2,055 – a new Q&A - part two

Three giants of Tottenham Hotspur. 10 questions.

Welcome to part two of our special 2,055 Q&A with Steve Perryman, Gary Mabbutt and Pat Jennings, all-time Spurs greats and our top three appearance makers with 854, 611 and 590 matches respectively, a grand total of 2,055.

Over the course of the 10-part series we’ll talk about the day they signed, walking into the dressing room as youngsters, biggest influences and magic moments over their collective span of 34 years at the Club we all love – 1964-1998. What game would they love to play again? What made them proudest? Over 20 years since the last of the trio retired from playing - Mabbsy in 1998 - what does Spurs mean to them?

These are our heroes, legends whose names are and will be forever indelibly linked with Tottenham Hotspur.

2,055 - part two

What was it like stepping into the dressing room for the first time with all those greats around you?

Steve Perryman

Signed professional forms in January, 1969
Debut v Sunderland, 27 September, 1969

“You didn’t really do that as an apprentice professional, which is what I was for two years. You would see these football gods and people never had access to them like we do today. But we did every day, mostly because we were training at the same place and walking past them in the corridor, walking in and out of the training ground. They were there in front of us. I had the pleasure of watching Jimmy Greaves do shooting practice, or Pat Jennings taking crosses or Alan Gilzean heading at goal. I think that is a lot of producing players, it’s what’s happening around you. Of course, it’s what you’ve got inside you, how you learn and listen and adapt. The fact I’d signed for Tottenham Hotspur meant I was giving myself a chance to be in the company, albeit not close, but in the company of greatness. If you’ve anything about you, that rubs off. You are all eyes and ears, watching, having to cope with your own game, your own relationships, the social aspects of being in a job and what that means, 50-odd professionals and 15 apprentices and staff and you’ve all these relationships going on, but you’ve got the chance to see greatness in front of you. I think that is one of the main attributes to making players. Maybe that means I’m downgrading Exeter, where I spent 18 years producing players, but that’s one of the things you miss out on at that level. I’d talk about watching Jimmy Greaves and you just saw the eyes of the striker and I’m telling that to a schoolboy at Exeter, trying to recreate it by description, whereas I had it in front of me.”

Gary Mabbutt

Signed from Bristol Rovers in July, 1982
Debut in Charity Shield v Liverpool, 21 August, 1982

“You walk in, look around and very player is an international. You know everyone’s face but having played in the Third Division for Bristol Rovers, I’d only ever seen them on Match of the Day or Top of the Pops! It was quite a surreal experience, walking in knowing I was now part of the team. It’s strange, I know it’s stupid to say, but I walked in there and felt I was at home. I just felt so comfortable, happy. I felt it was my place. I was soon part of it all. We went on a pre-season tour and on the flight back, I fell asleep, and as we got back into Heathrow, my training shoes had gone. I couldn’t find them anywhere. All the lads were saying, ‘I haven’t seen them’. I had to walk through Heathrow with just my socks on. I got to the conveyor belt, and there they were going around with all the luggage! Welcome to the Club! It was quite a turn around. A few weeks earlier I was playing in the Third Division, suddenly I was playing the Charity Shield at Wembley against Liverpool, the champions. It was an incredible start for me. People talk about boyhood dreams, my story, from being diagnosed with diabetes at 17, being told I couldn’t play, my career was over, and then going on to play 611 games for Spurs, captaining the Club for 11 years, winning this and that, for me, it was exactly that. If you could make up a story - that would be it.”

Pat Jennings

Signed from Watford in June, 1964
Debut v Sheffield United, 22 August, 1964

"Cyril Knowles and I were in digs together just around the back of the stadium at St Paul’s Road. I suppose that helped the two of us, both new at the Club. I’d signed during pre-season and my first day at the Club, unbelievably, was John White’s funeral. We reported that day and then went off to Enfield for the funeral. That was tragic. So much happened so quickly. A year, 15 months earlier I was playing in the Irish B League! I had a great year at Watford, then the move to Tottenham put me on the next rung of the ladder, so to speak. Maybe I didn’t realise what was going on! Looking around that dressing room and seeing the fantastic players in there, it was unbelievable to be part of it. The players at that time were a great help, players like Maurice Norman, the great Dave Mackay, Terry Medwin. Terry had a big family and used to invite myself and Cyril around on a Sunday for lunch. I never forgot him for that. The same with Cliff Jones as well. The lad who helped me so much was Jimmy Greaves. He had such a reputation at the time, he’d come in after matches where maybe I should have done better, maybe a shot I should have saved, and he’d put his around me and say ‘don’t worry son, you’re going to be the best’. I never forgot that, especially coming from him.”

Next: 2,055 - part three

You are all club greats - but at the start of your Spurs career, was there a defining moment when you felt you really belonged?

2,055 - the series

Part one - what do you remember about the day you signed for Spurs?