Glenn Hoddle was in tears in the dressing room. Others sat in disbelief, wondering what the future held.<\/p>\n
Tottenham were the first English club in the 20th century to win the league and FA Cup Double, in 1961, and the first to lift a European trophy when they won the Cup Winners\u2019 Cup two years later. They were renowned for playing attractive football and the goals of Jimmy Greaves.<\/p>\n
Under their manager Bill Nicholson, they added two League Cups and the Uefa Cup at the start of the 1970s. And now they had been relegated.<\/p>\n
Confirmation arrived on 7 May 1977 via a 5-0 thrashing at Maine Road by Manchester City, who were challenging for the First Division title. Peter Taylor was in the dressing room that day and remembers the \u201cshock\u201d and a \u201crubbish feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pat Jennings fails to prevent a goal on the day that Spurs were relegated from the First Division in 1977 at Maine Road. Photograph: Granger\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Hoddle, a promising teenager just breaking through, wrote in his autobiography of being \u201covercome by guilt after failing to save my boyhood club from relegation and letting the fans down. It was a dreadful feeling, scarring me inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
What happened to reach this catastrophic point? How had one of the country\u2019s biggest clubs dropped out of the top flight? And can lessons learned from Spurs\u2019 unlikeliest relegation help the current team, who are sucked into a struggle<\/a> with Igor Tudor unable to halt the freefall<\/a>?<\/p>\n \u201cSad Spurs hit rock bottom,\u201d read a headline in the Sunday Mirror the day after relegation. Pat Jennings, considered the best goalkeeper in the world, told reporters: \u201cRelegation has not just happened today \u2013 it\u2019s been happening for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n He was referring to Nicholson\u2019s resignation after losing the first four games of the 1974-75 season, ending a 16-year managerial reign and sending \u201cshock waves through the dressing room\u201d, Jennings recalled in his 1983 autobiography. In truth, the Spurs empire had been crumbling in the seasons before that, mainly owing to an inability to replace players.<\/p>\n In the mid-60s the captain Danny Blanchflower retired, the forward John White was struck by lightning on a golf course and died, and the winger Terry Medwin\u2019s career was ended by a broken leg \u2013 the links to that great Double team breaking apart.<\/p>\n Terry Neill, who spent a decade as a centre-back for Arsenal, succeeded Nicholson and the club finished 19th \u2013 one place and one point above the relegation zone in a 22-team league. After guiding Spurs to an improved but still disappointing ninth, Neill left unexpectedly in the summer of 1976 to manage Arsenal.<\/p>\n The Spurs fans were restless at White Hart Lane from early on in the 1976-77 season. Photograph: Colorsport\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n In stepped Keith Burkinshaw, previously a first-team coach, to take charge of a team weakened by the departures of more key players, including Martin Chivers.<\/p>\n They lost the first two games of the season and never recovered. In mid-October they travelled to Derby and were thrashed 8-2. Taylor, who signed from Crystal Palace that September, says rows were \u201cpretty normal\u201d back then and recalls heated reflections most Monday mornings that season.<\/p>\n \u201cWe certainly had some honesty,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019ve got that now. Steve Perryman was the best captain you could ever play for. Pat Jennings wasn\u2019t the noisiest, but if he spoke you listened. Terry Naylor was loud and determined. You couldn\u2019t get a more honest worker on the pitch than John Pratt.\u201d<\/p>\n There were blazing rows. Hoddle recalls the defenders blaming the attackers and the attackers blaming the defenders. Taylor, a winger, says: \u201cWe conceded 72 goals that season. I think we had 10 times more flair players than they have now but conceded too many goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Andy Keeley guards the near post during a home defeat by Coventry City. Photograph: Colorsport\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n Already melancholic fans were quick to turn on the players at White Hart Lane. \u201cHome games were a struggle,\u201d Hoddle reflected. \u201cThe crowd were on top of the team and it wasn\u2019t ideal when a bad pass met with jeers.\u201d<\/p>\n Occasionally, there were flashes of hope. They beat the champions Liverpool at home in March and many believed it would spark a turnaround. They won twice in the subsequent 11 games. In a final stand they beat Aston Villa 3-1 at home and believed again. But a week later they travelled to Maine Road and it was over.<\/p>\n \u201cI suppose it could be a good thing for us provided we come straight back,\u201d Jennings said that day. The Guardian\u2019s chief football correspondent, David Lacey, wrote that Burkinshaw had taken \u201cdown the most promising Tottenham side, from the point of view of individual ability, for several seasons\u201d.<\/p>\n They finished on 33 points, when it was still two points for a win. Three more points would have saved them. When Taylor checks the 1976-77 Division One table on his iPad, he still can\u2019t \u201cbelieve we only got that many points\u201d.<\/p>\n Steve Perryman crunches into Liam Brady during defeat at Highbury. Photograph: Colorsport\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n The gravity of the situation was still sinking in when they played the last game of the season, beating Leicester 2-0 at White Hart Lane. Fans turned up in droves, \u201ccheered every kick\u201d and swarmed on to the pitch.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a trifle eerie in the circumstances, for I expected them to go home quietly instead of kicking up the kind of din you usually get when a team has won something,\u201d Jennings recalled. \u201cWhen a club has been in the First Division for 27 years it is accepted as a right, and I think most of the lads that afternoon had the nasty feeling we had let down previous Spurs teams \u2013 especially the famous \u2018Double\u2019 side.\u201d<\/p>\n Jennings left for Arsenal, insisting he was pushed out of the sinking ship rather than jumped from it. But the core stayed and Burkinshaw survived.<\/p>\n