The Spurs family lost one of the all-time greats on Wednesday with the sad news of the passing of legendary former striker Martin Chivers.
We spoke to some of his former team-mates to hear their memories of a ‘wonderful player’ and a ‘gentle giant’...
Phil Beal
“Me and Chiv go back a long way, and I would say we got closer after we’d stopped playing. He went his way and I went mine, but when I came back from America he was doing corporate hospitality at the stadium and he got hold of me and asked if I would come along and join him. We built up a big friendship. Sometimes when I would be heading back down south to where I live, he and his wife Julia would invite me to stay at their place and go home the next day. He’d shout out, ‘Julia, would you come to the door? The lodger is here!’
“As a player, he was the type of person where he could still take criticism on the field. I’ll always remember a little thing when we played the European final against Wolves, the first leg. Bill Nicholson and Eddie Baily had a quiet word with Mart about pulling his weight. We heard that and when we went back out for the second half – Chiv always brought this up – he was in the middle, I was on one side and Mike England was on the other. We both said ‘come on Chiv, just get on and show what you can do’ and he did by scoring two goals! If we felt he wasn’t on top form, we could say ‘come on Chiv’ and he used to put has hand up in acknowledgement and say ‘yes, alright’ because he knew. You’ve always got to take criticism as well as praise and he did that brilliantly, he acknowledged any criticisms and just got on with it, which is a good thing. He would always say we were like a family and that’s why we were successful. Everybody got on with each other and I think that was proven over the years.”
Steve Perryman
“I’m going to use a Martin word, because he did about four or five years of punditry and the word he would always use was ‘wonderful’. He’d say ‘that was a wonderful pass’ or ‘that was a wonderful moment.’ And Martin was a wonderful player. He scored on his debut but after a while he got injured and he suffered with that – he found it very difficult to get back to where he was. But with Bill Nicholson and Eddie Baily, they were always pushing you for more. They pushed and pushed Chiv. I think in a way he reared up against it, he was a very quiet and studious man, but eventually they saw some light, he recovered his career and I’d say he became the best centre-forward in Europe for two years. In the end, I think Martin appreciated the fact that he was pushed, cajoled and driven to get back fit.
“He had such a large frame that those two teachers of his game (Bill and Eddie) thought he didn’t use it enough, they wanted him to use it more. He was so big but very light-footed, he covered the ground and was so powerfully quick, and that’s what came to the forefront in those special two years. He helped to get us two League Cups and the UEFA Cup and I’ll always be grateful to him for that. When you think of the European final against Wolves, the two goals that he got and the two goals at Wembley against Aston Villa to win the League Cup in 1971, he was almost unplayable.”
Pat Jennings
“He was such a lovely fellow. He was like a brother. We thought the world of each other and then, wow, what a player. The whole team was really close. Just the goals he scored in so many matches… and in the big, important games as well. He scored the two goals and won the match for us in the League Cup Final in 1971 and then the unbelievable goal that he scored in the UEFA Cup final, first leg against Wolves away. The second goal was an unbelievable strike from distance and that’s what Martin was capable of.
“Another big night was when we needed to beat Leeds to stay in the First Division. Martin had just come back from a terrible knee injury, he came back into that game and scored a goal that night.
“He was one of the first to do what we all do with the legends at the stadium, the meet and greets on matchdays. He’s been doing it all these years, right the way back to near when he retired. We’re all so close because we’ve been together for so many years, we’re just like a family.”
John Pratt
“My memory of Martin is of a gentle giant who had phenomenal pace and two great feet. I don’t know whether he really liked heading the ball but he scored a lot of good goals with his head – put all that into one and you’ve got an extremely good player. He subsequently did the hospitality at the club and he was as he was – a gentle giant.
“The goal I’ll always remember is from the Wolves game, the UEFA Cup final at Molineux, his second goal. I saw his leg come back, we were near the half-way line, I thought ‘he’s not going to hit that!’ and as he did, I said ‘flipping heck!’. The ball went egg-shaped, he hit it that hard! I’d just made a tackle so I was picking myself up but the ball went to him and it was a great goal from Chiv – something that happened many times. He was predominantly right-footed but he was enormously good with his left and that was a problem for every defender he came up against because you couldn’t show him one way or the other. For a man of six feet-plus, he had phenomenal pace as well.”
Alan Mullery
“There’s one story I’d like to mention and it’s from when we became a bit older. I saw Martin was coming towards the end of his career, he’d got a bad knee, he wasn’t playing so I said ‘come to Brighton’. He came down, I said ‘how’s the leg?’ and he said ‘still bad!’
“I said ‘you’re playing!’ and within no time he’d scored a goal. He was obviously known for scoring goals, he was a goalscorer… and a very good one!
“As a person, he was a very nice man. We had a few goes around on the circuit, doing the talks with supporters and he was always good. The last time we got together was in London, a big dinner and everything. He was great. He knew everything about Tottenham and about Southampton, where he’d signed from. I can’t believe he’s gone, I thought when I heard the news that it just couldn’t be right.”