Hi,

Let me tell you about Ally Dick. Because unlike our other episodes, I know most of you probably don’t know the name this time - and I want to make sure you don’t skip over this interview. 

As you listen to this hopefully just before the second leg of Spurs v Ajax, here is a player who links those two great football clubs. 

As a youngster, Ally was an electrifying talent, a winger who had his pick of the top clubs in Britain and chose Spurs. 

He was a UEFA Cup winner with Tottenham – he came off the bench in the 1984 final but ended that game, which went to penalties, unable to run due to badly damaged ligaments in his knee. 

He was signed by Johan Cruyff at Ajax to play in the same team as Marco Van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, the emerging Danny Blind and a young thruster called Dennis Bergkamp.

The reason that you don’t know his name as well as you know those of his teammates is the debilitating series of injuries that punctuated his short career as an elite footballer. 

But listen to this, the first part of our interview, focusing on Spurs, and you’ll get a unique portrait of a kid with the world at his feet in the early 1980s – a natural, uncoached talent whose only tactical instruction at Spurs was: do your thing.

Enjoy!

Graham

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.