Catching up with... Andy Gray

By his own admission, Andy Gray felt his Spurs career 'never quite got going', having joined us from Crystal Palace in February, 1992.

The midfielder still featured in 33 matches in our colours until a transfer to CA Marbella in the summer of 1994, including 14 consecutive league appearances at the end of the 1991/92 season.

His three goals for Spurs all came in London derbies, in wins over Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace as well as a 4-3 defeat at Chelsea.

Born in Lambeth on 22 February, 1964, Gray was most synonymous with Palace during his playing career. He trained with the Eagles between the ages of 10 and 16 and returned to the club as a professional in 1984, having originally been released.

After scoring 29 goals in 112 appearances in his first spell with Palace between 1984 and 1987, he re-signed for them from Queens Park Rangers in August, 1989 and scored a further 22 goals in 130 matches for the Eagles.

He also played for the likes of Aston Villa, Swindon Town, Falkirk, Bury and Millwall before hanging up his boots in 1998.  

First of all, can you tell us how your move from Crystal Palace to Spurs came about back in February, 1992?

Andy: "It looked like I was going to be joining Wimbledon at that time. But at the last minute, Spurs came in for me and, with all due respect to Wimbledon, if you’ve got the option of joining Wimbledon or Tottenham Hotspur, then you’re going to choose Spurs 10 times out of 10 aren’t you?! I felt Spurs was the better fit for me, even though Wimbledon had a good team at the time."

What memories do you have of your Spurs debut – a 3-1 defeat to that season’s eventual league champions, Leeds United, on 7 March, 1992?

Andy: "It felt like a big moment, playing at White Hart Lane as a Spurs fan. I’d played schoolboy matches at the Lane previously and, when I was a kid, I’d always looked at Spurs as being a team I wanted to play for and the dream came true! I can’t remember too much about the match. I think I did okay, although we lost the game as you say."

Your first Spurs goal came in a 2-1 win over your old club QPR at Loftus Road the following month. What memories do you have of that goal?

Andy: "I can picture it. It was right on the line, so I couldn’t miss. It was a great feeling getting my first goal for Spurs and it coming in a win. What I do remember is some QPR fans trying to get at me in the stand after the game. Paul Allen and I always joke about the incident when I see him. We remember him seeing a group of lads around me after the game and basically, he left me! He went on to the coach and said, ‘I think Andy’s in a bit of trouble upstairs!’ It’s fair to say a few QPR fans weren’t very happy I’d scored against their team!"

You started in 14 consecutive matches towards the end of the 1991/92 season and made a number of assists in addition to that goal at Loftus Road. You must have been pleased with your early form at Spurs?

Andy: "Yes, it was good getting the game time. I wasn’t a typical Tottenham player. My game was winning the ball, giving it. That season was all about me settling in and trying to show what I could do."

You made 17 appearances in all competitions in 1992/93 – the highlight of which must have been scoring in a 3-1 Premier League win at another of your former clubs, Crystal Palace, on 30 January, 1993?

Andy: "I played in the reserves on the Tuesday night before we went down to Palace on the Saturday. I played half of the reserve game and (then-manager) Doug Livermore came up to me and said, ‘you’re playing against Palace on Saturday’.  In a set play, I went into position and got the knock down and got in front of Nigel Martyn to head it in. That was a good feeling scoring against my old team down at the Holmesdale End."

The 1992/93 season also saw you spend a brief loan spell with Swindon Town, who had a number of Spurs connections at the time…

Andy: "That’s right. Glenn Hoddle was the player-manager of Swindon at the time and he was incredible. The guy was on a different level to everyone else. I think it’s such a shame that he’s not involved in coaching anymore, because he really has so much to give. He’d be such a wonderful influence on younger players. He has so much knowledge of football and as a player, he could do everything. He was absolute quality and as a manager, he made you feel 10 feet tall as a player. I played about four games at Swindon. They were a very good team and went on to get promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season. I remember Glenn wanted me to stay at Swindon but I was keen to go back to Spurs and fight for my place. Micky Hazard was at Swindon at the time and he could play. He seemed to have a second wind in his career around that time and got a move back to Spurs eventually. And when Ossie Ardiles was Spurs manager, he signed David Kerslake and Colin Calderwood from that Swindon team too, who were very good players as well."

You mention Ossie Ardiles, who was your Spurs manager during the 1993/94 season. What was he like for you?

Andy: "I’d not played that much for Spurs the previous season, but when Ossie became manager, I thought to myself, ‘wow, I’ve got a chance here’. We’d previously played together at Queens Park Rangers at the back end of his career. I used to drop him off at a café opposite Harrods every day after training. But as soon as Ossie became manager, it became quickly apparent I wasn’t going to be playing! There were some players that just didn’t seem to feature in Ossie’s plans and I was one of those."

You scored in your final appearance for Spurs in a 4-3 defeat at Chelsea on 27 February, 1994. What do you remember about that game?

Andy: "I’d got back into Ossie’s plans by that point in the season and I was on the bench for the game and then came on as a substitute. When I came on, we got a penalty, which I took and scored. I then missed a second penalty. I should have never taken that second penalty. I think my emotions were too big at the time, having scored the other spot-kick. You often see in a match, if a player scores one penalty and that team gets another, someone else steps up to take it. That happened recently when Bournemouth beat AC Milan in the Europa League. They got two penalties and two different players took them."

What prompted your move to CA Marbella at the end of the 1993/94 season?

Andy: "I was desperate to play football and I jumped at the first chance. In hindsight, all I should have done is bided my time and waited for another opportunity to come up in England, but I went for the sun! It turned out to be the wrong move for me. You make decisions in life though and you have to live by them."

How did you come to sign for Crystal Palace as a professional back in 1984?

Andy: "I was originally with Palace from the age of about 10 or 11 and I got released when I was 16. To cut a long story short, I was eventually playing for Corinthian Casuals. The pre-season after we’d got to the FA Cup first round proper, we played a friendly against Tottenham reserves at Cheshunt. Glenn Hoddle was watching the game. This was around the time Steve Coppell got the job as Palace manager. Anyway, Steve was travelling in the car when something came on the radio about that match. Glenn Hoddle was being interviewed and he said, ‘I saw one of the best performances of a non-league player ever today’ and mentioned me. Steve came to watch me on the back of the radio piece and ended up signing me for Palace!"

What are the highlights that spring to mind from your two spells as a professional with Crystal Palace?

Andy: "Everything. I found things so easy at Palace because I knew the club inside out. I’d been there from 10 to 16, so it was the perfect club for me to start out as a professional. We had a great team with the likes of Jerry Murphy and Peter Nicholas. Phil Holder was a coach at Palace at the time – the former Tottenham player. He had originally coached me when I was 11 or 12 and he was great for me. We had some great seasons, reaching the FA Cup Final (1990), winning the Zenith Data Systems Cup. I had a season (1985/86) where I was the top goalscorer (with 11 goals) from midfield."

How much did it mean to you to be voted into the Crystal Palace ‘Centenary XI’ back in 2005?

Andy: "It was nice. I always think that for any club, as long as you feel you’ve given your best, then you can be proud of yourself. You’re not always going to be everyone’s favourite but it was very nice to be appreciated by the Palace fans like that."

What have you been up to since retiring from playing?

Andy: "I ran a football agency after retiring from playing, which I stopped about 10 years ago. Funnily enough, I never did a deal involving Tottenham in all of that time. After that, I set-up a recruitment business, specialising in supplying staff to Heathrow Airport. I am also in the process of opening a recruitment firm in Los Angeles too and I also work on matchdays in hospitality at Aston Villa. I went on an ITV show called Harry’s Heroes a few years back. I had a lot of fun with that. It was great being back amongst that changing room environment, having the banter. It was nice interacting with players from other teams who, previously, you’d have been looking to kick lumps out of when you were playing! People like Matt Le Tissier, Paul Merson. Great guys. And what can you say about Harry Redknapp. He’s a top bloke!"

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