From the archives | Darren Anderton on David Ginola, 2019

This season, we'll take a trip down memory lane by re-publishing interviews from our editorial archives - next up, as we prepare for Sunday's trip to St James' Park to face Newcastle United in the Premier League (1.30pm), we reproduce a feature on Tottenham and Toon legend David Ginola from our official matchday programme in May, 2019.

The feature coincided with the 20-year anniversary of David picking up a memorable personal double accolade of the PFA Player of the Year and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards for 1998/99 - remembering, that was the season that Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United famously completed the treble...

2019 | David Ginola | A magnifique double...

Turn the clock back 20 years and Manchester United were on the verge of a famous treble.

We gave them a scare on the final day of the Premier League season on 16 May, 1999 by opening the scoring at Old Trafford before they came back to beat us 2-1 and pip Arsenal to the title.

They clinched the Double six days later by beating Newcastle United in the FA Cup Final and then secured the treble in dramatic style on 26 May with late goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to topple Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final at the Nou Camp.

The team has gone down in folklore - Schmeichel, Stam, Neville, Beckham, Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Cole, Yorke, Sheringham, Solskjaer. One of the best teams of the modern era, if not of all-time, led by one of the greatest managers, Sir Alex Ferguson.

The point of all this?

Fans of a certain age will always remember that team and the scale of their achievement cannot be underestimated.

Yet despite making history with a squad that fans around the world could reel off, another player from another team lifted the individual awards that season. And that same team also won the other trophy up for grabs and were the only team to knock United out of a competition.

That team? Tottenham Hotspur. That player? The one and only David Ginola.

The French maestro was at his ‘magnifique’ best in 1998/99 and was rewarded with his own double of the PFA Player of the Year, voted by his fellow professionals, and the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year, awarded by Fleet Street’s finest.

He produced a highlight reel of goals as we lifted the League Cup - scoring as we beat United 3-1 in the quarter-final - and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup. His strike against the Red Devils was pure Ginola.

Picking the ball up centrally, 35 yards out and faced by Ryan Giggs, he shifted left and arrowed a shot into the corner.

The goals in the FA Cup were even better. A 25-yarder into the bottom corner to earn a replay against Wimbledon in the fourth round; a full volley from 25 yards in the fifth-round replay win against Leeds and then the pick of the bunch, a Ricky Villa-esque dribble that left four defenders in his wake before slotting home the winner in the quarter-final at Barnsley.

Team-mate Darren Anderton, who provided assists for the likes of Teddy Sheringham, Jurgen Klinsmann, Les Ferdinand, Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe in a 12-year Spurs career, played with David throughout his time at Spurs and described him as ‘unplayable’.

“He was ridiculous, really,” recalled Darren this week. “When you train with someone every day you can see what they can do and David could do anything. He was so strong on the ball, he could go left, right and his quality on the ball was magnificent.

“It’s interesting, when George Graham came in as manager, people were thinking ‘he’s probably not what you want in a George Graham team’ but his quality was that good he couldn’t drop him. He produced week in, week out and most times, especially at White Hart Lane, he was unplayable.”

Snapped up from Newcastle United in the summer of 1997, David went on to make 127 appearances for us in all competitions, scoring 22 goals. He earned 17 caps for France and won Ligue 1 in 1994 and the French Cup in 1993 and 1995. He began his career at Nice and Toulon and, by the time he played the final match of his career for Everton at Arsenal in May, 2002, he’d racked up 503 career appearances.

David was back at Spurs as part of our Legends team taking on Inter Forever at the new stadium in March. Speaking pitchside at our magnificent arena, no doubt with the thought of what it would be like to hear 62,000 fans singing ‘Ginola, Ginola, Ginola...’ it all came flooding back.

“I don’t want to be too emotional,” he said, taking it all in. “The best thing for a footballer is to look around and to see the people in the stadium standing up for you, for your team, for something you’ve done on the pitch.

“That is the most incredible thing both as a footballer and a person that you can have in your life and something that I will never duplicate anymore. So I think the players will understand that the 62,000 people who come to each game, they want the right result, they want to see a fantastic team and a winning team. The club has everything - the facilities, the infrastructure, everything is going forward in the right direction. The future is so bright.

“The fans always thank me for what I did and I always say ‘you know, I just tried to do my job as well as possible’. I used to spend a lot of time with the fans after games at the Lane, good and bad, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, being part of them. My wife would say ‘David, we need to go’ but I would be in the car park talking to everyone. I just wanted the best for the club.

“Every time I entered White Hart Lane I tried to make sure everyone went home with a little bit of magic, a little bit of a dream, especially for the kids coming with their mums and dads. For me, this is football.”

For the final word, back to Darren. “There was an aura about David, for sure, but he also had a lovely way about him. He made people feel good about themselves, he’s a real gentlemen and of course, in terms of Tottenham Hotspur, when you think about all the players that have been here over the years, David Ginola just fitted the bill. He got fans off their seats and at Spurs, that’s what it’s all about.”