Desert Island Football Histories - Tottenham Hotspur: Champions of England 1950-51 & 1960-61

Tottenham Hotspur so far have only captured two League Championships, but what they lack in quantity they recompense in quality. Both Championship teams were famed for innovative play that set new standards in the history of English club football. The appointment of Arthur Rowe as manager in 1949 quickly transformed Spurs from an average Second Division side into the best in the country. This he achieved with revolutionary tactics known as Push and Run. They had been inspired in boyhood kickabouts in streets and playgrounds, but when adopted by Spurs proved to be unlike anything the English game had ever seen. That 1950-51 side spawned a future World Cup-winning manager in Alf Ramsey. It also featured the man who stands as the colossus of White Hart Lane. Bill Nicholson took the helm in 1958 and fashioned a team which is arguably the best this country had ever seen. In 1960-61 Spurs raced to the first League and Cup double of the Twentieth Century, achieving that distinction with such panache that they captured the hearts of millions, in this country and abroad. This book chronicles how two different managerial geniuses moulded their players into title-winners, and how, in the process, they changed the face of football. In their turn, Rowe and Nicholson stamped their mark on Tottenham Hotspur: Champions of England.