In Search of Alan Gilzean: The Lost Legacy of a Dundee and Spurs Legend

Alan Gilzean was a truly great footballer, winning the league with Dundee and four trophies with Tottenham Hotspur. In his prime, the Leeds United manager Don Revie described him as the best touch player in Europe; even after his death in July 2018 the spine-tingling refrain of the Spurs fans who idolised him continues to echo down the generations: Gilzean, Gilzean, Born is the King of White Hart Lane. After a fan on a Spurs internet forum claimed that Gilzean was living as a down-and-out, James Morgan, a sports journalist and lifelong Tottenham fan, set out to separate fact from fiction and restore the legacy of an iconic footballer. Why was Gilzean not in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame? How had his name become forgotten in his hometown? And what had stopped him from returning to his throne at White Hart Lane?