Two brilliant goals encapsulate Martin Chivers as a Tottenham legend. One, a towering, elegant header. The other, a blistering shot on the run arrowed into the top corner. Both crashed into the Wolverhampton Wanderers net in the UEFA Cup final.
The thunderbolt from distance is one of the most famous goals in the club’s history. Well worth its place on any showreel of hits from the illustrious Glory Glory Hallelujah era.
Chivers, who died suddenly on Wednesday at the age of 80, belongs in the very top tier of the Spurs greats. Only three players have scored more for the club than his 174 goals in 367 games but those against Wolves in 1972 will live long and the grainy footage will be replayed many times.
‘You won’t see two better goals,’ said former Spurs goalkeeper Pat Jennings, a great friend and colleague of Chivers since they came together at White Hart Lane.
‘Great strength, shooting power, running power. He had control. Really quick. He could do everything. Bill Nick wanted him to be like Bobby Smith, putting himself about and knocking into people but he wasn’t like that. He was a classy sort of player. You need all sorts in football, don’t you?’
Alan Mullery, former Spurs captain, recalls Chivers’ habit of picking up opponents when he knocked them over on the pitch and apologising.
‘He was a wonderful footballer and a goalscorer,’ said Mullery. ‘So big and strong. You couldn’t knock him about. It was a delight to play alongside him and I persuaded him to come and play for me towards the end of his career when I was manager at Brighton.
‘He said, “But look at me, I’m playing on one leg” and I said to him, “Don’t worry, you only need one leg, just come and score me a couple of goals.” And he did.’
Jennings and Mullery agreed he was one of the loveliest men you could meet. ‘An absolute gentleman,’ said Jennings, who was with him at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday. ‘I am devastated to see him go so quickly.’
Chivers was signed by Bill Nicholson for £125,000 in January 1968 after scoring 106 goals in 190 games for Southampton, his hometown club where he made his debut at the age of 17 and forged a prolific partnership with Terry Paine and was 33-goal top scorer when Saints were promoted to the top flight in 1966.
At Spurs, where he became affectionately known as Big Chiv, he found the net on his debut and hardly stopped, combining effectively with Jimmy Greaves and Alan Gilzean, and shouldering the goal burden when Greaves left for West Ham in 1970.
His record of 22 European goals was broken by Jermain Defoe in 2013. And he was for many years the last Spurs player to break 20 league goals in successive seasons (1970-71 and 1971-72) until Harry Kane started rewriting the club’s record books a decade ago.
In typically self-effacing fashion, Chivers adored Kane. Once, when he spotted him post-match in one of the corporate suites at White Hart Lane, he made a beeline to request an autograph he had promised for his grandson, weaving between the tables with a piece of paper and a pen.
Kane greeted him with a beaming smile and said: “Hello Chiv, how’s it going?”
Chivers started his international career in style, with seven goals in his first eight games. His last appearance came in the infamous World Cup qualifier at Wembley against Poland in October 1973, when a 1-1 draw denied England a place at the World Cup in West Germany. He finished with 24 caps and 13 goals.
After eight and a half years he left White Hart Lane for Servette in Switzerland in 1976 before returning to English football for spells with Norwich and Brighton. He also played in non-League.
Chivers returned to work for many years on match days, a tall and striking figure among the ranks of the club’s ambassadors.
He was on duty for Sunday’s game against Sunderland and news of his death broke was announced as Thomas Frank’s squad arrived ahead of the game at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium.
‘One of our true legends, winning three big titles, one of our top scorers,’ said Spurs boss Frank. ‘Top Tottenham legend.’
More tributes followed from those who admired him as a footballer and a man and sent their condolences to his family.
Among them former Spurs and Scotland striker Steve Archibald, who said: ‘He was like a Rolls Royce, so smooth in his movement, excellent in the air and a great finisher but on top of all that he was a really nice guy.’
And Osvaldo Ardiles, who said: ‘Outstanding player, one of the very best in the world at the time. Was very privileged to know him very well through the years. A great guy. We will miss him very much.’