As one of the greatest managers of all time gets ready for his most recent match against Tottenham this coming weekend, Takis Anatolitis traces the roots of his concept of football back more than a century to White Hart Lane.
“Take the ball, pass the ball” was Pep Guardiola’s dictum for his era-defining Barcelona team in the 2010s, which will undoubtedly always be remembered as his masterpiece.These may seem a very simplistic description of the strategies underlying such a revolutionary, all-conquering football phenomena, but as we shall see later, this is not the first time a revolutionary football style has been reduced to such elementary terms. The early 1950s Spurs “push and run” team may have served as the model for “Total Football,” which in turn served as the cornerstone for Guardiola’s entire philosophy of football.This is the tale of how Pep Guardiola owes the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club everything that he has achieved.
Our story starts with a Scot called Peter McWilliam, almost a century before Lionel Messi, Xavi, and company would go on to rule European football.Although not as well-known as Bill Nicholson or even Arthur Rowe, McWilliam managed the Spurs for the longest period of time. He wasn’t as popular or well-liked as his successors, but he was undoubtedly the most important in terms of tactical advancement.
Though his first tenure brought the most success, including Spurs’ second FA Cup victory in 1921, McWilliam managed Spurs for two spells. It was during his second tenure in particular that McWilliam really began to implement his revolutionary ideas about how the game should be played—ideas that many of his players would absorb and internalize.Importantly, three highly important future managers are included. His philosophy would become ingrained in Tottenham Hotspur.
During a period when the prevailing approach in football was to hoof the ball long and avoid the midfield altogether, a technique popularized as “kick and rush” (which is still a proud tradition for many teams – you know who you are), William’s style relied heavily on intentional and astute passing and ball retention, which served as the foundation for what some would later refer to as the “Spurs way.”This period is undoubtedly the reason behind all the complaints from Spurs supporters in recent years suggesting that the team may have forgotten its “Tottenham DNA,” whether or not they realize it.
During this time, McWilliam also signed a formal contract with Northfleet United, a non-league team, whereby young Spurs players would play for them and adopt a style of play that matched Tottenham’s in order to prepare them for the move up to the first team. This was during a period when McWilliam was largely responsible for the invention of the feeder club concept, which did not yet exist. Parallels between Guardiola’s early career and his successful promotion of future stars from the prestigious La Masia academy to the first squad also begin to emerge at this point. Guardiola managed Barça’s B team during this period.
Bill Nicholson, a player most Spurs fans are familiar with, was one such young player who made his way into the club after honing his game at Northfleet. Nicholson made his debut under McWilliam, starting a famous 55-year romance with the team. Naturally, Nicholson went on to become the most adored and prosperous Tottenham manager of all time, leading the team that won two titles in a row in the 1960s in what was unquestionably the “Spurs way” at its best. Not only was that team the most entertaining but also the most effective club team in history, according to many at the time. To quote the immortal captain and key player for the team, Danny Blanchflower:
“The game is about glory, about going out and beating the other lot, not about waiting for them to die of boredom. It’s about doing things in style and with a flourish.”
Though Nicholson’s Spurs embodied and implemented McWilliam’s principles to the greatest extent possible, the groundwork for those “glory glory” days was established by Bill’s former player who turned manager, Arthur Rowe, ten years prior. The expression “push and run” became widely associated with Rowe’s Spurs, which was a logical progression from McWilliam’s original focus on deft passing to advance the ball up the field. Most famously, Rowe pulled off the unfathomable in 1949–50 when he got Spurs promoted to the top division. The following year, he led them to the First Division championship.Sir Alf Ramsey, who went on to coach England’s “wingless wonders” to World Cup triumph on home soil in 1966, was arguably the most well-known member of that squad.
According to Jonathan Wilson in “Inverting the Pyramid,”
The most effective radicalism was at Tottenham Hotspur, where Hungarian thought had already been popular prior to the pivotal year of 1953.In 1940, Arthur Rowe gave a lecture in Budapest, but education turned out to be a two-way street; eventually, the sport returned to Britain through cross-pollination. Thanks to the wise guidance of Peter McWilliam in the 1920s and 1930s, Tottenham had always preferred a close-passing style of play, which Rowe had participated in.
By the way, Rowe the player would have fit right in with a modern Guardiola team.Perhaps the best way to characterize Rowe in modern football jargon is as a ball-playing center-back. Rowe was a smart defender who was more than happy to hold onto the ball until he spotted an opportunity to play a precise pass rather than just passing it up to the forwards. His observations of the burgeoning Hungarian game and the mentality McWilliam imparted in him put him on the way to converting his approach ontothe field as a highly successful coach. One may conclude that the “push and run” team was a step away from modern-day Tiki Taka because of their fast passing triangles and skillful use of space, such as sprinting forward to reclaim the ball from a teammate. He gave the order, “Make it simple, make it quick.” Although Rowe didn’t create the one-two any more than Elvis did rock and roll, he had as much of an impact on its widespread use in football as anyone.
Though perhaps the least well-known to the typical Spurs fan, the third future manager to play under Peter McWilliam and have a significant impact on tactical thought was possibly the most significant to the overall outcome of the match. Vic Buckingham received the same careful tutelage from McWilliam at Northfleet United that Nicholson did, learning how to play the Spurs way from a distance. Buckingham was a journeyman manager who traveled throughout the remote corners of the continent, but he made his impact at both Ajax and Barcelona when he assumed the helm.Though he is regarded by many as the godfather of “Total Football,” he is also known as the forgotten man of English football.
At times, Buckingham was a provocative and outspoken person with a management style that would have made Harry Redknapp blush.He once yelled, “Fuck Betis!” to his astonished Barcelona teammates in the locker room before kicking a nearby tactics board to the ground.Although it may not have been nearly as dramatic as Louis Van Gaal practically lowering his pants to prove to his squad that he had what it took to drop any of them, I’m sure they noticed.But beneath such outbursts was a sophisticated football scholar, an intellectual who, like Rowe, had taken his education from Spurs and built upon it, adding his own interpretations and modifications, and most importantly, applying his style at Ajax.
In a 1993 interview with David Winner for his book Brilliant Orange, Buckingham clarified, saying, “It’s possession football, not kick and rush. Football with a long ball is too hazardous. The majority of the time, educational talents pay off. Hold onto the ball if you have it. The opposition is unable to score.- a statement that could just as plausibly have been made by Guardiola.
If Bill Nicholson didn’t require any introduction, then the seventeen-year-old named Johann Cruyff, who made his Ajax debut in 1964, didn’t either.His significance to contemporary football, and specifically to Guardiola, is so great that I might easily conclude here by saying, “And the rest is history.”When Buckingham was looking for new blood to invigorate an aging Ajax club, he looked to a group of young youngsters, Cruyff foremost among them, and at twelve he found the legendary player. Cruyff was immediately and greatly influenced by Buckingham; in fact, the two were so close that Cruyff would later appoint Buckingham the godfather of one of his children (no, not Pep,Yes, I refer to his real child. To paraphrase Rinus Michels, who was eventually Buckingham’s replacement at Ajax and Barcelona and who the general public is likely more likely to link with Total Football:
“Even though [Cruyff] was just seventeen when he made his Ajax debut, he was already giving the other players running commentary on how to use space—where to run and where not to run. The players followed the advice of the scrawny, little youth because he was correct.
From the beginning, Cruyff served as the spokesperson for Buckingham’s ideology, which is handed down through the generations like a priceless family relic and is improved upon with each passing generation. Sifting through Cruyff statements is like being a child in a candy store for those who are passionate in the history of football tactics, but so many of his opinions on the beautiful game seemed to echothose that are hardest to ignore and are most associated with the Spurs’ heyday.
“Quality is useless without results. “Quality without results is boring,” the renowned Cruyff once said.”A reputation can last a lifetime; winning is just a day in the race.” While success is vital, the greatest gift is to have your unique style, be copied by others, and inspire admiration.Cruyff seems to place a great deal of weight on not only winning, but winning in style, much as it did for Blanchflower and Nicholson.
Probably Cruyff’s most illustrious and esteemed follower during his time securing his legacy at Barcelona is Guardiola. To try and summarize as best I can, Cruyff was the man who gave Barcelona the signature style and modern identity that most of us connect with that outstanding Guardiola team. One could write an entire book on Cruyff’s influence at the Catalan club, let alone the game as a whole. He completely changed the young system by prioritizing players’ ball skills and space use while also changing the emphasis to allow for the growth of smaller, more technical players.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that, had he not been involved in the renovation of the infamous La Masia, we could never have seen Xavi, Iniesta, or even Messi in the same captivating ways that he did at Camp Nou for so many years.Pep has talked extensively about the significance of the Dutchman in his own growth as a player and later a manager. “I knew nothing about football before Johan Cruyff,” he remarked. “For me, he is the most influential manager of all time.” The Dutchman’s impact over Guardiola is well-documented.
Thus, I can’t help but wonder if Guardiola ever makes the connection back to that first domino at White Hart Lane in the 1920s as he looks to add additional trophies to Manchester City and enhance his already remarkable managerial legacy.Even when the North Londoners have struggled for form, there is an irony to the fact that Tottenham appears to be one team that has historically given Manchester City managers headaches.
Maybe it’s a little over the top to attribute all of his success to Spurs alone—pardon the somewhat ironic headline, and report the clickbait police if necessary—but one thing is certain: regardless of Guardiola’s desire to deny it, Tottenham DNA runs through his footballing veins.
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