Bill Nicholson

Football's Perfectionist

Brian Scovell

• Publisher: John Blake
• eBook ISBN:
  9781843586692
• Year: 2011

Bill Nicholson was revered as one of the most honest football managers in the business. Between 1960 and 1964 he turned Tottenham Hotspur into the finest team in Britain. This book, the first biography of Nicholson, commemorates the 50th anniversary of Tottenham's pioneering 1961 Double, which Nicholson followed up in 1963 by becoming the first manager to win a European trophy. By moulding great players like Dave Mackay, Danny Blanchflower, John White, Cliff Jones and Jimmy Greaves into an almost perfectly balanced team, he set new standards of attacking play. Nicholson was born in Scarborough in 1919. At the age of 17 he took the night train alone to London, signed for Spurs on GBP2 a week and spent the rest of his life with the club as player, coach, manager, scout and President. He never had a contract, spurned bonuses and lived ten minutes' walk from the ground with his remarkable wife, who was known as Darkie, until his death in 2004. He is still revered by Tottenham fans as one of the most important figures in the club's history. This well-researched book offers a new, kinder impression of this much-loved man.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• CHAPTER ONE: : THE RIGHT IMAGE
• CHAPTER TWO: : A REAL NICE GENTLEMAN
• CHAPTER THREE: : NIGHT TRAIN TO LONDON
• CHAPTER FOUR: : ‘THE BEST THING I EVER DID’
• CHAPTER FIVE: : ARTHUR ROWE’S ELECTRIC SHOCKS
• CHAPTER SIX: : AN EARLY GOAL
• CHAPTER SEVEN: : PIPPING RAMSEY TO THE POST
• CHAPTER EIGHT: : ASSEMBLING HIS GREATEST TEAM
• CHAPTER NINE: : THE DOUBLE
• CHAPTER TEN: : KNOCKED OUT BY ALF RAMSEY’S HAYMAKERS
• CHAPTER ELEVEN: : ‘THE GREATEST GAME I’VE EVER PLAYED IN!’
• CHAPTER TWELVE: : STRUCK DOWN!
• CHAPTER THIRTEEN: : TOMMY DOCHERTY SLIPS UP
• CHAPTER FOURTEEN: : MARTIN CHIVERS PLAYS UP
• CHAPTER FIFTEEN: : EXPOSED BY HUNTER DAVIES
• CHAPTER SIXTEEN: : DISILLUSIONMENT SETS IN
• CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: : ‘GET YOUR HAIR CUT!’
• CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: : ON HIS BIKE
• CHAPTER NINETEEN: : BACK ON HOME SOIL AGAIN
• CHAPTER TWENTY: : THE FINAL FAREWELL
• Plates
• Copyright