Today I'm going back 36 years to 1985 to pre-Premier League days and one of my favourite ever Tottenham home games. This one was against Watford. It was another season opening fixture and was special for marking the debut of a couple of new signings for Spurs. One was Paul Allen and the other was a player who I had been following for a couple of seasons: Chris Waddle who had recently signed from Newcastle United.
I'd come across the young Waddler in the early 1980's whilst making an effort to try to see Kevin Keegan a few more times before he finally retired. Waddle was part of a Newcastle forward line that included himself, Kevin Keegan and a certain Peter Beardsley! What an attack! Living in Wetherby at the time and having a few Toon Army members amongst my friends, I did take the opportunity to get myself up to St James' Park in Keegan's final season. But it was Waddle who caught the eye in particular so I was absolutely thrilled when he was signed for Spurs by Peter Shreeves in the summer of 1985.
Against Watford, Waddle marked his debut with the first goal. He wasn't finished. After a goal from his fellow debutant Paul Allen, and another from Mark Falco, Waddle wrapped things up with his second and Tottenham's fourth to complete an impressive 4-0 victory. To modern eyes the attendance of just 29,884 that day looks disappointing but, once again, you need to remember that these were amongst the darkest days for hooliganism and football was simply not fashionable: people stayed away in their droves from all clubs.
Waddle had a long career which famously started as a part-timer with Tow Law Town whilst his main occupation at the time involved a sausage seasoning factory, before signing for Newcastle United in 1980. Waddle played 191 times for the Magpies (the club he appeared for the most times) scoring 52 goals before being sold to Tottenham. For Spurs Waddle played 173 times (42 goals) and attracted the attentions of Marseille's money bags Chairman Bernard Tapie who prised Waddle away from Spurs with a record transfer fee of £4.5 Million (the third highest ever in the world at the time). Whilst at Marseille, "Magic Chris" (his French nickname) won League 1 three times and also reached the European Cup Final in 1991, a match that Marseille lost on a penalty shoot out (no, Waddle didn't take one!). Waddle made 149 appearances for Marseille scoring 29 goals before being on the move once again, this time to Sheffield Wednesday in 1992 where he would go on to make 147 appearances and scored 15 goals. Waddle did go on to make appearances for a number of other clubs after Wednesday and, such was his love of the game, he was happy to play non-league football in the twilight of his career and, remarkably, in his 50's he came out of retirement to play for Hallam. I should also add that Waddle played 62 times for England and scored 6 goals although surely his most famous moment was missing that penalty against the West Germans in the World Cup Semi-Final in Turin in 1990. Irrespective of his penalty prowess, Waddle was and remains one of my most favourite footballers that I ever saw.
CRB Match No. 384
Comments
Post a Comment