The Remaster: 100 Owners - Irving Scholar, (Tottenham Hotspur & Nottingham Forest)

A new influx of smart-suited businessmen moved into football in the early 1980s, but that slickness didn't necessarily mean that they were good for the clubs that they became involved with.

In June 1984, shortly after bringing Tottenham Hotspur their first European trophy in twelve years, Keith Burkinshaw left White Hart Lane for the last time. Greeted by the press outside the ground, he gesticulated over his shoulder towards the rear of the shiny new stand behind him. ‘There used to be a football club over there’, he is said to have spat with contempt.

These words turned out to be more prescient than anybody at that time could have imagined. While many might contend that English football’s revolution began with the formation of the Premier League in 1992, the truth of the matter is that the arrival of this league was in many respects the end of a story rather than the beginning of one, and if that story has a birthplace then we could contend that this was at White Hart Lane. The application of Thatcherism to our national pastime began in a working class corner of North London, and its champion was a Monaco-based property developer in his late thirties; Irving Scholar.