Danny Blanchflower

1954-1963
Appearances: 382. Goals: 21.
Captain - First Division title winner - 1960/61. FA Cup - 1961, 1962. UEFA CWC - 1963.
Football Writers' Association (FWA) Footballer of the Year 1958 and 1961
56 caps for Northern Ireland.

One of the most inspirational footballers of all-time, Danny Blanchflower captained our famous double side in 1960-61 and left an indelible mark in 10 years at the club.

One of the finest players to pull on the white shirt, Blanchflower was 28 when Arthur Rowe secured his signature for £30,000 from Aston Villa in December 1954.

He kick-started his professional career at home in Northern Ireland with Glentoran in December 1945 before his move to England and Barnsley for £6,500 in 1949.

Villa paid £15,000 for his services in 1951 before Rowe outbid Arsenal to bring him to the Lane. From his debut at Manchester City in 1954 through to retirement 10 years later, Blanchflower barely missed a game in clocking up 382 appearances for the club.

Legacy Number 420, Blanchflower had every attribute an attacking wing-half needed, skilful, graceful, a superb passer of the ball and a superb reader of the game with a knack of finding space and hurting defences.

More than that though he was an inspirational captain who earned the respect of the players around him and a tactician who could take Bill Nicholson's game plans from the dressing room to the pitch.

He was named Player of the Year in 1957/58 - finishing that season by leading Northern Ireland to the quarter-finals of the World Cup - and won the same honour after our double success in 1961, this time at the age of 35.

Another FA Cup and skippering the side to Britain's first European honour in the UEFA Cup Winners Cup in 1963 followed before a knee injury finally took it's toll and Blanchflower retired in June 1964, aged 38.

Having retired, Blanchflower excelled as a journalist but still returned to the game to manage Chelsea and Northern Ireland.

Sadly, he lost his life to a debilitating illness in 1993.

Featured in the Tottenham Hotspur Opus, Danny’s double-winning team-mates Cliff Jones and Bobby Smith speak about their captain...

Jones: Danny was a character, wasn’t he?

Smith: Yeah, but he was some player. Some people used to have a go at Danny, but he knew what he was doing.

Jones: Bill was the manager and he would tell us what to do. But when we went onto the field, Danny would take over. If there were any changes to be made, Danny would organise them. He was intelligent and he was a very good player. Tactically, there was a lot of stuff he saw on the field that the rest of us didn‘t.

Jones: I remember in one of the first games I played alongside Danny, he turned round to me and said, ‘Cliff? Do you realise the ball is round, it’s going to roll?’ And I said ‘Yes’ and he said, ‘Why don’t you pass the thing then?’! That was his way [Laughs].

Smith: But he was a great player wasn’t he? I liked Danny. He was his own man.

Jones: He kept himself to himself as well. He was very popular among the players. He kept away from some of us at times because we were always being a little bit silly and mad, but he was a great captain for Tottenham Hotspur.

Smith: His team talks went on a bit though, didn’t they Cliff?

Jones: [Sighs] Oh yes. Bill would have his team talk and he’d tell us what to do.

Smith: We were footballers. We listened, but we didn’t say anything. Once he was finished everybody shut up and Bill would say, ‘Does anybody want to say anything?’ Danny would always say ‘yes’. And then he would be talking and none of us would understand a word of what he was saying. He would go on and on and on. It would go right over our heads. He’d go on for about 20 minutes. Then he’d say ‘I’m just going to finish on this point now’. Then he’d go on for another 20 minutes. But that was Danny for you.

Smith: He’d talk all day, but he was a nice lad and a great player.