Spurs Again – The Story Of The League Cup Season
by Ralph L. Finn
190 Pages
Published by Robert Hale & Company (1971)
ISBN 0-7019-2770-7
A year before Hunter Davies’ seminal work “The Glory Game” was written, Ralph L. Finn was documenting Tottenham’s return to winning silverware with the 1970-1971 season being covered here.
Unlike Davis, Finn had no access to the dressing room, but writes around the campaign, using his views and those gleaned from newspaper reports of the matches, and about the general feeling around White Hart Lane about how things were going. While it was the season that Tottenham won the League Cup for the first time, the book covers much more than that, looking at the Football League season, the FA Cup campaign and lots of things off the pitch, including the board’s attitudes and the opinions of the fan-base. There are sections on the players, stats from the season and looking at how the side compares to past Cup-winning teams and how they might fare in the future.
An experienced chronicler of Tottenham’s history over the years, the author has a good background in the club’s former glories to be able to objectively analyse where this victory sits in the list of glory days. Being a writer who has been there and written about it, Finn is not afraid to pass a critical opinion when he feels it is necessary and while we have all had days when we’ve been less than happy with a Spurs team’s performance, he does not hold back when there are some displays which fail to come up to the standard that he expects.
The League Cup run itself is covered match by match with a report for each tie and details of team line-ups, as are the FA Cup matches, where as the league season is more of a diary coverage detailing the club’s successes and struggles through the 42-match campaign. Overall, it is an interesting read and while I remember the season, many of you might not, so it would provide an eye-opener on what used to go on back in the day. Much like the present, there are players who are fan favourites and others who bear the brunt of the supporters’ criticism, with the manager Bill Nicholson also quite forthright (as you might have expected from the Yorkshireman) in his expectations from his team.
Using the format he has adopted, Finn makes it a rollercoaster read, much like most Tottenham seasons, but it is very readable and is broken up with photos from the League Cup matches. There is a feeling of admiration for the team that lifts the trophy that comes through his writing, but it is tempered with a look over Finn’s shoulder to the illustrious past, although he does hold hopes for the future too.
Marco van Hip