Ten things...
Tottenham
1 Considering many 19th century English summers were known to be inclement, quite a number of all-weather football teams were formed by rained off cricketers. Hotspur FC was one such derivative of a cricket club that played on fields in north London. Perhaps it's not too surprising that both games were based on eleven a side.
2 This footy side moved to and from Tottenham Marshes, then onto Northumberland Park in 1888 when the Football League started up. By 1899 Tottenham Hotspur took up residence at White Hart Lane. It must have been a serious undertaking because they took their grandstand with them!
3 As a Southern League outfit Hotspur won the FA Cup in 1901. It was equivalent of a League 1 team reaching Wembley today but definitely knocked back those superior dirty northern bastards a tad.
4 By WW1 Spurs got to be a FL div1 club but after that war were demoted in league alterations. Ex-Woolwich Arsenal were somehow elevated from nowhere to assume their place. So yeah, they didn't all live happily ever after in the capital - especially north of the river Thames.
5 In 1928 and once more a div1 side, Spurs finished their fixtures early as a mid table mediocrity. On coming home from a continental tour they'd suddenly and surprisingly been relegated. Well what a cock and ball story to tell the grandchildren from opposite the old west stand.
6 After WW2 push and run tactics got Tottenham among elite. It was fast and furious and amazingly simple but could it bring a championship? Well yes actually, back-to-back titles by 1951.
7 The sixties were great years for Spurs, London and England. Ask your granddad to explain why Greaves thought it was a funny old game.
8 The seventies saw a blip in fortunes but then came the World Cup in Argentina in 1978. For a change we saw footy South American style up the High Road on a Saturday afternoon.
9 Alan Sugar and Terry Venables, was it a match made in heaven? Or a trial run for apprentice football club executive-ship where one always got fired?
10 Enter the new millennium and would George Graham get them any sort of success, let alone a double? Maybe cockerels would fly, like a winged version of Hotspurs symbol.
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