The man who ran the show, and what a show it was. Always keeping the ball moving, the right half would wait for an opening and find a pass that the opposition had not seen and an angle that didn’t seem to exist. Several generations of my family considered him the finest player to grace the lilywhite shirt, reinforced by my father’s recollection that the Northern Irishman took on England almost single-handedly in a 1-1 draw at Wembley in 1961. A deep-thinking captain who temporarily lost the role in 1956 over onfield changes, Blanchflower became a forthright journalist and refused to go on This Is Your Life when confronted by the Big Red Book. He also caused controversy with Barnsley when he demanded to use a ball in training and later said of the game: “It is full of beautiful movements, ballet movements, if you like. It was never meant to be played in the air. Let’s give the public real football.” That summed it up: Blanchflower was all about the glory.

It is often overlooked that the powerful half back could beat a player just as easily as he could stop one in his tracks. Mackay suffered two broken legs, the second in a reserve match as he was returning from the first, but his spirit remained intact during a punishing recovery programme of strengthening exercises and dieting. That drive – accompanied by fine vision and passing – pushed Spurs to success in the Sixties, culminating in Mackay captaining the side to victory in the 1967 FA Cup Final . A warrior of a player who walks with a bow-legged gait that stems from a career of exertion, the Scot would make a worthy Spurs No 1 but for one other legend . . .

How do you improve the seemingly unimprovable? Answer: sign Jimmy Greaves. Bill Nicholson added the inside forward to the Double-winning side in December 1961 and he proved to be worth every one of the 99,999 pounds paid to AC Milan. A hat-trick on debut set Greaves on the way to an extraordinary Spurs scoring ratio bettered by his 44 goals in 57 England appearances. A natural predator’s instinct and finishing ability allied to pace and control - illustrated by his scything run against Manchester United in 1965 - made Greaves the finest goalscorer Spurs and England have known.

Like Paul Gascoigne, a midfield artist who left indelible images of masterpieces for fans to savour, such as the volley against Manchester United in 1979, the turn and chip versus Watford in 1983 and the dribble and dummy that polished off Oxford United in 1987. And that’s just the goals. Hoddle’s true gift was shown in his unequalled vision and range of accurate passing. Such overflowing talent earned 53 England caps and a key role in Spurs’ FA Cup wins of 1981 and 1982 , but it deserved more.

Spurs supporters of sufficient age all remember where they were when Gascoigne scored in the 1991 FA Cup semi-final; Arsenal fans are still trying to establish David Seaman’s whereabouts at the time. The midfield player had already won our hearts when he slotted the ball into the net against the same opposition on his home debut – without a boot on his scoring foot. Aside from the goals there were any number of barrelling runs - full of extraordinary bodystrength and control – and defence-splitting passes. Gascoigne would take the ball, look up and power through a back four if the moment was right. Never mind the flaws, celebrate the genius.

The goalkeeper seemed bigger than his height of 6ft, which could be attributed to a habit of claiming crosses with one hand. Jennings arrived in North London on the recommendation of Ron Burgess, his manager at Watford, and won 119 Northern Ireland caps along with one FA Cup , two League Cups and a Uefa Cup with Spurs. His White Hart Lane years were also marked by the FWA and PFA awards, and a goal in the 1967 Charity Shield, before Spurs let Jennings go to Arsenal in the belief that his career was drawing to a close. The old enemy got eight years out of Spurs’ best No 1.

England once plucked their fast bowlers from mines; Spurs found a footballing legend down one. The Welshman worked as a pit boy before being taken on in the club’s junior ranks but was told he would not make the grade. The inside forward, as he was then, chose to watch an A-team game before his departure but was used at right half because Spurs were a man short and his fate was sealed. Known for his attacking verve and stamina at wing half, the Wales international captained the side to the second and first division titles in 1949-50 and 1950-51, and played for a Great Britain XI against Europe in 1947.

There was more to come from John White, we’ll just never know how much. The Scotland inside forward, whose knack of finding space earned him the nickname of “The Ghost”, was a vital cog in a well-oiled machine and is still spoken of in reverential terms by those fortunate enough to see him play. Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay steered Bill Nicholson towards a player considered frail, but a commendation from the Army about his cross-country abilities swung the deal. An ever-present in the Double-winning season, this bewitching talent was killed by lightning at Crews Hill Golf Club, North London, aged 27.

Call it a knack, an instinct or a striker’s intelligence, but Lineker was invariably in the right place at the right time for Spurs and England, for whom he scored 48 goals in 80 games. The arch predator gave his rivals a head-start in his first season at the club, taking six games to get off the mark in all competitions, but still finished top of the first division scoring charts. Lineker’s two goals in the FA Cup semi-final in 1991 summed him up: finding space in the penalty area for the first and then using his speed to round Tony Adams for the second.

A class act who joined from West Ham United for £200,000 with Jimmy Greaves going in the other direction, which was a measure of the player in itself. Peters, who won 67 England caps, had complete game in midfield – accurate passing, acute awareness of team-mates, an eye for a dangerous late run and supreme heading ability as part of a powerful aerial triumvirate with Alan Gilzean and Martin Chivers. Spurs won three trophies in successive seasons during Peters’s time at the club but they prematurely sold him to Norwich City.

The son of a professional boxer, Ditchburn was an ever-present goalkeeper in the sides that won promotion to the first division in 1949-50 and the league title the next season in a run of 247 consecutive appearances between April 1948 and March 1954. That this durability, when goalkeepers were hunted by forwards rather than protected by referees, earned only six England caps says more about those ranked above him than Ditchburn’s quality. The stalwart was the last survivor of the 1950-51 title-winning side when he retired in 1959, eight months after breaking a finger.

Also known as the mumbling half of the duet that inflicted Diamond Lights on an unsuspecting Top of the Pops audience, a single that reached the Geordie’s position in this list. Waddle was better suited on either wing than behind a microphone and would torment a full back so that he didn’t know whether he been turned inside out or outside in. With a dip of the shoulder he was gone, to deliver a swinging cross. The former sausage and meat pie factory worker won 62 England caps but disgraced himself again after being sold to Marseilles for £4.5 million, the third-highest fee in the world at the time, when he sung We’ve Got a Feeling with Basile Boli. All together now, “My diamond lights, I’ll always want you…”

A two-footed player capable of performing with distinction on either wing, Jones joined from Swansea City and won a league title, three FA Cups and a Cup Winners’ Cup in his decade at the club. The courageous Jones – whose father, Ivor, and uncle, Bryn, were also Wales internationals – knew how to look after himself as well as having the pace, skill and even the heading ability to prompt a £100,000 offer from Juventus in 1962. After making mincemeat of full backs during his playing days, Jones went on to run a butchers in North London.

You know you’ve done something right at Spurs when your name features in a cup final song, in this case Ossie’s Dream. The Argentine kept “Tottingham” moving for a decade, with an interlude at Paris Saint-Germain prompted by the Falklands conflict. In tandem with Glenn Hoddle, the 5ft 6in midfield player shaped play with his vision and short passing, a footballing intelligence illustrated in his preference to pass to the edge of the penalty area from the byline rather than send in a typically English cross. Even a failed spell as Spurs manager reinforced his reputation for entertainment.

For one halcyon day in the summer of 1994 the world went barmy for Spurs fans. A club mired in mediocrity had signed one of the game’s leading strikers and we were going to unleash a five-pronged attack on the top flight. The German headed the winner in a 4-3 opening-day victory away to Sheffield Wednesday but you can’t win trophies with Klinsmann at one end and Stuart Nethercott at the other. Defenders who were run to within an inch of their lives by Klinsmann’s remorseless movement celebrated his departure after a season but the striker returned to keep Spurs up in 1997-98 with six goals in the last three games, including four away to Wimbledon.

The big Welshman had all the qualities a manager looks for in a centre back as well as several of those more readily associated with forwards. Maurice Norman’s replacement was strong and dominant in the air, but could also play the ball and helped out in Spurs’ forward line on several occasions. England won an FA Cup , Uefa Cup and League Cup (missing out on another through injury), as well as 44 caps.

An unreconstructed centre forward whose aggressive approach to leading the line earned him 33 goals in 43 games in 1960-61 and helped him to become the club’s second-highest goalscorer. Smith, who scored in the 1961 and 1962 FA Cup Finals, had more to his game than a physical style, though, and he adapted to form a fine partnership with Jimmy Greaves. A record of 13 goals in 15 England matches is also testimony to a master of his art.

The centre back said of his role in the Double-winning side that he “could have sat out there with a chair”, but he would probably still have won most of the headers. Norman allowed his team-mates to excel - whether protecting Bill Brown from crosses or giving Dave Mackay and Danny Blanchflower licence to press forward. Signed as a right back, the imposing England international relished striding upfield and led the way for defenders to be the focus at set-pieces, qualities that inspired Blanchflower to switch Norman to centre forward when needed. A leg broken in five places against a Hungarian Select XI forced his retirement, but only after two years spent trying to return. A fighter to the end.

There were plenty of tough tackles faced by English midfield players in the Sixties but Mullery was confronted by the two biggest challenges: replacing Danny Blanchflower in Spurs’ No 4 shirt and taking over the captaincy from Dave Mackay. The tireless worker did not shirk either test and he scored the tie-winning goals against AC Milan and Wolverhampton Wanderers in the last four and final respectively of the 1971-72 Uefa Cup before returning to Fulham.

It’s hard to believe that the forward scored all those goals given that he possessed little pace and seemed to spend most of his time bringing other players into the game. Spurs perfected the “Sheringham corner”, a short one that he would meet and hit first-time, before his departure to win the treble with Manchester United in 1999. Management greats such as Brian Clough, Terry Venables and Alex Ferguson were blessed to have an intelligent player in their ranks who won 51 England caps and played a starring role in the 4-1 thrashing of Holland in Euro 96.

Even Bill Nicholson was flummoxed, to the extent that he instructed team-mates to rough up the striker in training to bring out an aggressive side. The manager was clearly a believer, of sorts, but had to wait for a return as his side’s focal point was kept out for 11 months by a severed knee ligament suffered in September 1968. Chivers began to repay the faith in 1970-71 with an all-round game that extended to an effective long throw, but the England jury remained out and he earned only 24 caps, scoring 13 goals.

The goalkeeper’s success came down to fine margins after his arrival from Liverpool at 33. Restricted to 56 England caps by Peter Shilton’s brilliance, Clemence was ruled out of the 1984 Uefa Cup final through injury, missed two matches in 1986-87 as the club finished third and was defeated by an own goal in that season’s FA Cup Final having lost in the last four of the League Cup. The vocal defensive organiser shipped seven goals in his first two home matches but kept clean sheets in seven of the next eight games in all competitions.

The man who made heading an art form. Gilzean was a master of bringing players into the game, through aerial flick-ons or subtle touches, but it was his two goals for a Scotland Select XI against Spurs in a memorial match for John White in 1964 that caught the club’s eye. A £72,500 fee prised him from Dundee and Spurs had their replacement for Bobby Smith. Gilzean was an iconic figure at White Hart Lane for a decade as he formed fearsome partnerships with Jimmy Greaves and Martin Chivers.

One of several Spurs players to have revolutionised the way a position was perceived. The full back was a vital component in the “push and run” side that won the first division in 1950-51, making himself available to throws from the goalkeeper and playing accurate passes instead of launching the ball upfield. Ramsey, an accomplished penalty-taker, played his last England game in the footballing lesson that was the 6-3 defeat by Hungary at Wembley in 1953. Oh, and he turned out to be not a bad manager, either.

When a certain despicable individual departed in 2001, it presented the chance to replace a 6ft 2in, East London-born defender with a 6ft 2in East London-born defender – who could pass. Sol Campbell’s strength and aerial ability were superior but his successor is a more complete footballer, period. Indeed, the club’s biggest recent problem has been the fragile state of King’s knees. As the pace diminishes, though, it serves to illustrate what a fine reader of play the captain is and when Spurs walked out for the 2008 Carling Cup final , King’s very presence gave fans the belief that Chelsea could be beaten.

The name alone conjures images of long shorts and grainy photographs. Grimsdell joined from Watford in 1912 but was unavailable to Spurs during the war after enlisting. The half back soon made up for lost time, winning representative honours for England in the Victory internationals of 1919 and scoring 14 goals to help the club to win promotion in 1919-20. As well as possessing an eye for goal, Grimsdell was strong in the tackle but took almost a year to recover from a knee ligament injury in January 1924 and never regained his full powers after suffering a broken leg in October 1925. One of Spurs’ seven England captains

Perryman is usually celebrated as a stalwart who joined from school in 1967 and made more than 1,000 Spurs appearances including friendlies, but how many players possess the ability to earn the chance to show such loyalty? Similarly, how many have skills transferable enough to enable them to play in midfield, as a central defender and at right back, as well as captaining a side for a decade? Perryman’s honours include an England cap, the FWA player of the year award in 1982 and a pair of FA Cups, League Cups and Uefa Cups, but, almost as significantly, he stayed when Spurs were relegated in 1977.

Don’t let the statistics or a name that sounds suspiciously like a British fashion designer fool you; this skilful centre forward played more than 100 other first-team games for Spurs, on tour and in friendlies, while keeping up his day job as an architect. Beat that, Wayne Rooney. Woodward led England 13 times and captained Great Britain to victory in two Olympics. Before becoming a wartime captain in the Army, the accomplished dribbler squeezed in 23 internationals and held a record of 29 England goals that stood until 1958. Phew.

A local lad who lived the dream, scoring the only goal in the 1921 FA Cup Final against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the age of 20. Dimmock, Edmonton-born, was everything a modern supporter envisages of a classical winger, a player to take on a full back, get to the byline and send in a good cross. Contemporary fans loved the outside left and the England international helped the club to win promotion from the second division in his first season, 1919-20, before a second-place finish the year after the Cup Final success.

1997 was a dark time for Spurs. Arsenal looked to the Far East the previous year and found Arsene Wenger; Spurs looked now to Seven Sisters and found Christian Gross on platform 2 waving a Tube ticket. Fortunately, Ginola had joined from Newcastle United that summer to alleviate the gathering gloom. The Frenchman’s international career was over but the winger’s skill and balance preserved the Spurs ethos, even if he did go missing from games. Ginola won the PFA and FWA awards in 1999, the year of the Worthington Cup triumph and his mazy run to score away to Barnsley in the FA Cup, and made female supporters and opposition full backs go weak at the knees.

Chipped fourth metatarsal? Not quite; the chief impediment to Seed’s football was rather more serious than the bane of the modern player: a gas attack by German forces in the French trenches. Sunderland released the inside forward amid fears over his ability to recover but Spurs gambled and signed the 24-year-old from Mid-Rhondda. His dribbling and link play was crucial to the fine early Twenties side but he also covered Arthur Grimsdell’s forays forward. Seed was let go after a serious ankle injury but helped Sheffield Wednesday to finish a point above the relegated Spurs in 1927-28. Two first division titles followed as Wednesday captain in the subsequent seasons.

Like Danny Blanchflower, Mabbutt’s qualities went beyond the game. Diabetes, a three-month absence through a facial injury caused by John Fashanu’s elbow and a year’s recovery from a broken leg; all obstacles were overcome with dignity and courage by a player whose versatility put Steve Perryman to shame. The 5ft 9in Mabbutt – a capable right back, midfield player and forward – was at his best as a relatively short central defender who retained the scoring touch that helped him to record ten goals in his first Spurs season. A stabilising club servant.

Some would argue that the goalkeeper had the cushiest number in football, but it is a tribute to Brown’s quality and concentration that he earned his reputation behind such a dominant side. The Scot played all but one league match of the Double-winning season after joining from Dundee in 1959. A Scotland reserve for 22 games before winning the first of his 24 caps, Brown effectively shared a first-team place with Pat Jennings for two seasons before handing over the gloves for good to his worthy successor in 1966.

As a line-leading striker, Keane is probably tricky to play alongside, with his penchant for the unpredictable and dropping deep or wide, but he is certainly harder to play against. The Irishman with a twinkle in his feet has a magnificent first touch - often taking down goalkicks and beating a man in the process - while his second and third aren’t bad, either. A cheeky goal against Birmingham City in 2003 summed up a busy, alert approach that gave rise to a thousand choruses of “We all dream of a team of Robbie Keanes” in The Bricklayers.

Middlesbrough gave the colliery worker a chance in a trial and there was no looking back. Knowles was not cut from typical full-back cloth, with a 6ft frame, a nerveless tendency to dribble the ball away from danger and a cult status that inspired a hit song, Nice One, Cyril. Having started as a winger, Knowles complemented a strong aerial team and his dead-ball ability helped him to score a free kick and penalty in the final-game victory against Leeds United in 1975 that kept Spurs up.

Never won an England cap but nearly won the lot with his club. With Danny Blanchflower in front of him, Baker often held the fort as the captain drove attacks, a role the right back performed with such aplomb that he helped Spurs to secure a league title, two FA Cups and the Cup Winners’ Cup . Baker, who joined from Enfield in 1949 and honed his trade as Alf Ramsey’s understudy, missed one game in the Double-winning season. Spurs lost the match after a run of six victories in all competitions . . . QED.

Full backs are often overlooked in lists such as these but it would be wrong to omit anyone from a Double-winning side whose success was so dependent on the team-mates’ chemistry. This spot might have been Mel Hopkins’s but Henry ousted the Wales left back, with the help of an injury or two, and became an ever-present in 1960-61. The Shoreditch-born player won one England cap, a 5-1 defeat by France in Alf Ramsey’s first game in charge, and scored his only goal, from 35 yards, against Manchester United in 1965.

An uncapped Englishman whose contribution as an ever-present in the Double-winning side is often neglected, even though he scored the title-winning goal against Sheffield Wednesday. Allen linked play superbly until the signings of Jimmy Greaves and Alan Gilzean sent him to Queens Park Rangers but a son, Clive, and nephew, Paul, revived the family name at White Hart Lane in the Eighties. The forward struck five goals in a 13-2 FA Cup victory against Crewe Alexandra in 1960, a game that my father left at half-time because of overcrowding. Given that Spurs were 10-1 up at the interval, I’ll let him off.

When the No 4 shirt passed from Nicholson after his last game to Danny Blanchflower in the next, few could have imagined the event’s significance. “Mr Tottenham Hotspur” joined the groundstaff after working as a laundry boy and the right half’s tackling and passing made him a fine fit for the “push and run” side that won the first division in 1950-51. Billy Wright’s presence limited Nicholson to one England cap, in 1951, when he scored against Portugal with his first kick, but greater deeds followed for a man who played and managed by a philosophy laid out when he said: “It’s no use just winning, we’ve got to win well.” A legend who should have been knighted.

Guernsey’s finest export, with the possible exception of its cow-related products. A Spurs fan on the island recommended the centre forward to the club and it proved a sound tip-off. “The Duke” combined a burly physique with relentless hard work as Spurs won promotion in 1949-50 and the first division title the next season. While Duquemin was not the most skilful striker to play for Spurs, he was a perfect fit given that Les Bennett and Eddie Baily could provide creativity as the inside forwards.

Separating Archibald and Garth Crooks feels like breaking up Morecambe and Wise but the Scot had the edge over his straight-man striking partner. Archibald finished an apprenticeship as a Rolls-Royce mechanic before he turned professional and used his football skills to restore some of Spurs’ vintage polish after several barren years. We fans may have sung: “We’ll take more care of you, Archibald”, but it was a reciprocal relationship that yielded two FA Cups and a Uefa Cup before the quick forward moved to Barcelona for £1.25 million.

One of the few men to have donated his body to medical science while still alive. “Sicknote” won 30 England caps while changing from a quick winger with a fine cross, as shown in the final goal against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in 1994, to a ball-winning central midfield player with good distribution. The goals at Highbury in 1993, when he carried the ball from the halfway line, and against Leeds United in 1999 showed that Anderton could score as well as create but injuries prevented the true fulfilment of “Shaggy’s” talent.

Regardless of a less-than-flattering portrayal in Hunter Davies’s The Glory Game, Baily was a fine servant to the club as an inside left and assistant to Bill Nicholson for a decade from 1963. The “Cheeky Chappie” won nine England caps and was a highly skilled conduit between defence and attack. Indeed, Arthur Rowe, under whom Spurs won the first division in 1950-51, said: “Baily’s advantage is the natural way he plays the game as we try to teach it at Tottenham.” That the cockney was valued by the managers of Spurs’ two championship-winning sides is testimony enough.

There are “fifth Beatles” in any great side but at least the winger reclaimed the starting place that he lost in the Double season to Terry Dyson and played in the victorious 1962 FA Cup Final against Burnley. Medwin, who competed in enough games to secure a league championship medal in 1960-61, and Tony Marchi, also on the fringes that campaign, would have graced most teams and the former held sway until 1960. A broken leg suffered on a club tour to South Africa in 1963 ended a career that finished on 30 Wales caps.

The left winger fought Terry Medwin for a first-team place but played and excelled when it mattered most. The jockey’s son missed only two games in all competitions as Spurs won the Double in 1960-61, making light of his 5ft 3in stature to score a header in the FA Cup Final , but had his finest 90 minutes in the 1963 Cup Winners’ Cup Final . Spurs tore into Atletico Madrid in Rotterdam and won 5-1, with Dyson scoring twice.

“Harmer the Charmer” was blessed with extraordinary skills and damned by appalling timing, having played his first Spurs game in the season after the 1950-51 title triumph and his last in the campaign before they won the Double. Arthur Rowe delayed Harmer’s first-team debut because he was less “push and run”, more “hold and dribble” but the 5ft 6in crowd favourite forced his way in, despite the failure of special diets and training to bulk him up, and famously “scored one goal and set up nine” in the 10-4 victory against Everton in 1958.

The hard tackler wouldn’t just put an opposition player in the stands, he’d send him to a seat with a bird’s-eye view. Roberts, whose challenge gave Charlie Nicholas the chance to shake hands with the crowd at Highbury in 1986, was a perfect complement to Spurs’ artists. A first Wembley final came 13 months after he had been working as a fitter in a shipyard and eight years on from his appearance at the stadium as a ballboy. It would be wrong to downplay Roberts’s skill, which enabled him to shine in midfield, but it was his central-defensive displays in an axis of brutality with Paul Miller that made him a cult hero. Those who would champion Richard Gough’s claims for this spot can feel free to take up the issue with Mr Roberts - he’ll see you outside.

An indulgent pick given the centre forward’s limited time at the club, but the Scot’s record feats echo through the ages: 15 goals in the run to the FA Cup triumph in 1901 as he scored in every round, including three past the 20st goalkeeping mass that was Bill “Fatty” Foulke in the final against Sheffield United and its replay. Brown could finish with either foot and took a physical approach to playing up front. He would have won international honours at Spurs but the game against England at Ibrox in 1902 was declared void because of the stand collapse that killed 25 people.

Try word association with Spurs fans and chances are that when you say “Clive Allen” the response will be “49”. The number of goals the striker scored in 1986-87 marks him out with Tottenham even though he dropped into more London clubs than Ashley Cole on a night out. However, it was only right that Spurs were one of his seven teams in the capital given that his father, Les, played at White Hart Lane. We’d love to say Clive was more than a penalty-box player, but he wasn’t, and the 1987 PFA and FWA awards showed there isn’t anything wrong in that.

Yes, it was the biggest act of treachery perpetrated on the club when this **insert own expletive here** turned to the dark side after stalling on a contract offer and he’s been demoted accordingly, but Campbell was also a mighty fine defender. Never has a player inspired such confidence in one-on-one situations, whether shepherding out the ball as a forward bounced off him or in a race for possession, while his strength and dominant heading carried Spurs through many games. The centre back captained the club to the Worthington Cup triumph in 1999 but we’ll move on, there are real heroes to address . . .