Chris Hughton first walked into Spurs as an apprentice in 1977. Two years later, he made his debut, two years after that, he lifted the FA Cup at Wembley, aged 22.
A Spurs man through and through, Chris enjoyed a 30-year association with the club, making 398 appearances in all competitions before embarking on a coaching career that progressed through our youth and reserve teams into first team coaching roles under Ossie Ardiles and Gerry Francis and then assistant manager roles under Christian Gross, George Graham, David Pleat and Martin Jol. From there, he's taken up managerial positions at Newcastle, Birmingham City, Brighton, Forest and, most recently, Ghana.
Twice an FA Cup winner, 1981 and 1982, Chris knows all about European finals, having been part of our UEFA Cup winning team in 1984 - 41 years ago.
That famous night at the Lane - Graham Roberts' late equaliser, Tony Parks' heroics in the penalty shoot-out - is still spoken about. Robbo has told us how it felt like, 'there were 100,000 people there'. Indeed, it was voted the best moment in the Lane's history during the build-up to the Finale back in 2017.
Yes, 41 years ago - 23 May, 1984. Recalling that night with some of his team-mates during the build-up to Bilbao - look out for those interviews, coming soon - Chris, now 66, found the perfect way of summing up what the legacy would be for the current team winning a European trophy...
“I made my debut in 1979, and when I first walked into the club, Bill Nicholson was still here," he said. "He was revered. Right up to the final times I saw Bill, whenever I was in his company, and I used to see him on a Saturday morning watching the youth team, I was still in awe of him. That was because of his teams.
"So, roll that clock forward, then it’s the 1981 FA Cup team, then it’s the 1984 UEFA Cup team. To this day, I still bump into so many Spurs fans who speak about the 1984 UEFA Cup Final – in fact, it's always 81 and 84. And they speak about 84 because it was at their home stadium.
"To still be speaking about 84, now 41 years on... that’s the legacy. If I was a player now, I would want fans to be speaking about 2025, bringing home that trophy, in 2066. For me, that’s how big it is.”
Look out for a special feature with our heroes of 1984 on Monday...