Tony Marchi remembers his surprising move from Spurs to Juventus

Tony Marchi is one of only a small handful of players to have been on the books of Spurs and Juventus.

One of our oldest surviving former players, we were fortunate enough to spend some time with our former midfielder at his home recently as he celebrated his 85th birthday.

Tony, the only player who was around during both our First Division title wins in 1951 and 1961 and who was part of our 1963 European Cup Winners’ Cup-winning side, was in fine form as he recounted some of his memories of his time at both clubs with marvellous clarity.

Read some of his stories below and look out for more in Wednesday night’s official matchday programme for the visit of Juve in the UEFA Champions League...

About Tony Marchi

Born in Edmonton but with paternal roots in Italy, Tony made his Spurs debut as a 17-year-old under Arthur Rowe in April, 1950. Versatile enough to play numerous roles, he was appointed captain in the mid-1950s before joining Juventus in 1957. However, due to a technicality involving the registration of overseas players, he spent a season apiece on loan at Vicenza and Torino before returning to north London in 1959. Often used as a back-up to Danny Blanchflower or Dave Mackay, he played six times as we won the Double in 1961 before starting in our famous 5-1 thrashing of Atletico Madrid in May, 1963, as we became the first British team to lift a major European trophy. He left us in 1965, having scored seven goals in 260 appearances.

Tony’s memories

Early days at Spurs
“Arthur Rowe was a great manager, a gentleman. When I was 16, he took me to two or three games with the first team, just to sit in the stands next to him and he used to point out different things. I was very honoured to sit next to Arthur Rowe, wasn’t I? I had my first few games at the end of the 1949-50 season. I think it was Bill Nicholson who got injured actually and that’s what gave me the chance to go in and play. Then it was back to square one, back to the reserves. After two or three months, I had to do two years’ national service in the army. I was 18. The first year after I came back wasn’t too successful, but then Arthur Rowe went and bought the tactician, Danny Blanchflower, for the magnificent sum of £30,000. He was a very clever man and it gradually improved from there. We became runners-up to the great Manchester United side of the time and then off I went to Italy for two years.”

An unexpected Italian job
“We’d gone to Canada and America on a close-season tour in 1957 and when we got back, suddenly I started to read in the papers that I was going to get transferred to Juventus. I didn’t know anything about this. Whether the manager Jimmy Anderson knew, I don’t know. Anyway, my wife and I went on holiday to Jersey. We were having a nice time but the phone kept ringing. It was this agent and he kept on asking, ‘when are you coming home?’ I kept saying, ‘listen, I’ve been away for six or seven weeks, I’m here with my wife, I’m having a nice holiday, I’ll see you when I get back.’ Nearly every day the phone rang. ‘Where are you, why aren’t you coming back?’ In the end we finished our holiday and I had to go up to Tottenham to see the manager. He started to explain to me that they’d had an offer for me to go and play for Juventus and they’d accepted it. Brilliant. It was £40,000, a big transfer in those days.”

Red tape on arrival in Turin
“The richer teams in Italy were signing all these good foreign players, the Swedes especially because they were amateurs and they didn’t have to pay any transfer fees for them. The Italian football team wasn’t having a good time and they came to the conclusion that it was the foreigners who were stopping their younger Italian players from getting better, so they put the block on and said that Italian teams could only have one foreign player, plus one of Italian descent. I was the descendant. Juventus were hoping that after two or three years this restriction would finish, so they’d already signed, for the coming season, the Argentine, Omar Sivori (also of Italian descent). He was one of the best players I’ve ever seen with his left foot… magic. They said to me, ‘if you can possibly get three Italian international caps, that classes you as an Italian and we can take you, regardless of where you were born.’ That didn’t happen and after two years the rule didn’t change so I came back.”

Above: Tony at his home, celebrating his 85th birthday earlier this year.

Scoring goals for Vicenza
“The Italian way of playing was a defensive game. When I was with Tottenham it was free-flowing football, you all went forward or you all came back. In my time, it was the two inside-forwards who were supposed to go up and down. When I got out to Vicenza, I couldn’t understand what was happening. Because it was one of the smaller teams in the Italian league, they put one man up at centre-forward, a Swedish bloke on the left wing and all the other nine were back in defence. Our first game was against AC Milan, they were the champions the year before, and I was in the midfield, left half. I was trying to go up like I used to, but they were shouting ‘get back, get back.’ We were getting a draw here or there, a winner sometimes but in the end I tried to explain to the trainer how I was feeling. Before I went there, the big team in England was Manchester City and Don Revie was playing. He used to be in the middle of the field controlling the game, going up and down, anywhere he wanted to. I said to our coach, ‘why don’t you put me there?’ I wanted to do something, I didn’t want to stand back on the half-way line doing nothing. He said ‘alright, if you want to.’ I think he got fed up with me! Anyway, that’s what happened. I went in central midfield and he gave me carte blanche to go where I wanted. I think it was the first or second game, we played Juventus, we beat them 1-0 and I scored the goal!”

Return to Spurs after a second year in Italy
“We were in Turin then. I used to live right next door to the former Leeds player, John Charles. He was playing for Juventus and I was at Torino. Tottenham were having a bad time, they were near the bottom and struggling. Anderson had left that year and they'd given Bill Nick the job. He came over to see me and said, ‘how about transferring back to Tottenham?’ I said yes, so Bill went to the Juventus chairman and said he wanted to take me back. He said no for some reason, not yet. I don’t know why. Anyway, Bill came and explained to me that when the season ended, he’d get in touch and we’d do the deal then. He came back to England but in a month’s time, Tottenham were still struggling so he went up to Scotland and signed Dave Mackay! What a great player he was. Near the end of the season, he came over and said, ‘to be quite honest, Danny Blanchflower’s on his last legs, he’s 33 now, he’s not going to last that long and I want you to come back and be ready to take over.’ But Danny lasted another four or five years, didn’t he? So that’s how I became like a permanent reserve to Mackay and Blanchflower.”

‘Tony Marchi: My unexpected Juve switch, Euro glory and how I got my car back’ – read the full, fascinating interview with Tony in Wednesday night’s A4 special edition of our official matchday programme, on sale around Wembley Stadium for £5.