Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

the Tottenham Hotspur club is a professional English football team that currently plays in the English Premier League. The club is usually called "spurs". The home stadium - White Hart Lane is located in one of the districts of London - Haringey.

Tottenham Hotspur were the first in the twentieth century to do the double, winning both the Premier League and the FA Cup in the 1960/1961 season. In 1963, Spurs became the first British club to win the European Cup - the Cup Winners' Cup. In the 1980s, Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, the FA Super Cup, and the UEFA Cup in the 1983/1984 season.

The club's motto in Latin sounds like "Audere est Facere" (English: "To Dare Is to Do", Russian: "To dare is to do"), and the emblem is a cockerel standing on a soccer ball. The main and principal rival of the club is Arsenal, the meetings between these clubs are called the "North London Derby".The history of the glorious Tottenham Hotspur football club began on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 under a street lamp at the corner of Tottenham High Road and Park Lane. On that day, several thirteen-year-old students of one of the local schools decided to create their own football team. Money was immediately raised and a list of members of the new football club was compiled.

The list of the founding students and their first "financial statements" have been preserved to this day. It is known from them that for two shillings and sixpence, goal posts were bought, another sixpence went to flags, and finally, for six and a half shillings, a real football was bought.The history of the name of the club is very interesting – "Hotspur" F.K. It is believed that the name "Hotspur" is associated with Sir Henry Percy (Harry Hotspur), known from the work of W. Shakespeare "Henry IV", who allegedly lived in these parts in the XIV century, and whose descendants subsequently owned local lands. In 1884, the club was renamed Tottenham Hotspur Sports Football Club in order to distinguish itself from another team called London Hotspur.Initially, the Spurs played in dark blue T-shirts. The club's colors ranged from light blue with white stripes to red T-shirts with blue underpants, and there were also chocolate brown, gold, and finally, in the 1899/1900 season, the club began playing in white T-shirts and dark blue underpants, imitating the Preston North End club, the most successful club in Britain at that time.In 1888, Tottenham changed Tottenham Marches to Northumberland Park, where the team had the opportunity to play for the spectators who came. An attempt to return after relegation from the Southern League failed in 1892, when Tottenham became the only one of the 23 candidates who did not receive a single vote in support. "Spurs" returned to professional football in 1895, and were included in the Southern League, in which they gathered 15,000 crowds of fans.In 1899, the Spurs finally decided to move to the place where the garden once was, near the High Road. Since that time, this place has become known as "White Hart Lane", in honor of the local passage. In 1900, Tottenham became the winner of the Southern League and added to this victory in the FA Cup the following year, becoming the first club in history to win this trophy as an amateur team. The cup was awarded to Spurs captain Jack Johnson. There were colored ribbons on the cup, which were tied by the wife of the director of "spurs". Since then, it has become a tradition to tie ribbons to the cup, which continues to this day.Tottenham entered the Second Division in the 1908/1909 season, in which they immediately became the winner, winning entry to the First Division. The team's results between the 1910/1911 season and the First World War were weak, and when the competition was suspended in the 1914/1915 season, Tottenham were at the very bottom of the standings.

When the football championship was resumed in 1919, the First League was expanded from 20 to 22 teams. One of the two additional places was given to Chelsea, who took the 19th position (which, together with Tottenham, were to be relegated at the end of the 1915/1916 season), the other to Arsenal. The promotion of the latter (Arsenal took only sixth place in the Second Division at the end of the previous season) was controversial and only consolidated the fierce confrontation that continues to this day.P.S. Here, perhaps, many fans will have such a question: "Why is there such enmity between these clubs?" Therefore, we will make a small digression here and give facts that should help to understand why there is such hostility between Arsenal and Tottenham, and why Spurs players and fans are called Jews.

This topic requires some explanation. In England and other countries, fans of clubs opposing Tottenham call its players and fans Jews. In the 1980s, when relations between fan groups were particularly hostile, the Spurs' support staff even issued badges: We are The Yiddos! - which they wore with special pride, emphasizing not their ethnicity, but their club affiliation. Yiddos has also become the name of one of the big "firms" supporting Tottenham.

There really have always been a lot of Jews among Tottenham fans. Many of them have held senior positions in the structure of the club before and now. The reason for this is very simple. London is arranged in such a way that various ethnic communities exist compactly in it – a community, as they say here. There is a Jewish community in north London, which also occupies part of the Tottenham district.

There are enough reasons to hate their northern neighbors in London. But three of them are enough for us.

The first reason is territorial. Tottenham was born in north London, and lives there now. For him, Woolwich Arsenal became a typical economic refugee-emigrant who moved from the poor and unpromising south-east of the capital to everything ready. Moreover, as often happens in such cases, visitors unceremoniously pushed the locals. Not only is Arsenal located closer to the center, but also at the Gelleslpi Road metro station, which he had the audacity to rename in his honor. As a result, Arsenal not only competed with Tottenham in the north, but also intercepted fans from other parts of the city. In the spring of 1913, Tottenham even appealed to the Football Association with a complaint, but the Gunners had everything "captured" in the association.

The second reason is historical injustice. In 1919, the football championship, interrupted due to the war, was to be resumed in England. In the pre-war championship, Tottenham took the last 20th place in the first division. But the FA decided to increase the number of teams to 22. The most logical thing was to leave two eliminated players in the league (Chelsea and Tottenham), adding to them two winners of the second division (Derby and Preston). In relation to the other three clubs, they did so, but the place of Tottenham was given to Arsenal, which was only fifth (!) in the second division before the war. This happened thanks to the close acquaintance of Arsenal owner Harry Norris with the head of the FA, John McCann, and their general influence on the majority of FA members. The Tottenham management was shocked.The third reason is fatal. In 1908, Tottenham visited South America for the first time. During the tour of Argentina and Uruguay, Spurs lost only one match out of seven. When we crossed the equator on the way back, a carnival with a costume contest was held on the ship. Two Spurs players dressed up as Robinson and Friday won. They received a parrot as a prize. In London, the parrot was placed in the club's office, and soon it became its mascot. So 11 years later, on the very day when Arsenal treacherously got Tottenham's place in the first division, the beloved parrot died. This is never forgiven!

In the 1919/1920 season Tottenham competed in the Second Division championship, and the following year, on April 23, 1921, Spurs reached their second FA Cup, beating Wolverhampton 1-0 in the final at Stamford Bridge.

After the second place, following Liverpool in 1922, Spurs experienced a gradual decline, culminating in relegation in 1928. Tottenham have been unable to make any progress higher than the FA Cup quarter-finals for more than three years - in the period from 1935 to 1938.On September 3, 1939, when Neville Chamberlain entered the war, Spurs were seventh in the Second Division. At that moment, the tournament of the Championship of England was suspended for the period of hostilities.After the Second World War, football became an extremely interesting spectacle for thousands of fans. In 1949, Arthur Rowe, being the manager of the club, began to develop the tactics of the game called "hit-and-run". The essence of it was to quickly transfer the ball to a teammate, thereby avoiding his interception, and acceleration in order to get the ball back. This tactic made it possible to effectively move the ball at speed among players constantly changing their positions.Having risen to the top of the Second Division, in the 1949/1950 season, Tottenham became the sole champion. The following year, Spurs won their first league title, immediately becoming the best club in the First Division. The main characters of the team at that time were Alf Ramsay, Ronnie Burgess, Ted Ditchburn, Sonny Walters and Bill Nicholson.The following years were difficult for the Spurs, as age, wounds, and other teams adapted to the revolutionary style of play of the Spurs. In the 1951-52 season, only a goal in the last seconds, in a match against Manchester United, dashed hopes for the title. In 1952-53, the Spurs finished the season already in 10th place, since the team's time with the "Hit-and-run" tactics no longer gave much result. 1954 was famous for the signing of one of the most famous Spurs players, Danny Blanchflower, for a record 30,000 pounds. In the same year, Tottenham failed in the FA Cup, due to an error by Alf Ramsey, which led to a goal, in a match against Blackpool, and Spurs were eliminated from the tournament.During this period, Arthur Roy began to experience health problems. And in 1955 he retired, finishing in the middle of the table. After working at the club for a long time, Jimmy Anderson takes Roy's place. The 1955/56 season becomes simply disastrous, "spurs" find themselves in 16th place, and only 2 points save them from relegation. However, the following season the club began to revive, Tottenham finished second, only 8 points behind the winners of that season, Manchester United. But due to poor health, Anderson was now forced to leave the team, giving way to Bill Nicholson. But the 18th place in his first season did not even foreshadow the success that would come in the 60s.

Bill Nicholson came to Tottenham as an "apprentice" in 1936. And he worked at the club in many positions. The first game under his leadership ended with a crushing 10-4 victory for Spurs over Everton. This record has not been broken to this day. Bill Nicholson led Tottenham to major trophies three seasons in a row in the early 1960s: the double in 1961 (Champion of England and winner of the FA Cup), reaching the semi-finals of the Champions Cup in 1962, and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1963. Key players included Danny Blanchflower, John White, Dave McKie, Cliff Jones, Jimmy Greaves and Terry Medwin.After 1964, the "Double" team (meaning their championship double in 1961) began to break up. Nicholson managed to create a second successful team: Alan Gilzin, Michael England, Alan Mellery, Terry Veneylbs, Joe Kinnear and Cyril Knowles. They defeated Chelsea and won the 1967 FA Cup, finishing third in the league.Nicholson wrote himself into Tottenham's history by winning the League Cup (1971 and 1973) and the UEFA Cup of the 1971/72 season, before he retired, at the beginning of the 1974/75 season, due to a poor start to the season, and because of the disgusting behavior of the fans - in Rotterdam, who came to the final match of the UEFA Cup in which Spurs lost.Nicholson has won 8 major trophies in 16 years and this period is without a doubt the best in the history of the club. Nicholson wanted to see Johnny Giles and Danny Blanchflower as his replacement, and those who could create a "dream team", but the Spurs management ignored this idea and invited former Arsenal player Terry Neil, who helped avoid relegation to the lower division at the end of the 1974/75 season. Never accepted by the fans, Neil left the club in 1976, and in the summer he was replaced by his assistant, Keith Barkinshaw.At the end of the 1976-77 season, Tottenham were relegated from the First League after 27 years spent in the top division. Soon the goalkeeper of the national team of Northern Ireland, Pat Jennings, was sold, not anywhere, but to his main competitors, Arsenal, this act shocked the fans of Spurs, and this sale was a serious mistake. Jennings played 8 years for the competition, while Tottenham would find a replacement for him only in 1981, buying Ray Clemens from Liverpool.Despite the relegation, the management will remain loyal to Barkinshaw and the team reached the top division, although they were very close to not getting there. The sudden loss of form at the end of the season meant that the club needed strengthening. To great relief, the last match against Southampton ended with a score of 0-0 and Tottenham got an exit to the top division. In the summer of 1978, Barkinshaw excited the football world by signing two Argentine world champions Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa, who were the greatest purchase not previously seen in British football. But it took time for the newcomers to get used to the new team.

Spurs started the 80s with a 3-2 victory over Manchester City in the replay of the FA Cup final, thanks to an unforgettable hat-trick by Ricky Villa. The following season, Spurs took part in four domestic competitions, including the First League Championship, in which they struggled with Liverpool, but finished fourth. Key players such as Steve Archibald, Gers Crooks, Glen Hoddle, Osvaldo Ardiles, and regular captain Steve Perryman inspired Tottenham to take the UEFA Cup in 1984, but a few weeks before this victory, Burkinshaw announced that the club would have a new head coach at the end of the season. Spurs have lost a coach who won three trophies in four seasons and created a wonderful squad that made Spurs a great club.Peter Shreves became the new coach, and Irving Skolar became the new president of the club. Both immediately got down to business. Shreves managed to keep Spurs in the top three in the 1984/85 season, but the following season began with a sharp drop, while Skolar was trying to restore the financial condition of the club.As a result, former Luton Town coach David Pleat was appointed as the new Spurs coach, and for the most part, the 1986/87 season looked very successful. Playing with five central midfielders (Hoddle, Ardiles, Hodge, Allen, Waddle), Tottenham remained a competitor for all opponents. But after Arsenal stopped Spurs in the semi-finals of the League Cup, missed the championship in the First Division, and, losing in the FA Cup to Converti, the big season ended disappointingly. Plit left the club in October 1987, due to problems in his personal life. Former Tottenham player Teri Venables was named the receiver of the Plate, and after 2 seasons, again lifted the club to 3rd place in the 1989/90 season and won the FA Cup in 1991. In the "new" Tottenham, there were 2 players who played a major role in the formation of the England national team that reached the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup - these are Paul Gascoigne and Harry Lineker.