5Q | Richard Gough - Hoddle told me 'make me your first pass', 86/87, 49-goal Clive, inspirational Mabbsy and the pride of captaining Spurs

The Scotland international joined us from Dundee United in the summer of 1986. Playing alongside Gary Mabbutt central defence, Richard started 55 of our 57 matches in all competitions as David Pleat's team, spearheaded by 49-goal Clive Allen, finished third in the old First Division, runners-up in the FA Cup and reached the semi-finals of the League Cup.

An inspirational figure alongside Mabbsy, Richard was named captain in January, 1987. Unfortunately, his stay in N17 was short lived as Rangers came calling 10 matches into the 1987/88 campaign - he went on to win 18 major trophies during his time at Ibrox between 1987 and 1998, including ‘nine-in-a-row’ Scottish Premier Division titles.

Q1 | Tell us about joining Spurs and your debut at Villa Park in 1986...

Richard: "There was a fair bit of interest in Scottish players from English clubs at that time and quite a few of the better Scottish players moved to English clubs. One summer, Spurs and Chelsea both came in for me. The idea of going to Spurs appealed to me – a club who had always had good Scottish players… John White, Dave Mackay, Steve Archibald, Alan Gilzean to name but a few. And after I’d spoken to (then-Spurs chairman) Irving Scholar, my mind was made up that Spurs was the club I wanted to join and I didn’t really want to speak to Chelsea. I can remember Mr Scholar saying ‘don’t worry, I’ll phone (then-Chelsea chairman) Ken Bates and tell him you want to join Spurs’. I felt I should be the one to tell Mr Bates myself, so I called him to tell him I would be joining Spurs and he gave me an absolute rollocking! My debut at Villa set the tone for what was a fantastic season for us as we won 3-0. I’ll never forget at the start of my Spurs career, Glenn Hoddle saying to me, ‘as soon as you get the ball, make me your first pass… I’ll be in space’. And I said, ‘you don’t run back with anyone then?’ and Glenn said ‘I don’t do that, son!' So, in that game against Villa, I remember chipping the ball to Glenn and he hit it on the volley without even looking and put it through for Clive Allen to score. Clive got a hat-trick on the day and as I say, it was the perfect start to the season for us."

Q2 | Clive scored 49 goals that season - what made him such a goalscoring machine?

Richard: "One of the big things was that Clive rarely missed the target. I’ve played with some great strikers during my career… Paul Sturrock in my early days at Dundee United, Ally McCoist and Mo Johnston at Rangers etc. Ally for example would miss a few but he’d get lots of chances and he had the confidence to keep going and keep scoring. But as I say, I rarely remember Clive missing. And it wasn’t only shots… he was really good with his head. I remember the game at Oxford (22 November, 1986) when we played the 4-5-1 system for the first time and we won 4-2. It sounds strange to say, but a lot of the back fours that season didn’t know how to deal with coming up against a single striker. We flooded the midfield. We had players in there like Steve Hodge, Paul Allen, Tony Galvin, who were all perfect for the system. And we had the likes of Ossie Ardiles, Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle of course. In my 20 years as a footballer, even though we didn’t win anything, I’d say 1986/87 was my most enjoyable season from a footballing perspective. It was just incredible."

Q3 | What was Gary Mabbutt like as a central defensive partner for you?

Richard: "Mabbsy was brilliant. He’s such a great human being and he was very underrated as a footballer. I had some great central defensive pairings during my career, including Terry Butcher, who was captaining England when we were together at Rangers, but Mabbsy was right up there. He was brilliant in the air and he could also play, as we saw when he played in midfield during his time with Tottenham as well as in central defence. What a servant he was to Spurs. You rarely see players spend the length of time with a club like Mabbsy did with Spurs. He’s an inspiration."

Q4 | What prompted your move back to Scotland and Rangers?

Richard: "By my second season (1987/88) there were rumours of Rangers coming in for me. My wife’s father had just died and she wanted to be closer to her mother. Rangers came in and doubled what Spurs had paid for me. And eventually, it was a case of ‘we’ve had an offer from Rangers’ and that was it, I was gone. I do think what might have happened had I stayed at Spurs. I certainly like the idea of what it would have been like to eventually play for Tottenham under Terry Venables. But there were a number of factors behind my move to Rangers. Funnily enough, when Ossie Ardiles was manager of Spurs, he enquired about me possibly coming back to Spurs, around the time they signed Jürgen Klinsmann. Another case of ‘what could have been’ but at the time, it would have been too difficult for me to leave Rangers, especially as a boyhood Rangers fan."

Q5 | You ended your career at Everton, our opponents on Sunday - how was your time at Goodison and what have you been up to since?

Richard: "I played for some ‘proper’ clubs during my career and Everton were one of those. I am friends with David Moyes, someone I’ve known since the age of 17 and he gave me the chance to go to Everton. I loved my time there and it was a great club to play for at the end of my career. Since then, I’ve been living in San Diego since leaving Everton (in 2001). I initially came to America in the late-1990s (to play for Kansas City Wizards and then San Jose Clash). I come back and forth to Scotland in my role as an ambassador for Rangers. It’s great to still have that connection. It is fitting in this particular programme to say how proud I was during my career to captain Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and Everton Football Club. I wish both clubs well and I’ll always keep my eyes out for them."

Full interview in Sunday's programme!

You can read more from Richard Gough in our Once a Spur, Always a Spur feature in Sunday's official matchday programme.

Also look out for Roberto De Zerbi's column, an exclusive with James Maddison, features, brilliant photography, Rob Daly's analysis - everything you need - 84 pages/£4.

Buy the programme online here...