DOWN MEMORY LANE, BY HARRY HARRIS, PUBLISHED BY G2 ENTERTAINMENT, PRICE £9.99,
RATING OUT OF 10: 8
IF YOU’RE looking to buy a Christmas present for a Tottenham fan without leaving a massive hole in your pocket, then Down Memory Lane is a decent shout.
Vastly experienced journalist Harry Harris, probably best known from his days with the Daily Mirror, has been a Spurs fans since the 60s and has followed them through thick and thin.
In Down Memory Lane, he takes a look back at how the north London side have fared over the last half century and there are plenty of stories to entertain fans young and old.
Perhaps one of the most interesting parts of the book is when Harris is setting out as a journalist in the early 70s and gets the chance to take over covering his favourite team for the North London Weekly Herald group of newspapers.
While access to top players these days is much more limited, back then life was much easier for reporters in terms of getting interviews with players.
Harris also had weekly meetings with Tottenham’s legendary boss Bill Nicholson to fill him in on the goings on at White Hart Lane.
After being embarrassed at arriving late on one occasion, Harris made sure he was there in plenty of time the next week – and Nicholson surprised him by giving him a gold watch inscribed with AC Milan, who had recently had a match against Spurs and had presented Nicholson with the timepiece.
“Now,” said Nicholson with a huge smile, “never tell me your watch has stopped again.”
While there is a bit too much ‘Irving Scholar-Alan Sugar-Terry Venables battle for Spurs’ stuff in the book for my liking, this is a good romp through the years. There are some nuggets – like Gerry Francis explaining why he didn’t want to sign Dennis Bergkamp before arch-rivals Arsenal pounced (he was too like Teddy Sheringham).
Harry does tend to big up his influence at times and I suppose you can’t blame him, though he is happy for others to joke about his football ability. Once he played up front for a media team with ex-Newcastle and Arsenal striker Malcolm Macdonald.
“I have seen players who can’t kick with their right foot, I’ve seen players who can’t kick with their left foot, but until now I have never played alongside someone who can’t kick with either foot!” quipped Macdonald.
One of the cleverest ideas in the book is getting former Tottenham players, managers and fans to vote for their greatest ever Spurs XI. So if you want to know who the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Gary Mabbutt and Harry Redknapp selected and who made the final line-up, then I won’t spoil it for you.
As for Harris, he’s hoping for Spurs to win another league title to match the one he remembers from 1960-61.
He just doesn’t want things to go a bit ‘spursy’ again.
