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Danny Blanchflower

nelto

Andy Sinton
There was a thread on Danny before the site crash a couple of years ago. I thought that I would start a new one as there has been an announcement that he is to honoured with a Blue Plaque.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-27114224

Danny Blanchflower to be honoured with plaque
By Ciaran McCauley
BBC News NI

In a 2009 poll, Danny Blanchflower was ranked as the greatest player in the history of Spurs.

Plans are in place to honour Danny Blanchflower, one of Northern Ireland's greatest ever footballers, with a commemorative blue history plaque at his former east Belfast home.

A native of the Bloomfield area, the midfielder made 56 appearances for Northern Ireland during a glittering career that included a 10-year spell at Tottenham Hotspur.

In that time, he captained the side to the league-and-cup double in 1961.

In 2009, The Times ranked him as the greatest player in the history of Spurs.
Honour

Now the man, who once said "the game is about glory", will be honoured by the Ulster History Circle, who are finalising plans to place a blue plaque in commemoration.

Blue plaques are awarded for individuals who have a made a unique and lasting contribution to Northern Ireland's history.

According to the organisation's chairman, Chris Spurr, there are dozens of people under consideration.

However with last year marking the 20th anniversary of the footballer's death, Mr Spurr said the time was now right to honour him.

"It is very competitive and we have quite a long list of people waiting to receive plaques," he said.

"However Danny Blanchflower has got to the top of the list because he has been dead for 20 years and it is a good idea to honour him at this time.

"Our rule is that a person cannot be considered until they have been dead 20 years, because it gives a bit of thinking time to consider the person's status and also avoid anything coming out after their death."
RAF

It is expected the plaque will be placed at a home in east Belfast where the Blanchflower family lived for a period of time, pending permission from the current home owners.

"We're hoping to have it up by the summer," added Mr Spurr.

For Danny's daughter, Gayle, the honour came as a "delightful surprise".

"I will never ever get over how he's still remember after all these years," she added. "Not just by the Northern Irish people, but throughout the world."

To her, the honour is not just testament to her father's sporting exploits, but also his natural charisma and remarkable life.

In 1943, the young Blanchflower lied about his age in order to join the RAF where he served with Welsh actor Richard Burton.

The RAF then awarded him a scholarship to St Andrews to study maths, physics and applied kinetics.

Gayle said: "He wasn't the greatest runner as a footballer, but he applied his brains to the tactics of the game."
Privacy

Sports broadcaster Jackie Fullerton agreed. He said: "His brains were so sharp, he read the game beautifully and could pick a pass.

"Most footballers kick a ball, but Danny Blanchflower was one of those players who had that class and charisma. He caressed the ball.

"He was a footballer, journalist, philosopher, raconteur, engaging company and a wonderful man."

After being voted footballer of the year in 1958 and 1961, he was considered one of the best players in the UK.

However despite the increased attention, the Belfast man still valued his privacy.

In 1961, while live on-air, he turned down an invitation to appear on This Is Your Life.

Jackie said: "The presenter, Eamonn Andrews, cornered Danny who said, 'no I'm sorry, I'm not going on'. Because it was live, it threw the whole programme and BBC into chaos."
Wonderful

He also recalled another occasion when, as manager of Northern Ireland, the former Spurs man was being interviewed by journalists ahead of a game against the Netherlands.

Jackie said: "I remember the journalists asked him if the game would be won or lost in midfield.

"And Danny, in that wonderful voice of his, said, 'well, the goalposts are at either end of the pitch. I've never seen a goal scored in midfield'.

"These guys were completely bemused by this wonderful man."
 
From the above, thought the Chairman's name was fitting:

According to the organisation's chairman, Chris Spurr, there are dozens of people under consideration.
 
Brilliant little video, got me quite emotional.

I was lucky enough to watch Danny many a time, especially in the Double year and after. I recall him many a time shimmying past two or three defenders as though the weren't there or dinking a crafty ball over the defence and into he path of a White, a Smith or a Jimmy. Oddly though one of the more abiding memories is of him bent double after he'd been on a run, never seen anyone do that anything like as much since. Don't recall it ever being commented on in the media but it seemed like he must have been an asthmatic.

For The Times to make him Spurs' best-ever player ahead of the likes of Hoddle, Mackay, Greaves and Gascoigne says it all. There really hasn't ever been another play like him, for guile and cunning, for total belief as captain in what his team could achieve but most of all for the brilliance of his intelligence and vision on the ball.

He was a true footballing GHod in my eyes and always will be.
 
It was in a sitting room in Belfast's Ardoyne that my grandfather first introduced me to Spurs. A black and white television and stories galore of Danny Blanchflower that even had my Liverpool-loving uncles nodding and muttering in agreement.
 
@HotspurRelated: Alf Ramsey welcomes Danny Blanchflower to Tottenham in 1954 via an Instagram user. #THFC pic.twitter.com/bHsVWFFwHB
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@mickhughes75: @BurnleyOfficial 1962 FA Cup Final Wembley, Tottenham's Danny Blanchflower & Burnleys Jimmy Adamson#realvintageclaret pic.twitter.com/vMQBWl2kZ3
BmAB5DNIYAEgKh-.jpg:small


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...T-Nos-20-11-greatest-football-teams-time.html
article-1175092-04BBA8D5000005DC-719_468x325.jpg


@SpursOfficial: Legendary former captain Danny Blanchflower's memory to be further honoured in Belfast... http://bit.ly/QHGebO pic.twitter.com/RxzibZ4J9w
Bl_ETS-CcAEtDAu.jpg
 
I saw Blanchflower play for about 6 years but being a kid didn't realise what an influence he was in the team. I was more focused on Mackay, Jones, Smith and then Greavsie. The one thing I do remember about him was that he never seemed hurried or flustered.
 
Pity they had the unveiling on a friday morning. Would have been nice to have it tomorrow morning, then I could have gone along.

Pat Jennings was there. There should be footage on BBC NI News on iPlayer if you can find it.

Still, lovely to see it.
 
A bit more footage of our legendary captain saying a few words during the double winner's victory parade:


Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling...

 
The state of that pitch v Benfica...hardly a place for Spurs cultured style of football...
We should have been the first side to have won that European Cup..

Anyway...we can't win bugger all these days....
 
Been reading The Double by Ken Ferris which devotes a whole chapter to how Danny arrived at Spurs. As a teenager in Belfast Blanchflower was drawn to Tottenham partly because he liked the name but also because he was attracted to our exciting and innovative push and run style.

After starting out at Barnsley, then moving to Villa, the ambitious midfielder put in a transfer request because he was frustrated with their anachronistic training methods which included endless jogging around the pitch but little or no training with the ball. He felt the Midlands club were going nowhere.

Spurs and the L'Arse were interested but Villa decided to block his transfer by imposing an impossible asking price. £40k was substantially above the record for a British player at the time (£34k for a striker) so the two managers from London secretly agreed to limit their bids to £30k max - well below the record - because (a) the Northern Ireland captain was already 28 and (b) he was a midfielder.

The Gooners got in first and, accepting there was little point in holding a player against his will, Villa agreed to let him go, but Arsenal were still baulking at the price. Whilst they were dithering Arthur Rowe got permission from them to speak to Danny in person and told him he would make him Spurs' captain when the now ageing Ramsey retired.

This plus the fact he was more attracted to our style of play (as well as the name!) won the Irishman over. Although Whittaker, the Arsenal manager was still desperate to get him, his board of directors refused to go above the £28k that had already been agreed, so Tottenham's bid of £30k won the day.

(A few years later, as an awestruck teenager in the late fifties, I was wandering around the ground at WHL on a non-matchday when I came across an open door and naturally enough sneaked inside. No one seemed to notice me so I clambered on up the steps and emerged at the top of the (old) West Stand. Still unobserved I was lucky enough to witness the incipient Double side - jogging endlessly around the pitch!)
 

Entertaining as it was, that was also quite an uncomfortable watch. He was so up his own arse he was coming out the other end. No wonder he was such a flop as Chelsea manager.

But he is of course utterly forgiven because being such a fantastic player and so totally arrogant he was possibly THE main reason, Billy Nick and Dave Mackay not withstanding, why we won the Double.
 
Entertaining as it was, that was also quite an uncomfortable watch. He was so up his own arse he was coming out the other end. No wonder he was such a flop as Chelsea manager.

But he is of course utterly forgiven because being such a fantastic player and so totally arrogant he was possibly THE main reason, Billy Nick and Dave Mackay not withstanding, why we won the Double.

It may be seen as arrogance, but he had a passion and belief in how the game should be played and wasn't afraid to challenge the perceived wisdom of the time of kick and run football. The game was totally different back then before coaches/managers turned players into robots or pawns to service a system.
 
Entertaining as it was, that was also quite an uncomfortable watch. He was so up his own arse he was coming out the other end. No wonder he was such a flop as Chelsea manager.

But he is of course utterly forgiven because being such a fantastic player and so totally arrogant he was possibly THE main reason, Billy Nick and Dave Mackay not withstanding, why we won the Double.

He’s never been particularly fondly remembered in Northern Ireland, due to the perceived arrogance, I think (and the accent!).
 
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