One such issue feeds into eager personal anticipation of attendance at a dinner in London tonight to mark the 40th anniversary of Tottenham Hotspur's 1961 Double, bringing together all the surviving heroes of that time and their renowned manager, Bill Nicholson. From time to time, an issue crops up in this sporting life that causes a wide difference of opinion; what intellectuals call a dichotomy. One such issue feeds into eager personal anticipation of attendance at a dinner in London tonight to mark the 40th anniversary of Tottenham Hotspur's 1961 Double, bringing together all the surviving heroes of that time and their renowned manager, Bill Nicholson. What sets that modern feat apart from subsequent emulation by Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United is the style with which it was achieved, the coherence and imagination that immeasurably raised the standards of British football. If the excitement Tottenham caused (they only just failed to overcome Benfica in the 1962 European Cup semi-finals, and became the first British club to win a European trophy when they defeated Atletico Madrid in the Cup-Winners' Cup a year later) has lingered as a burden for Nicholson's successors, it ridicules the notion implied by reports of the Uefa Cup final, that inefficiency is the mother of entertainment.By previous standards, Tottenham's achievement in 1961 was colossal. In the League alone, they scored 115 goals, a club record, with six players reaching double figures.
Only one other team in the championship had a better defensive record. They started the season with 11 successive wins, a League record, and played 16 games before their first defeat. They equalled Arsenal's 30-year-old record, 66 points in a season, and won more games (31) in the championship than had ever been won. They won 16 of their 21 away matches, another championship record. Tottenham, indeed, really were something, so artistic and swift in application that even people who had no great interest in football felt compelled to attend their performances.Long experience allows me, I think, to compare the sort of entertainment Tottenham and other great teams have provided with that on offer in Dortmund last week where an own "golden" goal in extra-time against Alaves secured the Uefa Cup for Liverpool. Frankly, a game unaccountably described across the airwaves, and in some quarters of this trade, as one of the best ever played did not so much have me on the edge of my armchair as rolling about in fits of laughter.Understandably, Liverpool's supporters were deeply moved by their team's success.
However, the number of people who felt that technical and tactical shortcomings made for a more enjoyable match, better entertainment, was bound to set off some lively conversations. "Shows what the public really want," someone said.This made me think of a comment made by Nicholson when coming up against organisational developments about the time his great contemporary, Matt Busby, was beginning to worry about the influence of coaches. "We might have to think about playing the sort of football people want rather than the football we might want to play," Nicholson said.For all the romantic zeal that contradicted his reputation as a player, Nicholson would never have countenanced blunders in the cause of entertainment, and nobody in their right mind believes that Liverpool's G?rd Houllier wants a team that lives dangerously.Anyway, after listening to both sides of the argument I find myself in a position held almost 31 years ago after Italy defeated West Germany 4-3 after extra-time in the semi-finals of the 1970 World Cup. Spoken about as one of the greatest ever World Cup games, it was in fact a bizarre encounter (Franz Beckenbauer played on with his right arm in a sling) that saw both sets of players so effected by the altitude and heat of Mexico City that many played through the extra half-hour as though no longer in control of their limbs, the space between both penalty areas uncontested.
