Tottenham
Hotspur Football Club was
formed in 1882 from a
cricket club.. They
originally played their football
at Tottenham Marshes,
before moving to
Northumberland Park in the
year of 1888 and then White
Hart
Lane 11 years later.
Tottenham
Hotspur first entered Division
2 in 1908 having
already won the FA Cup as
a Southern League team in
1901. Prior to the war,
they added the FA Cup in
1921 but had little to no
success in the league.
Their first major league
success came in the year of
1951, only a year after
being promoted, when they
were crowned Division One
champions for the first
time ever.
However,
Spurs’ best ever period came
under the management
of Bill Nicholson as they
became only the 3rd team to
win the league and FA
Cup double in the 1961
season. The following year
they won the FA Cup again
and then, in 1963, went on
to win the European Cup
Winners Cup. Nicholson's
final success came in 1967
with yet another FA Cup
triumph before Spurs
began a drop in form and
entered a slippery slide which
ended in Division
Two, Tottenham‘s worst
spell in history.
In
1978, they were back in the
top flight when they made a
daring swoop for
Argentinian World Cup stars,
Osvaldo Ardiles and Riccardo
Villa. The two of these set
English football alight and
when Spurs reached
the 1981 FA Cup final, it
was only fair that one of them
should score the
winner. Surprisingly, it was
Villa, the lesser-known of the
two who scored
after a fantastic run.
The FA
Cup was won again the
following season and yet
again in 1991 under Terry
Venables, with a team
including England's
brightest stars Paul
Gascoigne (Gazza) and Gary
Lineker. Post World Cup
fever again came to White
Hart Lane in 1994 when
German striker Jurgen
Klinsmann arrived, but the
reigns of Peter Shreeves,
Ossie Ardiles, Gerry
Francis and Christian Gross
brought Spurs no closer to the
kind of success
their reputation
deserves.
Former
Arsenal player and manager
George Graham was not a
popular choice amongst
Spurs fans to take over from
Christian Gross in 1998,
and his style of football
was frustrating to Spurs fans,
so they were over
the moon when the fans
favourite Glenn Hoddle
returned to save them three
years later. At least, that
was the plan. Unfortunately,
Hoddle's reign
brought about little success
either, and he was sacked
early in the 2003/04
season as Spurs waited for
a real saviour, and in the
summer of 2004 Jacques
Santini was installed,
however he lasted until
November before leaving due
to personal reasons. Martin
Jol took over in an attempt to
save Spurs'
season, but despite signs
of promise he eventually left
the club to be
replaced by manager
Juande Ramos in
2007. Ramos only lasted the
year and was recently
replaced by Harry
Redknapp.
