Bill Nicholson was revered as one of the most honest football managers in the business. Between 1960 and 1964 he turned Tottenham Hotspur into the finest team in Britain. This book, the first biography of Nicholson, commemorates the 50th anniversary of Tottenham's pioneering 1961 Double, which Nicholson followed up in 1963 by becoming the first manager to win a European trophy. By moulding great players like Dave Mackay, Danny Blanchflower, John White, Cliff Jones and Jimmy Greaves into an almost perfectly balanced team, he set new standards of attacking play. Nicholson was born in Scarborough in 1919. At the age of 17 he took the night train alone to London, signed for Spurs on GBP2 a week and spent the rest of his life with the club as player, coach, manager, scout and President. He never had a contract, spurned bonuses and lived ten minutes' walk from the ground with his remarkable wife, who was known as Darkie, until his death in 2004. He is still revered by Tottenham fans as one of the most important figures in the club's history. This well-researched book offers a new, kinder impression of this much-loved man.
Оглавление
Brian Scovell. Bill Nicholson
BILL NICHOLSON FOOTBALL’S PERFECTIONIST
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE RIGHT IMAGE
A REAL NICE GENTLEMAN
NIGHT TRAIN TO LONDON
‘THE BEST THING I EVER DID’
ARTHUR ROWE’S ELECTRIC SHOCKS
AN EARLY GOAL
PIPPING RAMSEY TO THE POST
ASSEMBLING HIS GREATEST TEAM
THE DOUBLE
KNOCKED OUT BY ALF RAMSEY’S HAYMAKERS
‘THE GREATEST GAME I’VE EVER PLAYED IN!’
STRUCK DOWN!
TOMMY DOCHERTY SLIPS UP
MARTIN CHIVERS PLAYS UP
EXPOSED BY HUNTER DAVIES
DISILLUSIONMENT SETS IN
‘GET YOUR HAIR CUT!’
ON HIS BIKE
BACK ON HOME SOIL AGAIN
THE FINAL FAREWELL
Copyright
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BRIAN SCOVELL
Bill had a lifelong love affair with football but his most endearing love affair was with Darkie. Their marriage lasted 62 years and her love, devotion, laughter and fun helped make it one of the happiest in British football.
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‘It amazes me that there is nearly always an entrepreneur waiting to come to the rescue of an ailing football club at the time when it is about to go out of business. You seriously question the motives of such people while at the same time being grateful to them for saving a club that serves a great many people in its area. Astronomical wages at a time of recession have created a social gap between players and the man on the terrace. ‘There used to be a time when the spectator could identify with the footballer, who was not earning much more than he was. Today’s players stay in their private lounge before driving off to their homes a fair distance from the ground. Players no longer live round the corner, as I did when I was a player and manager.’
He was suspicious of agents and wanted a curb on their activities. ‘There isn’t as much honesty in the game today as there ought to be,’ he said. ‘Admittedly football is all about competition, but cheating has become intense. The more difficult it becomes to succeed and the more pressure on the manager to be winner, the greater the risk of corruption. An aspect which perturbs me is the payment to managers of a percentage of fees. These rogue managers may prefer to deal with agents as that is a good way of obtaining a cut. I question the morality of such payments.
