property market left chairman Scholar on the verge of
bankruptcy. Venables joined
forces with businessman Alan
Sugar to take over Tottenham Hotspur
PLC
and pay off its £20 million debt, part of which involved the sale of Gascoigne. Venables became
chief executive, with Shreeves again taking charge of first-team duties. His second spell as team
manager lasted just one season, before he was dismissed in favour of joint coaches
Ray Clemence and
Doug Livermore.
Tottenham's first
Premier League season ended with a mid-table finish and Venables was removed from the club's
board after a legal dispute with Sugar. Ossie Ardiles became the club's next manager in 1993.
Under Ardiles, Tottenham employed the Famous Five:
Teddy Sheringham
and Jurgen
Klinnsman up front, Nick
Barmby just behind,
Darren Anderton
on the right and Ilie
Dumitrescu on the left. Klinsmann was a sensation, scoring freely and becoming a firm fan
favourite. Ultimately these expensive signings made little difference to Tottenham's form and
Ardiles was sacked in September 1994.
During the 1994 close season, Tottenham was found guilty of making illegal payments to players
and given one of the most severe punishments in English football history: a 12 point deduction, a
one year FA Cup ban, and a £600,000 fine. Sugar protested and the Cup ban and points deduction were
quashed.
Ardiles was replaced by
Gerry Francis. He
initially turned around the club's fortunes dramatically. Tottenham climbed to seventh in the
league, and reached the FA Cup semi-finals, an embarrassment for the FA was averted after Spurs lost
4-1 to eventual winners Everton. Francis was unable to take the club forward from this point and his
judgement in the transfer market was flawed.
1996-97 saw Tottenham finish in tenth place, and at the end of the season star striker
Teddy Sheringham
was sold to
Manchester United after contract negotiations broke down. In November 1997, with Spurs second
from bottom and in danger of relegation, Francis was sacked.
Christian Gross,
coach of Swiss champions
Grasshoppers, was appointed. He failed to turn around the club's fortunes, however, and the team
battled against the drop for the remainder of the campaign. Legendary striker Jürgen Klinsmann was
re-signed in January, but initially failed to recreate the form of his first spell at the club. Four
goals in a 6-2 win away to Wimbledon in the penultimate game of the season was, however, enough to
secure survival.
Gross, despite having finished the last season on a high by only losing one of their last nine
games, was sacked just three games into the following season, and
George Graham was soon hired to take over. Despite heavy criticism from fans due to Graham's
previous association with Arsenal, in his first season as Spurs manager the club secured a mid-table
finish and won the League Cup. In the final against
Leicester
City at Wembley, full-back
Justin Edinburgh
was sent off after an altercation with
Robbie Savage on the
hour mark, but Spurs secured a dramatic victory through
Allan Nielsen's
diving header in the 93rd minute of the game. Spurs also reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup,
where they were beaten 2-0 by
Newcastle
after extra-time, after the referee had not given Spurs a definite penalty for handball in normal
time. To cap a good season, star player
David Ginola won both
the
PFA Players' Player of the year 1999 and
Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1999 awards.
However, another disappointing league finish followed in
1999-00. In 2001, Sugar's patience broke. He sold his controlling interest to ENIC Sports PLC,
run by
Daniel Levy.
Team management passed to Tottenham legend
Glenn Hoddle who took
over in April 2001 with the team lying thirteenth in the table. His first game saw defeat to Arsenal
in an FA Cup semi-final. The club captain,
Sol Campbell, defected
to Arsenal on a Bosman
free transfer that summer.
Hoddle turned to more experienced players in the shape of Teddy Sheringham,
Gus Poyet and
Christian Ziege
for inspiration, and Spurs played some good football in the opening months of his management. Season
2001-02 saw Spurs finish in ninth place, as well as reaching the League Cup final, where they
lost to
Blackburn Rovers, having been the favourites after their 5-1 demolition of Chelsea in the
previous round.
The only significant outlay prior to the following campaign was £7 million for
Robbie Keane, who
joined from
Leeds United.
2002-03 started well, with Tottenham in the top six as late as early February. But with just
seven points in the final 10 games, the club finished in tenth place. Several players publicly
criticised Hoddle's management and communication skills. Six games into the
2003-04 season, Hoddle was sacked and David Pleat took over on a caretaker basis until a
full-time successor could be found.
In May 2004, Tottenham signed French team manager
Jacques Santini
as head coach, with Martin Jol
as his assistant and
Frank Arnesen as Sporting Director. Santini quit the club in bizarre circumstances after just 13
games. He was replaced by Jol. The big Dutchman became a favourite with the passionate Spurs crowd
and secured a ninth place finish.In the 2005-06 campaign, his first full season, he almost managed
to secure a Champions League place. In the event, Spurs missed out on the final day of the season,
and finished in 5th place, securing a UEFA Cup place. It was clear progress was being made. When
Arnesen defected to Chelsea, Spurs appointed
Damien Comolli as
Sporting Director.
During
2005-06 Spurs spent six months in fourth place but ended fifth. Going into the final game of the
season, they led rivals Arsenal by a point, but were forced to play their match at West Ham with
half the team suffering from
Norovirus, a viral form of gastroenteritis, commonly known as "Winter Vomiting Disease". Spurs
lost and were pipped to a Champions League place, but it was success nevertheless in gaining a place
in the UEFA Cup.
Season 2006-07
For the 2006-2007 season, Tottenham changed kit sponsors to
Puma and shirt advertisers to
Mansion.[2]
Spurs home shirt saw the removal of the blue shoulders, with the away kit changing from cyan shorts
to navy shorts, and the alternate kit changing from yellow to chocolate brown. Spurs wore an
'all-white' kit where possible for European fixtures, continuing a long-standing tradition. A
notable signing was
Dimitar Berbatov from
Bayer Leverkusen,
who managed 23 goals in all competitions .
The season began with Jol losing holding midfielder
Michael Carrick
to
Manchester United and club captain
Ledley King to injury for
the best part of the season. The acquisition of
Pascal Chimbonda,
Benoit
Assou-Ekotto, Didier
Zokora, Berbatov and
Steed Malbranque
essentially meant a new side had to gel.
2006-07 was marred by injuries, particularly in defensive areas with
Ledley King,
Paul Stalteri,
Benoit
Assou-Ekotto, Young-Pyo
Lee, Anthony
Gardner, Jermaine
Jenas, Steed
Malbranque and Teemu
Tainio all suffering long-term injuries while
Didier Zokora,
Dimitar Berbatov,
Robbie Keane and
Aaron Lennon all
suffered injuries causing Jol to rarely have a settled XI to pick for extended periods.
Premiership form in the first half of the season was erratic, although there was a rare home win
over reigning-champions Chelsea in November. Away form was poor during the first half of the season
but saw a vast improvement in the second half with just two away losses from January to the end of
the season and just one defeat in their final six away games, against
Chelsea just 36 hours
after playing a UEFA Cup tie in
Spain.
The improvement in Spurs' away form, good home performances and an excellent late season lifted
Spurs into fifth position in the final table and therefore into the
UEFA Cup for
the second year running. Tottenham show definite signs of attractive and effective football as
Martin Jol makes his mark
on the squad. Spurs reached the FA Cup
quarter-final round but lost to Chelsea 1-2 having drawn 3-3 away. The
League Cup
run took them to the semi-finals, where they faced Arsenal. The home leg ended 2-2, but hopes of
glory ended in the away leg losing 3-1 in extra time. In the
UEFA Cup,
Tottenham progressed to the quarter-finals, where they faced the cup holders and eventual winners
Sevilla in the quarter
finals, and were eliminated from the competition 4-3 on aggregate (2-1 away and 2-2 at home).
The highly effective Berbatov-Keane strike partnership was rewarded when they were named joint
Player of the Month for April, a rare occurrence in the history of the award.
Season 2007-08
Prior to the 2007-08 season, Tottenham completed their first signing by buying the highly-rated
17 year old left sided Welsh player
Gareth Bale from
Southampton for
an initial fee of £5 million which might rise to £10 million, depending on his and the team's
performances. Irishman
Robbie Keane was
rewarded on May 28,
2007 with a new five year contract with
the club until 2012. Spurs also completed the signing of
Adel Taarabt on a
permanent basis following his loan from
RC Lens: the fee was undisclosed.
On 8 June Spurs signed defender
Yuri Berchiche from
Athletic Bilbao,
to join the Spurs Academy. On June 29,
Spurs bought England forward
Darren Bent, from Charlton Athletic, for a reported fee of £16.5 million, a club record, to be
paid over a period of three years. Another major capture was
French central defender and
Under-21 captain Younes
Kaboul from AJ Auxerre
for a fee of about £8 million. On 25
July Spurs announced the signing of 17 year old midfielder
Danny Rose from
Leeds United.[3]
German midfielder
Kevin-Prince Boateng joined from
Hertha BSC Berlin
on 31 July, for an undisclosed
fee.
For the
2007-08 season, Tottenham announced an all-white kit. The away kit is all navy blue, while the
third kit is all yellow. There is also a shirt to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary, which is
white and sky blue halves and was worn for just one game, against
Aston Villa F.C
at home on October 1,
2007, the closest game to the
anniversary. The score was 4-4; Spurs were 4-1 down at half time, but in the last 22 minutes Spurs
scored 3 goals with Younes Kaboul scoring in the last minute. At half-time around 50 of the Spurs
legends came onto the pitch to an ovation.
Regardless of their ambitious off-season transfers (reported not to be approved by the
Dutchman
Martin Jol) their season
started in disappointing fashion, with the club near the relegation zone, and a defeat at home to
rivals Arsenal. Martin Jol's
position as manager was seen to be insecure after a well publicised meeting between club officials
and the then-Sevilla boss
Juande Ramos whose full
name is Juan de la Cruz Ramos Cano. Chairman Levy then issued a statement publicly backing Jol.
Following continued woeful form, on
October 25, during a UEFA
Cup match with Getafe CF it
became apparent that the game would be Jol's last in charge. During
ITV4's live coverage of the game, it
was reported that Martin Jol had tendered his resignation before the match which was accepted by
Levy. Subsequently, it became clear that Jol was actually going to be sacked by Levy following the
game, which Jol found out in the course of the game through the reaction of Spurs fans to a news
leak from someone within the Club. During the Getafe game many Spurs supporters voiced their support
for "Big" Martin Jol. After the match a board statement confirmed Jol and
Chris Hughton had
left the club. It also claimed that the move was at their request. Development coach
Clive Allen and youth
team boss Alex
Inglethorpe took temporary charge of the first team.
Gus Poyet, the former Spurs
midfielder, had been linked to Ramos in an assistant-boss role.[4]
The media and fans were critical of the Board, Levy in particular, at the way that events were
handled[citation
needed]. Jol was reported to have agreed a severance deal in August (Times
Online 22 August 2007)and was subsequently regarded by many as a 'dead man walking'. Certainly, the
widely reported first approach of Ramos by the board, and subsequent comments of directors in the
media did nothing but publicly undermine the manager and the team from just a couple of games into
the 2007-08 season.
It was confirmed on October
27 that Spaniard
Juande Ramos had signed
a contract with Tottenham to become head coach running until season 2010/2011, with
Marcos Álvarez also
joining him at Tottenham. Ramos resigned as
Sevilla FC coach despite
having signed a contract until the end of the season with the Spanish club and after more than two
months of competition.
[5] Also
announced on October 29 was the appointment of former player
Gus Poyet to the coaching
staff as one of two first-team coaches alongside
Marcos Álvarez,
working under head coach Ramos. On 18th December 2007, Tottenham beat Manchester City 2-0 in the
quarter-final of the Carling League Cup with goals from Jermain Defoe and Steed Malbranque, despite
playing for the majority of the game with 10-men against a team that was unbeaten at home all
season. They now go on to face North London rivals Arsenal in the semi-final, while Chelsea play
Everton.
On 24th December,
it was announced that Tottenham had reached an agreement with
Cardiff City for the
transfer of Chris Gunter
for a reported fee in the region of £3 million
Stadium
Tottenham Marshes
Tottenham played their first matches at Tottenham Marshes on the available public pitches and
remained there for six years. It was at this ground that Spurs first played arch rivals Arsenal
(then known as Royal Arsenal). Spurs were winning 2-1 until the match got called off due to poor
light after the away team arrived late.[6]
There were occasions on which fights which broke out on the marshes, in dispute of the teams that
were allowed to use the best pitches. Crowds were increasing and a new site was needed to
accommodate these supporters.
Northumberland Park
In 1898 the club moved from the marshes to Northumberland Park and charged an admission fee of 3d.
They only remained at this ground for a year as in April 1899 14,000 fans turned up to watch Spurs
play Woolwich Arsenal. The ground was no longer able to cope with the larger crowds and Tottenham
Hotspur were forced to move to a new larger site. They moved 100 yards down the road to their
current ground.
White Hart Lane
-
White Hart Lane was originally a disused nursery owned by the brewery,
Charringtons, and
located behind a public
house. The landlord realised the increased revenues he could enjoy if Tottenham played their
matches behind his pub and the club moved in. They brought with them the terrace they used at
Northumberland Park which gave shelter to 2,500 fans. Notts County were the first visitors to 'the
Lane' in a friendly watched by 5,000 people and bringing in £115 in receipts, Spurs won 4-1.
QPR
became the first competitive visitors to the ground and 11,000 people saw them lose 1-0 to
Tottenham.
In 1905 Tottenham raised enough money to buy the
freehold to the land and
became the permanent owners of the ground. As the club grew new stands were added. A new main stand
was added in 1909, the East stand was also covered this year and extended further two years later.
The profits from the 1921 FA Cup win were used to build a covered terrace at the Paxton Road end and
the Park Lane end was built at a cost of over £3,000 some two years later. This increased the WHL
capacity to around 58,000 with room for 40,000 under cover. The East Stand development was finishing
in 1934 which increased the capacity to around 80,000 spectators and cost £60,000. The pitch was
renovated in 1952 which uncovered a number of items from the old nursery on the site and one year
later the first floodlights were introduced. These lights were upgraded in 1957 which required the
cockerel to be moved from the West Stand to the East and then in 1961
floodlight pylons were installed.
The West Stand was replaced by an expensive (and far behind schedule) new structure and the
stadium started its long modernisation process. Various developments and upgrades were implemented
over the years and in 1992 the lower terraces of the south and east stand were converted to seating
and the whole of the North stand followed to become all-seater the following season. The South Stand
re-development was completed in March 1995 and included the first giant
Sony
Jumbotron TV screen for live
game coverage and away match screenings. The capacity of the stadium increased to just over 33,000.
In 1997/98 season the Paxton Road stand had a new upper tier added which included the second
Jumbotron screen and increased capacity to 36,240 and was funded by a
rights issue in 1996.[7]
Future plans
Tottenham are currently thinking about upgrading the stadium to a capacity of 52,000. This could
mean that the pitch has to be turned around 90 degrees. It has been suggested that Spurs will make a
formal announcement about the expansion, which will involve the rotation of the stadium. It has also
been said that they may have to "ground share" with West Ham or possibly use Wembley.[citation
needed]
Crest
Club emblem 2006 - Present
Since the 1901
FA Cup final the Tottenham Hotspur
crest has featured a cockerel.
Harry Hotspur (from
whom the club is said to take its name) was famed for his riding
spurs and
fighting cocks were fitted
with spurs which can be seen in the crests.[8]
In 1909 a former player named William James Scott made a bronze cast of a cockerel standing on a
football to be placed on top of the
West Stand and
since then the cockerel and ball have been the major part of the club's identity.[9]
Between 1956 and 2006 the Spurs used a coat of arms featuring a number of landmarks and
associations linked to local area. The lions flanking the shield came from the Northumberland
family's arms. They owned large areas of Tottenham and
Sir Henry Percy
(Harry Hotspur) was a family member. The castle alludes to
Bruce Castle located
400 yards from the ground and which now houses a museum. The trees are those of
Seven
Sisters which were planted at Page Green by the Seven Sisters of Tottenham and after whom a
railway/tube
station and
main road are named. The arms featured the Latin motto "Audere Est Facere".
In 1983 to overcome unauthorised "pirate" merchandising the club's badge was altered by adding
the two red lions as heraldic and the motto scroll. This device appeared on most Spurs' playing kits
for the next 23 years.
To rebrand and modernise the
club's image, in 2006 both this club badge and the coat of arms gave way to a
professionally-designed logo/emblem.[10]
This revamp features a leaner/fitter cockerel and an old-time football together with the club name.
The club claims that the rebranding kept much of the original meaning of the name, and emphasized
its originality.[11]
The first Tottenham kit was navy blue shirt and shorts, but after the first season the club did
not have one specific design for many years.[12]
In 1884 the club changed to a kit similar to that of
Blackburn Rovers,
.[13]
Shortly after moving to Northumberland Road, the kit changed again to red shirt and blue shorts.
Five years later, after becoming a professional club, they switched to a chocolate and gold striped
kit.
At the end of the 19th century the club switched colours yet again, to the white shirts and blue
shorts for which they are now well known for wearing, hence the nickname "Lilywhites". This colour
choice is thought to be in homage to
Preston North End
who had recently done "The Double".
White and navy blue have remained as the club's basic colours ever since. Soon after the First
World War, the cockerel badge was added to the shirt. In 1939 numbers first appeared on shirt backs,
and in 1983 Holsten became the
first commercial sponsor logo to appear on the shirt. When
Thomson was
chosen as kit sponsor in 2002 there was a very minor outcry from Tottenham fans as the logo on the
front was red, the colour of their closest rivals, Arsenal.[14]
The present sponsor, Mansion, another red logo company, has attracted no comment.
Kit manufacturers
Shirt sponsors
Ownership
Since 2001 the key shareholder has been ENIC, an investment company established by the British
billionaire
Joseph Lewis.
Daniel Levy, Lewis's partner at ENIC, is Executive Chairman of the club. In June 2007 ENIC
International increased its holding to 66% by purchasing former chairman Alan Sugar's remaining 12%
holding.
[15]It is
widely believed by fans, players and management, that Levy has played a significant part in the
club's turnaround, not least through the acquisition of players and of former Head Coach, Martin Jol.
Stelios
Haji-Ioannou has 9 per cent through Hodram Inc.[citation
needed]
Social responsibility
Spurs are in the forefront among British football clubs in developing social and community
programmes.[16]
The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation is unique amongst Premiership clubs and received the highest
level of political support when it was launched.[17]
In recent years Tottenham has contributed over forty times more to charity than the next largest
Premier League donor.[18][dead
link] In March 2007 the Club announced a partnership with the charity
SOS Children's Villages UK.[19]
Player fines will go towards this charity’s children’s village in Rustenburg, South Africa with the
funds being used to cover the running costs as well as in support of a variety of community
development projects in and around Rustenburg.
Tottenham Hotspur ladies
Tottenham's ladies team was founded in 1985 as Broxbourne Ladies. They started using the
Tottenham Hotspur name for the 1991/1992 season and play in the South-East & London Regional Women's
League (the fourth tier of the game).
Support
Tottenham have 1.4 million fans in Britain, drawn largely from North London and the
Home Counties, with
home matches traditionally attracting very high attendances. In several seasons during the 1950s and
1960s, Tottenham had the highest average attendance in England.[20][21]
Tottenham supporters have rivalries with several clubs mainly within the London area the fiercest
of these being with North London rivals Arsenal, however they also share notable rivalries with
fellow londoners Chelsea and West Ham United.
Honours
Domestic Leagues
Runners-Up (4): 1921-22, 1951-52, 1956-57, 1962-63
Runners-Up (2): 1908-09, 1932-33
Domestic Cups
Runners-Up (1): 1986/87
Runners-Up (2): 1981/82, 2001/02
- FA
Community Shield 7
- 1920-21, 1951-52, 1961-62, 1962-63, 1967-68*,
1981-82*, 1991-92* (*shared)
European Cups
Runners-Up (1): 1973-74
Semi-Finalists (1): 1961-62
Pre Season Tournaments
- For honours at youth level, see
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. reserve and academy squads
- Full list of honours.
[22]
Statistics and records
-
Players
- As of 11 November
2007.[23]
Current squad
In Ledley King's absence, Robbie Keane has taken the captain's armband. Paul Robinson has
captained the team a considerable number of times in King and Keane's absence. Michael Dawson is
next in line with Jermaine Jenas and Jermain Defoe also having led the side at certain stages.
Out on loan
For reserve and academy players, see
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. reserve and academy squads.
Management
Managers and head coaches
- Listed according to when they became managers for Tottenham Hotspur:
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