Danny Blanchflower (10 February 1926 – 9 December 1993) was a legendary Tottenham captain, inevitably nicknamed 'Danny Boy'.  One of the game's great tacticians, he summed up his philosophy with typical eloquence: 'The great fallacy is that the game is first and last about winning. It is nothing of the kind. The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish, about going out and beating the other lot, not waiting for them to die of boredom.' Born in Belfast in 1926, Blanchflower began his career with local club Glentoran in 1945 before transferring to Barnsley in 1949 for £6000.  In 1951 he moved to Aston Villa and finally arrived at Tottenham in 1954 for the huge fee of £30,000, remaining with the London club until his retirement as a player ten years later. For all his excellence, Blanchflower was not a spectacular footballer, more a subtle, all-pervasive influence from his position of right- half (a 'midfielder' in modern parlance). In his prime, between 1957 and 1962, he was one of the most creative players in the game, capable of dictating the tempo of a match like few others.The highlight of his time at Spurs came with the 1960–61 season. With Blanchflower as captain Spurs won their first 11 games, a record for the top flight of English football and eventually won the league by 8 points. They then beat Leicester City in the final of the FA Cup to become the first team in the 20th century to win the League and Cup double, not achieved since Aston Villa in 1897. Blanchflower was voted FWA Footballer of the Year in 1958 and 1961.Blanchflower holding the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup trophy in 1963 after beating Atlético Madrid

In 1962 he helped Spurs win the FA Cup, scoring a penalty in the final against Burnley. In 1963 he captained his side to victory over Atlético Madrid in the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup. Blanchflower made his debut for Northern Ireland in 1949 and went on to collect a record 56 international caps.  He was an inspirational figure in the glorious 1958 World Cup campaign which took Northern Ireland to the quarter finals of the competition in Sweden. In April 1964, at the age of 37, Blanchflower finally announced his retirement. Jimmy Greaves summed up the feelings of many Tottenham fans when he declared: ‘A light has gone out at White Hart Lane.'  After his retirement he worked as a journalist with the Sunday Express. During his 24-year spell with the paper, he gained a reputation for being outspoken and openly attacked the football establishment. He also had brief spells as manager of Chelsea and Northern Ireland.  Still remembered for his intelligence and forceful opinions off the field, he once remarked, with typical originality: 'We try to equalize before the others have scored'.