The King of White Hart Lane

The Authorised Biography of Alan Gilzean

Mike Donovan

• Publisher: Pitch Publishing Ltd
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785316227
• Year: 2019

The King of White Hart Lane is the authorised life story of Alan Gilzean, the legendary, world-class Tottenham Hotspur, Dundee and Scotland footballer. Exclusive insights provided by his family, closest friends and colleagues add to the author's own experience to reveal Gilzean, the man and the player. A reserved, charming and intelligent individual who shunned the limelight off the field, Gilzean played with a swagger as a maker and taker of goals, especially alongside Jimmy Greaves at Spurs. We discover how the native of the Perthshire town of Coupar Angus became one of the greatest performers in the history of both his clubs. Gilzean emerged a Scottish folk hero having scored the winning goal against England in front of 133,000 at Hampden Park - and was later welcomed back with open arms by the game after ending a self-imposed exile during which the uninformed conjured often defamatory myths. The elegant striker dubbed 'Nureyev in Boots' left us on Sunday, 8 July 2018. There will never be another like him.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Prologue
• 1. Fly High, Grandad
• 2. Spiritual Home
• 3. Coupar Angus Remembers
• 4. ‘The Man Who Turned Down Alan Gilzean and The Beatles’
• 5. Goalscoring Machine
• 6. Gordon Smith’s Red Porsche
• 7. Ahead of Eusébio
• 8. A Man for All Seasons
• 9. Times They Are A-Changin’
• 10. A New Kingdom
• 11. G-Men
• 12. Peenie’s Picture House Dream Comes True
• 13. I Predict a Riot
• 14. ‘We Got On Well, Martin and Me’
• 15. Euro Glory
• 16. Behind the Scenes
• 17. Tweet
• 18. ‘The Saddest Day of My Life’
• 19. ‘That’s a Scottish Legend, Son’
• 20. Managing
• 21. Dad
• 22. ‘I’ve Never Been a Recluse’
• 23. The Last Suppers
• 24. ‘I Need Your Grace to Remind Me to Find My Own’
• 25. ‘Golden Sunset’
• 26. ‘We Didn’t Realise It’d Be So Quick’
• 27. ‘Gillie Would Be Outstanding Today’
• 28. The King’s Club Historians
• 29. The King’s Scribes
• 30. The King’s People
• Appendix: QI (Quite Interesting)
• Statistics
• Acknowledgements
• Quotation Credits
• Picture Credits
• Bibliography
• Photos