Players who should never have left.

[Gilzeantoscore]

Paul Stewart came to mind when I stumbled on highlights of the '91 FA Cup win. Came to us as a striker from Emirates Marketing Project, but was converted into a midfielder by Venables. He thrived, scored our opening goal in the Cup final and started to get called up into the England team. Moved to Liverpool. barely played, lost his England spot and drifted out of the game very quickly. At the time, I thought he was the real deal and could have become a star of the game.

 

[Gutter Boy]

Hazard was always in Hoddle's shadow, and was maybe unfortunate to leave a year or two before Glenn, as he could have been the main man at the end of the 80s (but then would we have gone after Gascoigne?).

Ruddock made a similar mistake to Stewart - he and Mabbutt were forming a good partnership and he was on the verges of England, but it went downhill from there.

 

[Gilzeantoscore]

Didn't Micky Hazard come back late in the piece?

 

[Gutter Boy]

Didn't Micky Hazard come back late in the piece?

Yeah - Ossie brought him back in about 93, right at the tail end of his career. He only played a dozen or so games, but was useful.

 

[parklane1]

Jennings.

 

[Logorrhea]

Kanoute

 

[Gilzeantoscore]

Jennings.

Nicholson forced him out didn't he? The greatest mistake of his managerial career. Hardly a bad move for Jennings though. He won a few trophies there.

 

[Gilzeantoscore]

Kanoute

Bad for Spurs , or for Kanoute? He did pretty well for Seville from memory. Can't remember if he won anything there though.

 

[a spur from swansea]

Richar Gough in the late 80's,we were lacking a top quality centre half for years and when he came alog we looked like a top quality side,if he stayed he would have been a legend i think he only left because his wife was home sick grrrrrr

 

[milo]

Kanoute

Kanoute split opinion when he was with us. I am sure that a lot of the retrospective appreciation of him is down to what he did with Savilla rather than us.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Richar Gough in the late 80's,we were lacking a top quality centre half for years and when he came alog we looked like a top quality side,if he stayed he would have been a legend i think he only left because his wife was home sick grrrrrr

Gough was always going to depart for Rangers. He wanted to go there before he came to Spurs and Rangers wanted to buy him, but Dundee United didn't want to sell to a rival (the gap was much closer back then.... Dundee United won the Scottish league in 1983 and got to the semi final of the European Cup in 1984). Spurs bought him for £750k and then Rangers stepped in a year later and paid £1 million for him. I'm pretty sure the understanding was already there between the player, ourselves and Rangers.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Hazard was always in Hoddle's shadow, and was maybe unfortunate to leave a year or two before Glenn, as he could have been the main man at the end of the 80s (but then would we have gone after Gascoigne?).

Ruddock made a similar mistake to Stewart - he and Mabbutt were forming a good partnership and he was on the verges of England, but it went downhill from there.

Interestingly enough Mickey Hazard never wanted to leave Spurs. He said that he was called into the manager's office one day to be informed that we had accepted a bid for him from Chelsea and it was up to him whether he wanted to move there. He said that when this happened to you, you were being told that you weren't wanted and kind of had to go really. Mickey said he managed to negotiate a better pay deal for himself at Chelsea but never wanted to go there.

On the morning of Mickey's first day's training at Chelsea he said he arrived really early as he had no idea how long it would take to drive there, he then sat in his car and literally cried for about an hour, thinking what a mistake he had made in leaving Spurs. He never enjoyed playing for Chelsea and wished he had stayed at Spurs, he said that playing for Spurs had always been his dream and he thought he should've ignored the fact that the club were willing to sell him and instead turned down the move and stayed and fought for his place. If he could live his years over again then he said this is exactly what he would do. When Mickey eventually came back to Spurs, he said it was like coming home.

 

[hamer]

Kanoute split opinion when he was with us. I am sure that a lot of the retrospective appreciation of him is down to what he did with Savilla rather than us.

Kanoute showed up those on the wrong side of the split when he triumphed at Sevilla as mentioned above.

His technique was world class, we were foolish to let him go over what is now a fairly common occurrence of changing national team allegiance. His chest control/hold up play was a joy to behold.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Interestingly enough Mickey Hazard never wanted to leave Spurs. He said that he was called into the manager's office one day to be informed that we had accepted a bid for him from Chelsea and it was up to him whether he wanted to move there. He said that when this happened to you, you were being told that you weren't wanted and kind of had to go really. Mickey said he managed to negotiate a better pay deal for himself at Chelsea but never wanted to go there.

On the morning of Mickey's first day's training at Chelsea he said he arrived really early as he had no idea how long it would take to drive there, he then sat in his car and literally cried for about an hour, thinking what a mistake he had made in leaving Spurs. He never enjoyed playing for Chelsea and wished he had stayed at Spurs, he said that playing for Spurs had always been his dream and he thought he should've ignored the fact that the club were willing to sell him and instead turned down the move and stayed and fought for his place. If he could live his years over again then he said this is exactly what he would do. When Mickey eventually came back to Spurs, he said it was like coming home.

The guy loves the club and thats apparent from every conversation I've had with him and when he goes public.

He was technically a great player but Hoddle was truly world class and with only one of the getting a regular place it made sense for Hazard to move

I agree 100% about Paul Stewart too as he was a top drawer midfielder for us and was starting to get England games. He wasn't a patch on that at Liverpoo

Generally most players rarely improve when leaving us but tats because are not the top of the tree so to speak. One who has improved is Rutledge but he was never good enough for us in the first place

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Richar Gough in the late 80's,we were lacking a top quality centre half for years and when he came alog we looked like a top quality side,if he stayed he would have been a legend i think he only left because his wife was home sick grrrrrr

He left to play European football with rangers who were spending heavily. We had a ban in England

 

[Finney Is Back]

He left to play European football with rangers who were spending heavily. We had a ban in England

See my post above.... The player, us and Rangers had done a deal a year before. Dundee United were very unhappy with us doing this.

 

[billyiddo]

Richar Gough in the late 80's,we were lacking a top quality centre half for years and when he came alog we looked like a top quality side,if he stayed he would have been a legend i think he only left because his wife was home sick grrrrrr

My Dad seems to think this deal was always a one year thing as whoever we signed him from wouldn't directly deal with whoever we sold him to


Edit - I see this has already been covered

 

[milo]

Kanoute showed up those on the wrong side of the split when he triumphed at Sevilla as mentioned above.

His technique was world class, we were foolish to let him go over what is now a fairly common occurrence of changing national team allegiance. His chest control/hold up play was a joy to behold.

He's a player I always enjoyed watching. What I am saying is that the view that most have of him now was not the consensus of him on this board when he was with us. His one in four goalscoring record was widely criticised and many thought that he was a streaky player. There was also quite a few who were angry about him switching countries and going to the ACN

 

[Raziel]

He's a player I always enjoyed watching. What I am saying is that the view that most have of him now was not the consensus of him on this board when he was with us. His one in four goalscoring record was widely criticised and many thought that he was a streaky player. There was also quite a few who were angry about him switching countries and going to the ACN

Completely agree with you, Kanoute's record in England (not just Spurs) was garbage, pretty/highlights reel player in English football. His domination of a poorer Spanish league (in that time, bottom 12-14 Spanish clubs were fudging dire) doesn't change that, and honestly never understood the post Spurs lovefest of Kanoute.

VDV is the modern player who should have stayed/retired with us ... (fudge you AVB)

 

[jts1882]

Berbatov.

He won trophies with United, but he was always peripheral to them. I wonder if feels it was worth it because he won them or not. Personally, I would find it rather hollow if my contributions were limited.

I find Roy Keane's response to missing the CL final more refreshing. Even though he played a major part in getting them there, he didn't feel he had won it. John Terry, of course, saw things differently.