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Fulham vs Spurs | Boot in both camps | Alan Mullery

Tottenham Hotspur

Think of players connected with Spurs and Fulham, and there's really only one legend in the frame - Alan Mullery.

Born in Notting Hill, 'Mullers' joined the groundstaff at Craven Cottage in 1957 and having impressed in youth and reserve football, signed professional forms in December, 1958. He made his debut in February, 1959 and helped Fulham gain promotion to the old First Division for the 1959/60 season.

Alan joined us on 14 March, 1964, making his debut a week later against Manchester United. He went on to make 373 appearances for us between 1964-1972, winning the FA Cup in 1967 and then, after being named captain in 1968, lifting the League Cup in 1971 and UEFA Cup in 1972.

That UEFA Cup triumph is one of those famous old Spurs stories - Alan had actually gone back to Fulham on loan for game time as he recovered from a serious injury. Recalled from that spell in April, 1972, he scored huge goals against Milan at the San Siro in the semi-final and then a header in the second leg of the final against Wolves to claim the trophy in his final match in a Spurs shirt - he was chair-lifted for a lap of honour by joyous fans around the Lane on his own.

Alan returned permanently to Craven Cottage in 1972 and it was no less eventful - his goal in an FA Cup tie with Leicester City earned him Match of the Day's Goal of the Season for 1973/74, playing alongside Bobby Moore, he led Fulham to the 1975 FA Cup Final and was named FWA Footballer of the Year. The following year he received an MBE for his services to football.

Capped 35 times by England and a goalscorer at the 1970 World Cup, Alan went on to manage Brighton, Charlton, Palace, QPR, Brighton again, ATM in Malaysia and finally Barnet in 1996. Now 82, he remains a popular matchday host at Spurs and Brighton.

Revisit 'My Spurs life in pictures' with Alan Mullery

Team photo, 1964 - Alan: "Look at the players there, great footballers. Big Pat, he looks 19 there, Phil Beal was young, Cyril Knowles turned up at a similar time to me, Peter Baker, big Maurice Norman, Frank Saul, Bill Brown’s there next to Pat, Cliff, Greavsie, Dave Mackay. My word, there are some players there. I was new to it all! One thing I did know was that I didn’t have to be first at the ground for the kit like I had to be at Fulham, where if you turned up late you got the worst kit. Now, everything was laid out with my initials, it was fantastic."
Terry Venables sings at the recording of our FA Cup Final song, 1967 - Alan: "This is when we reached the 1967 FA Cup Final. Terry Venables had a bit of a voice, actually. Somebody said – and I think it was him – that he had a voice like Frank Sinatra. The rest of us took on the chorus. Everyone was in shirt and tie, so smart. That’s how we had to dress. Great times, the camaraderie, fantastic."
FA Cup winners' parade, 1967 - Alan: "I’d never seen anything like it. I’d been at Fulham, never won anything. We were promoted from the Second to the First Division, but nothing like this. I was 21, 22 and very envious of players playing at Wembley. I always wanted to play in a cup final at Wembley. We got the opportunity in 1967, beat Chelsea. I was so shocked by how many people were there for the parade in Tottenham. I felt so proud to have achieved something like that."
World Cup, up against Pele and with Spurs team-mate Martin Peters after scoring against West Germany in the quarter-final, Mexico 1970 - Alan: "That was about the furthest I got from Pele. Alf Ramsey said ‘I want you to be in his shorts, everywhere he goes, you go’. Pele was the best player in the world, a World Cup winner at 17! That’s some player. I saw Pele a couple of years ago at a function in London. He gave me a big hug. He lifted up the leg of his trousers and said ‘I’ve still got the scars'."
League Cup win as captain with goalscorer Martin Chivers and Bill Nicholson, Wembley, 1971 - Alan: "That was my experience of lifting a trophy at Wembley. I could only dream of these things when I was a young boy and they came true – especially under Bill. We had our ups and downs, had our arguments, but he was the best, a top, top manager, coach. He was everything at Spurs."
Screamer against AC Milan, UEFA Cup semi-final, San Siro, 1972 - Alan: " I’d just hit a volley that flew into the top corner. Our supporters were at the far end of the stadium and the rest you can see are all Italians. It was fantastic. It was Carlo Cudicini’s father, Fabio, in goal! I said to Carlo once when I went away with the team for a European game ‘do you realise I scored a goal against your father’ and said ‘no, he never told me that’. We had a laugh about it."
UEFA Cup Final second leg goal against Wolves, White Hart Lane, 1972 - Alan: "This was the most important game I ever played in. I had a bad injury that season. We won 2-1 at Wolves, Martin Chivers scored twice, one an unbelievable goal. Martin Peters took the free-kick. How I ever got to within seven yards of the goal I’ll never know. I got a bit of a clattering. Cecil Poynton (physio) came on, rinsed out a sponge on my head and it woke me up! He said ‘go on son, you've just scored’. It’s an amazing picture and to score the winning goal in the UEFA Cup Final is obviously something very special."
Lap of honour with the UEFA Cup trophy, 1972 - Alan: "I was knackered! I’m trying to hold onto this silver trophy that weighs a tonne, with four of five policeman around me. I’ll always remember that night – my last match for Tottenham."
Back together with Joe Kinnear, Jimmy Robertson and Mike England, Alan's last visit to the old Lane, 2017 - Alan: "We’re back together, Joe, Jimmy, Mike. We were athletes when we were younger and now we’ve developed into let's say 'elderly gentlemen', senior athletes! We’re proud of what we achieved and this was the last time we were together at the Lane. What a career we had, the four of us, marvellous, to play for a team like Spurs."

Mullers | Fulham, Spurs and me...

Speaking to us back in 2015 after he'd been elected into the National Football Museum's Hall of Fame, Alan reflected on his big switch across London in 1964...

What do you remember about joining Spurs in 1964?

Alan: “Bill Nicholson came to Fulham and said ‘I want to sign you and take you to Tottenham’, but I didn’t believe him. I was very happy at Fulham, my wife and I lived in a place called Worcester Park, which was only 20 minutes away from Fulham’s training ground and it was a big chance to take because the fella who had just finished playing was the great Danny Blanchflower. To come in and take his place in what was basically the double-winning team - with the addition of Jimmy Greaves - was an absolute nightmare, to be fair, and I was very worried about it. But after two or three months I got into the swing of it and it was wonderful to play in front of 60,000 people as well. It was great and I really enjoyed it. I had eight and a half years here and eight of them were fantastic, the other six a bit tough, but I got over that. Now, it’s part of my home.”

What do you think now when you look back at your days at Spurs?

Alan: “Being a kid born in Notting Hill and being one of the first players to play for England at football, we had a lot of boxers, cricketers - my cousin, John Murray, played for England many times - and I look at that and the achievement of playing here at Spurs, winning the FA Cup against Chelsea in 1967, the League Cup in 1971 and the UEFA Cup in 1972, playing in Europe, travelling all over the world, it was absolutely fantastic. When I look at it, I became an England player, captain of England, captain of Tottenham, won three trophies, played nearly 400 games - it can’t get better, can it? That was the highlight of my career, eight and a half years at Spurs. I still come here every home game and love it.”

We have to remember, it wasn’t all about Spurs though - you made your name as a teenager at Fulham and then went back in 1972 and led them to the FA Cup Final in 1975.

Alan: “Yes, my second spell at Fulham was great and let’s be honest, it might just be the last time they get to the FA Cup Final. It was amazing at the time, Bobby Moore and I - he was 36, I was 34 - to go back to Wembley, that was something special, but we lost on that occasion to West Ham.”

By Tottenham Hotspur

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