Robert Dennis Blanchflower, popularly known as Danny, was born in Dunraven
\nPark, in the Bloomfield district in the east end of Belfast, on
\n10 February 1926. He was the first of five children – three boys, two
\ngirls in a typical working-class Presbyterian household. His parents, John
\nand Selina, had been married two years earlier. Times were hard as Europe
\nwas hit by the depression. His formative years were spent at Ravenscroft
\nPublic Elementary School. He soon became interested in football and his
\nfirst exposure to the game came when he played for a representative
\nBelfast Cubs side against the Dublin Colts in 1937. His footballing hero
\nwas Peter Doherty, who began his career with Glentoran and left for
\nBlackpool, later moving to Manchester City.<\/p>\n
As he grew older, Danny began to play football more and more, often
\nplaying three times on a Saturday. He played for the school in the
\nmorning, the Boys Brigade in the afternoon and the local team in the
\nevening. By the summer of 1941, he had set up his own football club,
\nBloomfield United. They played in the East Belfast Summer League.<\/p>\n
In 1943, anxious to do his bit for the war effort, he lied about his age
\nand joined the RAF. He obtained a place on a short course run by St
\nAndrews University in Scotland, where he attended from December 1943 to
\nApril 1944. In his spare time he played for the University football team.
\nIt was here he began to play golf, another passion of his.<\/p>\n
In the spring of 1945, Danny was posted abroad to Canada for further
\ntraining. But the war in Europe ended before his course could be completed
\nand he returned home in August. There was not much to do while he waited
\nto be demobbed and he started playing again for Glentoran, making his
\nsenior debut in a match against the now defunct Belfast Celtic. He was
\npersuaded to leave the RAF and sign professional forms for Glentoran. He
\ndid not suffer fools and soon found out that the rules were being flouted
\nand that some of the other players were being paid more than the legal
\nmaximum.<\/p>\n
By 1949, he was tired of the parochial outlook of playing for Glentoran
\nand asked for a transfer. Barnsley paid \u00c2\u00a36,000 for his services after the
\ntransfer deadline had elapsed so he could not play for Barnsley until the
\nstart of the 1949-50 season. Blanchflower spent two years with Barnsley
\nbefore making the further transfer to Aston Villa, a sleeping giant of the
\nMidlands that had rested on its achievements largely won before WW1 for
\nmany years. Villa paid \u00c2\u00a315,000 for his services. He made his debut for
\nAston Villa on 17 March 1951. Blanchflower was quickly disillusioned by
\nAston Villa as their ideas of football training did not co-incide with
\nhis. One aspect that he disliked was the fact the players were never
\nallowed to practice with the ball during training but largely spent their
\ntime lapping the pitch.<\/p>\n
Blanchflower had already made his debut for Northern Ireland, against
\nScotland, at Windsor Park, on 1 October 1949. He was destined to play for
\nNorthern Ireland for 14 years until he retired. The Irish were beaten 8-2
\nthat day. The highlight of his international career was playing for
\nNorthern Ireland in the 1958 World Cup when Northern Ireland and Wales
\nboth reached the Quarter-Final stage of the World Cup, unlike England and
\nScotland, who both fell at the first hurdle. But Northern Ireland were
\ntired and collapsed to France 4-0. They were not to qualify for another
\nWorld Cup until long after Blanchflower had retired.<\/p>\n
By then, of course, Blanchflower was playing for Tottenham. He had tired
\nof the inability of Aston Villa to escape from the memories of the past
\nand an inability to look at the change in tactics wrought by the
\ncontinental game. Like anybody else, Blanchflower was ambitious. He had
\nyet to win honours at club level and he wasn’t getting any younger.<\/p>\n
As soon as it was announced that Blanchflower was available for transfer,
\nArsenal and Spurs both put in formal bids for him. A Dutch auction saw
\nSpurs and Arsenal top each other’s bids until Arsenal refused to go above
\n\u00c2\u00a328,500. Spurs secured Blanchflower’s services for \u00c2\u00a330,000, a massive fee
\nfor someone of 28. Blanchflower made his Tottenham debut the week after
\nNicholson had retired as a player at Manchester City. But Spurs were
\nsliding towards relegation and needed drastic surgery. Arthur Rowe took
\nill with the worry of it all and stepped down.<\/p>\n
It came something as a surprise that Spurs appointed Jimmy Anderson as
\nmanager in succession to Rowe. But it is thought the appointment was a
\nstop gap as Nicholson was already club coach and making various decisions
\neven then. Anderson, however, picked the team and soon fell out with
\nBlanchflower who wanted the authority on the field to change the team
\nabout if the situation dictated it. The row came to a head when Spurs lost
\nthe 1956 FA Cup Semi-Final to Manchester City. Losing 1-0, Blanchflower
\nsent Norman up to help the attack but the equaliser refused to come. In
\nthe dressing room afterwards, manager and captain argued about the
\ndecision. Anderson sacked Blanchflower as captain and dropped him for a
\nvital relegation match at Cardiff. Blanchflower refused to play along with
\nthe official line that he was injured and made it clear he had been
\ndropped.<\/p>\n
Spurs survived the relegation scare and had two good seasons under
\nAnderson without ever looking likely to win the League. But at the start
\nof 1958-59, Spurs made an awful start to the season and Anderson took ill
\nwith the worry of it all. On October 11th 1958, Anderson resigned as
\nmanager and Nicholson took over.<\/p>\n
An early decision that Nicholson made as manager was to drop Blanchflower.
\nHe pointed to the fact that both Blanchflower and Iley liked to play an
\nattacking role and that left great big chunks in defence for Norman to
\ncover. Blanchflower promptly asked for a transfer saying that he had no
\nwish to play in the reserves. But Tottenham continued to slide inexorably
\nto the bottom of the table and Nicholson recalled Blanchflower, albeit as
\na replacement for Harmer. Blanchflower began to pull the strings and
\nbreathed confidence into Tottenham’s shattered team. Nicholson restored
\nBlanchflower to his proper position and re-instated him as captain of the
\nteam. That decision plus the arrival of David Mackay eventually saw
\nTottenham climb above the hurly burly of the relegation battle. Virtually
\nthe same side plus the arrival of Bill Brown in goal during the summer,
\nJohn White in October and Les Allen in December almost snatched the
\nchampionship the following season.<\/p>\n
Most Spurs supporters should not need to know about the events of 1960-61.
\nSuffice to say that Spurs won the first eleven games of the season, drew
\nthe twelfth, won the next four and did not suffer their first defeat until
\nthe seventeenth match of the season at Hillsborough. By the turn of the
\nyear, they were 11 points out in front and free to concentrate on the FA
\nCup. Eventually, they won the title by 8 points and beat Leicester City in
\nthe Cup Final.<\/p>\n
The following season, Spurs almost achieved the Double again. Had they won
\none of the two games they lost to Ipswich Town, they would have done so.
\nBut they marched to the Semi-Finals of the European Cup when only sloppy
\nmatch officials in the first leg in Lisbon prevented Spurs from snatching
\na crucial first-leg lead. Woodwork prevented Spurs from snatching a
\ndeserved equaliser and forcing extra time in the return game, when they
\nwould surely have gone on to beat Benfica and face Real Madrid in the
\nFinal. Their only reward from a brilliant season was to retain the FA Cup
\nbeating Burnley, 3-1.<\/p>\n
In 1962-63, there were signs that Blanchflower was approaching the end of
\nhis career. He missed a large chunk of the season due to injury, returning
\njust in time to play a decisive role in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup
\nFinal against Atletico Madrid, which Spurs won 5-1. But Spurs had lost
\ntheir grip on the FA Cup during Blanchflower’s absence, losing a
\nbad-tempered game on an icy White Hart Lane pitch in January 1963 when
\nthey lost 3-0 to Burnley. Several of the Spurs team that day were very
\nlucky they were not sent off.<\/p>\n
But during the autumn of 1963, it was clear that Blanchflower’s days were
\nnumbered. He could not cope with the pressure of playing twice a week and
\na portent of the future was shown when Phil Beal made his debut at Villa
\nPark in September. Blanchflower’s final first team appearance was at Old
\nTrafford in November 1963 when Manchester United thrashed Tottenham 4-1.
\nDenis Law had humiliated Blanchflower who knew the game was up. He did not
\nimmediately announce his decision as, officially, he was injured but he
\nknew the time had come to announce his retirement and did so in his
\nnewspaper column in April 1964.<\/p>\n
Blanchflower severed his connections with football for many years until
\nbriefly being Northern Ireland manager in the 1970s and also Chelsea’s
\nmanager in the very late 1970s. Neither appointment was a success and
\nBlanchflower was relieved to resume his newspaper columnist activities.<\/p>\n
Sadly, he was suffering a number of personal problems and fell on hard
\ntimes. Spurs arranged a testimonial for him on 1 May 1990 but it was clear
\nto all who knew and remembered him that all was not well with him. He
\npassed away in a nursing home on 9 December 1993, suffering from
\nAlzheimer’s Disease. It was a relief for all who knew him that his
\nsuffering was at an end.<\/p>\n
All of us who saw Danny play will remember him. He was a master tactician
\nand a master of the incomparable epigram. All who saw him play will never
\nforget him.<\/p>\n
By Brian Judson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"