Looking Back: Richard Gough

A thread with a difference. Over the next few weeks to fill the boredom when this site is generally quite I aim to bring up former players and their history with us. Yes some of the text will be taken from other sources on the net but I will be adding bits and bobs myself. The Aim? To give us all something a little different to read when we are all bored and hopefully generate some chat about our former players. Do you remember them? Would they fit into the squad we have playing now? Were they rubbish for us? Did you have a man crush on them? Let us all know how you feel about some of our old great’s! Or not!

I am going to be choosing players at random and ones that I remember watching as a little youth in the stands with my dad.

Without further ado…

Richard Gough

Before joining Spurs, Gough played for Dundee United for 6 seasons scoring 23 goals in over 165 appearances. (not bad for a centre back) one thing I didn’t know and learnt whilst researching was that united made it to the European Cup semi-final against Roma in 1984 with Gough in the side.(blimey, couldn’t imagine that happening now).
In 1986 Gough made the move down south to Spurs for a fee of £750,000 spending just over 14 months with us. Goughy played beside the legend that is Gary Mabbutt and both quickly found a great understanding with each other. He also played with the likes of Clemance, Hoddle, waddle, Ardiles, Galvin and of course Cousins Paul and Clive Allen. (what a side!) On his debut against Aston Villa Sours won 3 nil away at Villa park with Clive Allen scoring a hatrick. Gough recalls that Allen only touched the ball 4 times during the game 

That season he played in all but 2 games 86/87 when Spurs finished 3rd. Gough is on record saying that after the team playing so well that season, his biggest disappointment was not getting any silverware. We played the gooners that season and lost in the semi-final to them  He also played in the famous 87 Cup Final which we somehow lost.

Any spurs fans who can remember Gough will be aware he is the one who got away! After 69 appearances (scoring 2 goals) Gough had played his way into many spurs fans hearts and was a rock for us but alas due to personal reasons he resigned for Glasgow Rangers to further his career in his native Scotland. He became the 1st Scottish player to command a fee of a cool mil . Still to this day Gough features in our fans’ E-Hotspur submissions of their all-time best Spurs XI teams.

(Alan Fisher wrote this on Sporting heroes website which explains so much better than I can.)
Gough Tackled hard and climbed well in the air, standing for no nonsense in the penalty box rough and tumble. He was quick enough to outpace all but the fastest of opponents, with a mind sufficiently sharp to anticipate danger and immediately snuff out the threat. What shone through however was his sheer skill and poise. He won challenges through impeccable timing rather than brute force. Entirely comfortable in possession, the abiding memory is of a player who in most situations simply got there first and came away with the ball, apparently without undue effort, breaking up opposition offensives to begin the counter attack with smooth accurate distribution. A commanding figure in the box, Richards astute awareness allowed him to marshal the defensive colleagues to form a formidable barrie. He described his partnership with Gary Mabbut as the most effective in his career. Above all, he possessed the hallmark of true greatness on a football pitch/ Gough was calm and unhurried, exuding an air of command and authority without ever appearing arrogant.

So there you have it. What are your thoughts on Gough? Do you remember him playing? Share your thoughts.

Hope this article interests at least some of you and at worst, gives some of you something to read whilst on the bog.