Today is the 67th birthday of Terry Venables, otherwise known as ‘El Tel’, or ‘Tel Boy’, as the tabloids christened him when he became our manager.

Venables association with Tottenham began in 1966 when he signed from Chelsea for £80,000. Venables played for Spurs for three seasons before being transferred to QPR. Despite making 115 league appearances and scoring 19 goals, Venables was never really accepted at Tottenham, by a crowd that still had memories of the glorious double team of 61.

In 1987 Tottenham sacked David Pleat a couple of months after Venables was given the boot from Barcelona. He was soon appointed as our manager and the papers labeled him as Spurs’ saviour.

Venables didn’t turn out to be the next Bill Nick, but he certainly did well in the job. He brought players like Gascoigne and Lineker to White Hart Lane, but he also had his fair share of dud buys. One of his favourites, Terry Fenwick springs to mind, while the £1.7m spent on Paul Stewart was a huge investment at the time, which was only justified when the striker was converted to a midfielder, after a couple of fairly fruitless seasons.

Still, Venables guided Spurs to third in 1990 (which would be an achievement that would warrant open top bus parades and commemorative DVDs galore, these days) and won the FA Cup in 1991, amidst uncertainty regarding the club’s future, due to the huge debt owed to the Midland Bank.

At the time of our FA Cup win, Venables was frantically trying to get a consortium together to buy Spurs and eventually got financial backing from Alan Sugar. Upon purchasing the club, we were told that Venables would handle the football side of things and Sugar the financial side. It looked like a match made in heaven, but it proved to be anything but.

Venables became chief executive, with Peter Shreeves and then later, Ray Clemence and Doug Livermore taking charge of the first team. Looking back it seems like a strange move. We’d always heard that Venables was good on the training field and a man that players loved to work with, so why would he be satisfied with a glorified ‘Director of Football’ role behind the scenes?

The truth is that unlike many people working in football, Venables always had aspirations and interests outside of the game. He formed his first limited company aged 17 and had ambitions in the business side of football, dating back to his time as boss of QPR.

You do wonder what might have happened had Venables just carried on coaching and managing the players, as he did up to 1991 and left the off field stuff for Sugar. That might have proved a dream ticket. Instead the two men ended up stepping on each others toes and Venables was sacked from his position in 1993.

The fans and the players were on Venables’ side but money talks and Sugar was the man who had it and control of the club. Ossie Ardiles was appointed as manager to appease the supporters and once again, what looked like the makings of a good side at Tottenham, was allowed to disintegrate. Back to square one.

Since his time at Spurs, Venables has flitted between jobs, most notably and successfully with England. He took the national team to within a penalty shoot out of reaching our first major final since 1966, but instead of building upon this achievement, resigned from his position to devote his time to clearing his name, in connection with off-the-field business dealings.

It kind of sums things up. Terry’s off-field exploits having got in the way of what he was really good at. Venables saw himself as a renaissance man, with many strings to his bow. Some of his activities, such as the Hazell novels that he wrote with Gordon Williams were harmless enough, but the business deals have cast a dark shadow over his successes as a manager. It created a certain distrust when Venables was linked to a managerial role, as was the case when he was rumoured to take over as the Republic of Ireland boss in 2007 and had Eamon Dunphy shouting all over the television in protest.

At 67 it seems doubtful that Venables will ever get a major job in football again. His best hope (if he’s still interested) is that he might get a position as an international coach somewhere. He remains a successful TV pundit, these days popping up on Sky.

His managerial legacy is that of a ‘nearly man’ in terms of honours, whose teams played expansive football that was easy on the eye. The La Liga title won with Barcelona and the FA Cup with Spurs remain the only major trophies that he won. You can’t help thinking that a man of his talents might have achieved more, but for other distractions.

I don’t think though that Venables is the type of bloke to have many regrets. He’s remained his own man, making the decisions that he wanted to, rather than what was expected of him. When you live by the sword you have to be ready to die by it too.

Despite all the ups and downs in his life, ‘El Tel’ remains a well-liked figure, especially amongst Spurs fans. Let’s hope he has a happy birthday and enjoys himself today. Somehow I have the feeling that Terry doesn’t know how to live life in any other way.

The king of White Hart Lane is 52 years old today. Hoddle is my favourite Tottenham player of all time. I only caught the tail of his career at Tottenham, but the effortless way in which he played the game left an indelible mark on me.

Here was a man who epitomised the ideals that Tottenham Hotspur stands for. Playing football with just that extra bit of style and swagger than the opposition can muster.

Glenn made 490 appearance for Tottenham in all competitions, scoring 110 goals. Only four players have played more times for Spurs than Hoddle.

Whilst browsing the stats I was surprised at his goalscoring record at Monaco, after he left us. In 1988/89 he scored 18 league goals. What a shame that Hoddle’s spell in France didn’t coincide with an era when action from Europe’s top league was televised in the UK. As a Spurs supporter the idea of Hoddle in a Wenger team is a slightly disturbing one, but you can imagine the quality of football that was served up.

The point of Hoddle being born in the wrong era, has been one that has often been made over the years. English football just didn’t understand him at the time in which he plied his trade.

Various managers tried to shoehorn him into rigid 4-4-2 systems that didn’t make the most of the man’s talent. These days you’d like to think that he’d be given a free role, playing just off the main striker. Platini’s comment that Hoddle would have won 150 caps if he had been French, was a sad indictment of our game.

But let’s not look back at what might of been and celebrate what Hoddle gave us. His spell as manager didn’t work out as well as anyone would have liked, but he’s still treated like a conquering hero when he returns to the Lane. Happy birthday Glenn. Thanks for these memories.

Today is the 29th birthday of Ledley King. If Ledders had not been plagued by injury, he may well have been the rock in England’s central defence on Saturday. Instead injury prevented him from adding to his 20 caps and we don’t even know when he will next be available for Tottenham.

The paradox is that if injury had not blighted Ledley’s career and he was now the first choice in England’s defence, then it is questionable as to whether he would still be at Spurs at all. Berbatov and Carrick both left for fortunes. What price then a fully fit King?

Having said that, if our skipper had not been injured towards the end of the 2005/06 season, then there’s every chance that we would have finished above Arsenal and qualified for the Champions League (even taking into account the dodgy lasagne). Had we finished fourth that season then who knows where Tottenham would be now.

The Champions League is the sort of stage that King should be gracing. Another is the World Cup finals. Capello clearly rates King very highly, but the question is whether he will take the risk of selecting a player that he knows needs plenty of rest between appearances. If either Terry or Ferdinand were injured, then there’s no better player than Ledley for a one off game, but what if the injury comes early and more than one game is required?

Most Spurs fans would rather that our Ledley didn’t play for England again and restricted his appearances to our lily white shirt. Such selfishness is only natural when it concerns such a revered figure at White Hart Lane. Here is a player that has been one of our greatest ever defenders and yet every game that we watch him play, involves us having to live with the fear that it will be his last.

No one knows how long Ledley can play on for. In terms of quality he’s still streets ahead of our other defenders, despite their merits. Yet even the most selfish Spurs fan wouldn’t want to see the man crippled. Whilst Ledley and Harry are happy with the situation, we should make the most of this true Tottenham great.

God save our King. Happy birthday Ledley.

Jermain Defoe is 27 years old today. It’s the point of a footballer’s career when they really should be at their peak and this certainly seems to be the case with our striker.

When Defoe burst onto the scene whilst at loan on Bournemouth, he hit 18 goals in 29 games. He looked like the same sort of natural goalscorer as Michael Owen and it was assumed that he would hit similar heights in his career.

We’ve yet to see this become a reality. The most league goals that Defoe has ever scored since that spell at Bournemouth, was 13 for Tottenham in 2004/05. In that season he also scored 9 goals in cup competitions to take his total tally to 22. This remains the only season that Defoe has scored 20+ goals.

Of course a large proportion of Defoe’s career has been spent on the bench at White Hart Lane, which has obviously had a negative impact on his goals per game ration. However, it should be remembered that had Defoe was originally preferred to Keane by Martin Jol and was only put on the bench when the Irishman had outscored him from his cameo appearances. As in most walks of life, you can very much make your own luck in football.

These days there’s no room for excuses. Defoe seems very much the first choice for Harry Redknapp, despite Keane wearing the captain’s armband. He’s repaid the faith put in him by getting off to a flying start this season, both for club and country.

If this form continues then there’s every reason to believe that this could be Defoe best season ever. He looks stronger these days and his all-round game looks better, but he will still be judged by his goalscoring exploits. It’s time to break that 20+ barrier again…

Defoe hardly needs more motivation than the fact that Fabio Capello is such a big fan. Barring a complete loss of form or injury, Defoe is assured of a World Cup berth and at this stage looks to have every chance of forcing his way into the team. The future’s in your hands Jermain and it’s looking decidedly rosy.

Born on the 28th August 1962, Paul Allen became the youngest player to play in a Wembley FA Cup final, when he appeared for West Ham in their 1-0 win over Arsenal in 1980.

In 1985, when still only 22 years old, Allen saw the light and joined the mighty Spurs for £400,000. He made his debut in a 4-0 win over Watford. In total Allen made 370 appearances for Tottenham ,scoring 28 goals.

It’s fair to say that Paul Allen was something of an unsung hero at Spurs. He was a vital part of David Pleat’s 1986/87 side, that played with a then revolutionary 4-5-1 formation. In a side that featured the likes of Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle, Ossie Ardiles and cousin Clive, Paul Allen was a vital cog in the machine.

Allen was also a vital part of the Gascoigne/Lineker Spurs vintage, which won the FA Cup in 1991. Indeed, Gascoigne named him as one of the best players that he played alongside. Considering that Allen combined footballing ability with a great work rate, it is a shame that he was never given a chance at international level.

He will always be held in high esteem though by those that saw him at Tottenham and has been inducted as a member of our hall of fame. Paul’s birthday seems the perfect excuse to host this video of our road to Wembley in 1991, where he can be seen creating a number of goals en-route.

Today is the birthday of Ricky Villa, which seems as good as reason as any, to crack open some YouTube goodness.

Having joined Spurs from Racing Club in 1978, Villa went on to make 133 appearances, scoring 18 goals. Of those goals, none was more important than his amazing individual effort in the 1981 FA Cup Final, though his effort against Wolves in the Semi Final, was also an absolute cracker. For your viewing pleasure I give you both goals. COYS!

Gareth Bale is 20 years old today, but it’s easy to forget just how young he still is. I thought he looked brilliant for us when we first signed him, but then injury disrupted his debut season.

Last season wasn’t so good, but that’s no reason to write him off completely. Nor is the oft-quoted statistic about never being in a winning side for Spurs in a Premier League game. Look at what leaps and bounds Aaron Lennon has made in the last 12 months, or Benoit Assou Ekotto for that matter.

So let’s hope that Gareth is given the chance to fulfill his potential, wish him happy birthday and enjoy this goal (even if we did end up losing on the day).