Gillie's Gone - Will We See His LIkes Again?

THE PASSING, yesterday, of Alan Gilean sees another brilliant Scottish player go over to swell Jock Stein's selection options in the hereafter World Cup. I'd like to think we have had some success up there, to make-up for our constant diet of failure in this life.

 

Alan Gilzean - 1938 - 2018

It was typical Gilzean, to slip quietly away at a time when his adopted England was going ape shit over the deeds of an inferior Tottenham Hotspur number nine and probably the luckiest England squad ever to be sent to any international tournament.

Gillie never fitted the mould of a Scottish footballer. He came from Coupar Angus, rather than the mean streets of Glasgow for a start. He was prematurely bald, rather than sporting a shock of ginger hair. He was in the Scouts rather than the Boys Brigade, and, apparently – in spite of what Hunter Davies wrote about him in his book The Glory Game – he preferred a night at the pictures to a weekend on the bevvy.

He did enjoy some Shankly influence in his development, but under Bob rather than Wullie of that ilk, but, he was never involved in the Old Firm lunacy as he made his name with a splendid Dundee team, which won the League in 1961-62.

Even 'Dee fans who weren't born when they dethroned Rangers to win what is so-far the club's only title, can recite the litany of legends: Liney; Hamilton and Cox; Seith, Ure and Wishart; Smith, Penman, Cousin, Gilzean and Robertson. With Gillie's passing, only goalkeeper Liney and the Seith, Ure, Wishart half-back line remain alive, to remind the Dens faithful of the glory days.

The legendary 1962-63 Dundee side with the League Championship trophy

Gilzean was a goal scorer of wonderful consistency: 169 goals in 190 appearances, an average of 0.89 goals per game, in a sport where the benchmark for a top-class striker is 0.5gpg. He scored more goals in one season (52 in season 1963-64) than any Dundee striker before or since. He scored 17 hat-tricks for the club and, naturally a club record seven goals in one game.

But, it was his four goals at Ibrox, as Dundee turned a goalless first half into a final score of a 5-1 win, in November, 1961, that really made his name. Before that day, he was already a Scotland Under-23 cap, after it, he was the hottest of hot property.

The following season, he scored nine goals as unfancied Dundee charged to the final of the European Cup, which back then was a straight knock-out competition featuring the champions of each European league. Along the way, Dundee eliminated Cologne, the German champions, Sporting Lisbon from Portugal and Anderlecht from Belgium, before falling to eventual winners AC Milan in the semi-final. Big English and Italian clubs were not falling over themselves to sign Gilzean.

Dundee, however, would not sell, and in those pre-Bosman days, they could hold a player against his will. So, Gilzean went on strike, and had to sign-on for unemployment benefit as he withheld his services. Eventually, a compromise was reached, he returned, to be quickly sold-on to Tottenham Hotspur, who were determined to capture him after he scored twice for “A Scotland XI” in a White Hart Lane testimonial for Spurs legend John White, who had tragically been killed – struck by lightning while golfing.

He had played with White for Scotland, and, Gilzean's iconic first Scotland goal, when he rose above Spurs' Maurice Norman and goalkeeper Gordon Banks to head home the only goal of the 1964 Scotland v England game at Hampden was another reason why Tottenham boss Bill Nicholson was so-keen to pay £72,500 and get him onto his roster.

Jimmy Greaves - the other G-Man in the Tottenham ranks

Gillie was an immediate hit at the Lane, striking-up a wonderful partnership with Jimmy Greaves. The “G-Men” at their best, were unstoppable and before long the Spurs fans were hailing Gillie as “The King of White Hart Lane” as the goals flew in.

Then, when Greaves was sold to West Ham, Gilzean formed another brilliant partnership, with Martin Chivers, who, before injury dulled his potency, was the England centre forward.

Gilzean was no slouch internationally. Competition was fierce for a place in the Scotland team. He was competing against Denis Law, Ian St John, Ralph Brand and Jimmy Millar, then John O'Hare and Colin Stein for a place. He won 22 caps, and score 12 goals for Scotland, giving him a strike rate of 0.55 gpg, the same as Law.

In ten years with Tottenham, he scored 133 goals in 439 appearances, Adding one FA Cup, two League Cup and one UEFA Cup winner's medals to his League Championship medal with Dundee. Then, after a short stint in South Africa and an unhappy spell in non-league management, a position he never really fancied, he quit football.

Then, famously, Gilzean “vanished”, for nigh-on 40-years. What actually happened was: he joined a transport firm near his Enfield home and quietly worked away there. His marriage to childhood sweetheart Irene failed, and his firm moved him to its Avonmouth base, with Gillie settling in Weston-Super-Mare, which is pretty much as far from football as you can get in England.

James Morgan's Gilzean book

He retired from work and, from somewhere, the rumour arose he was now a down and out. Where was Gillie? Became something of a cause celebre among sports journalists, to the extent that James Morgan, Spurs fan and Deputy Sports Editor of the (Glasgow) Herald wrote a best-selling book: “The Search for Alan Gilzean.”

His search was successful, Gillie was “found”, the down and out rumour rubbished and after 40 years away he returned to Spurs, to be greeted like the Prodigal Son, and a huge hug from Greaves, who said: “We worked well together, he did my heading, I did his running.”

Greaves asked: “Why were you gone so-long?”

“To get away from you,” was the response of Gilzean, a man who, like Jim Baxter, was never all that enamoured of football when not playing.

The reconciliation saw Gillie join the Spurs legends on corporate hospitality duties at the Lane, and be a part of the celebrations when Spurs closed the old ground prior to their temporary move to Wembley and the building of their new ground.

Sadly, a brain tumour, only discovered weeks ago, has claimed Gillie's life, so, the King will be missing when the new Lane opens. But, he will be there in spirit. Alan Gilzean, a member of the Dundee and Tottenham Halls of Fame, a 2009 inductee into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame and one of the game's genuinely nice guys may have gone, but, he will never be forgotten.

Not least around Dens Park, where the most-popular fanzine is entitled: “Eh dae ye mind o' Gillie?” That's a silly question, those of us who saw him play will never forget him.