Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Spurs, is an English football club located in Tottenham, London, that competes in the Premier League. The club’s Latin motto is Audere est Facere (lit: “To Dare Is to Do”), and its emblem is a cockerel standing upon a football.
A History of Success: To Dare Is To Do
FA Cup Final replay in London, 1901.
Founded in 1882, Tottenham won the FA Cup for the first time in 1901, making them the only non-League club to do so since the formation of the Football League in 1888. Spurs were the first club in the 20th century to achieve the League and FA Cup Double, winning both competitions in the 1960–61 season. After successfully defending the FA Cup in 1962, in 1963 they became the first British club to win a UEFA club competition – the European Cup Winners’ Cup. In 1967, Spurs won the FA Cup for a third time in the 1960s. In the 1970s Tottenham won the League Cup on two occasions and were the inaugural winner of the UEFA Cup in 1972, becoming the first British club to win two different major European trophies. In the 1980s Spurs won several trophies: the FA Cup twice, FA Community Shield and the UEFA Cup in 1984. In the 1990s the club won the FA Cup and the League Cup, and won the League Cup in 2008.
The Original Club in North London
The NFL will play at least two games per season at Spurs’ new stadium.
In September 1882, the Hotspur Football Club was formed by grammar-school boys from the Bible class at All Hallows Church. They were also members of Hotspur Cricket Club. It is possible that the name Hotspur was associated with Sir Henry Percy, who was “Harry Hotspur” of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, part 1, and who lived locally during the 14th century and whose descendants owned land in the neighborhood. In 1884, the club was renamed Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
Spurs have played at White Hart Lane in North London since 1899. In the 2018-19 season the club will open its new 61,000 capacity stadium. It will be the largest Club ground in London, will feature a 17,000 single-tier “wall of sound” stand (the largest in the UK), and will serve as the NFL’s home stadium for London-based matches, with a fully retractable pitch and facilities to accommodate large NFL teams.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino
Spurs boast one of the most inspiring and promising young coaches in world football. According to David Lammy, Member of Parliament for the Tottenham area, none other than Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United fame rates Pochettino very highly. “I’m going to let you into a secret,” Lammy told The Spurs Show, a Tottenham Hotspur podcast. “About six weeks ago, I sat next to Sir Alex Ferguson at a dinner in support of grassroots football abroad. He said to me, ‘I think you guys have got the best manager in the Premier League.’ Alex Ferguson said that.”
Pochettino favors a very high-pressing, attacking style of soccer, instructing his team to build attacks from the back, intimidate and unsettle opponents with a quick press system, and work the ball into the box to score.
Mauricio Pochettino, a former world-class defender from Argentina, guided Spurs to a third-place Premier League position in his second season as manager, earning the club a coveted spot in the next season’s European Champions League. He did this with the League’s youngest team.