News about Gary Mabbutt

MATT BARLOW AT THE TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM: Tottenham legend Gary Mabbutt was out on the pitch at half time talking with affection about north London derbies of yore.  How you never could never tell what might emerge once the rivalry was held to the flame. How each duel created its own identity. This one though, there was something eerily familiar about. A frantic street skirmish in designer slip-ons settled in Arsenal's favour with a blow from a set-piece. 

JOE BERNSTEIN: Gary Mabbutt: Gary Mabbutt: Gary Mabbutt would like for other Premier League clubs to talk to elder supporters and check on their welfare. Mabbutt, one of Tottenham's finest players who made 611 appearances between 1982 and 1998, spends an hour every day ringing supporters aged over 70, birthdays, and wedding anniversaries. The wife and two children of Mabbutt are understanding. Mabbutt does his calls after breakfast, even on holiday.

JOE BERNSTEIN — although Harry Kane got a good night sleep before his home debut for Bayern Munich this evening, another Tottenham legend was up at 3 a.m. to receive one of the seven daily injections he needs to keep a normal life. Gary Mabbutt, Spurs captain for 11 years and also active with the club in a fifth decade, is a byword for overcoming adversity. He was diagnosed with diabetes as a youngster and went beyond experts who considered his football career to become one of the game's top influencers.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW - BY CRAIG HOPE: 'You must be mad?' He shouts, the long goatee and curly hair resting on his broad shoulders is unmistakable even from a distance. On the site, Brian 'Killer' Kilcline is waiting for me. In the Cornish town of St Austell, it's lunchtime. We'd have alcoholic tea in his 'hobbit hole' house, drank beer in the wake, played with his bow and arrow, and discussed his gardening zip-wire design. And he thinks my eight-hour train journey is mad? The 1987 FA Cup-winning captain of Coventry City is a newbie. We're trying to find a way from the station to the property he bought by bouncing down cobbled one-way streets in his pickup truck, rattling back up them in the wrong direction 30 seconds later. He didn't comply. The goth brooch has been weaved into his beard, meaning that not much has changed.

MATT BARLOW: MATT BARLOW: In the warmth after a fine England victory and on a sunny spring day to get out and watch a match, football, and broadcasting all came together to say their final farewells to John Motson. As a parade of familiar faces gathered to join family and friends to pay their last respects to the man they referred to as Motty at Crownhill's Oak Chapel in Milton Keynes, it was cool, crisp, breezy, and there was not a sheepskin jacket on view. Sir Trevor Brooking, Bob Wilson, and David Pleat were among the guests on the stage. Mark Lawrenson, Garth Crooks, Mark Bright, Gary Mabbutt, and Martin Keown appeared on the programme. It would have been a good team back in the day.

Exclusive INTERVIEW BY JOE BERNSTEIN: One expects that new Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper will be fully clothed when he meets Antonio Conte ahead of Tottenham's match at the City Ground on Sunday, but this wasn't always the case for his most popular predecessor. At the City Ground, Brian Clough used to keep us waiting,' says longtime Spurs captain Gary Mabbutt. Captains and executives were supposed to be in the referee's room for a quarter-past-two.' I'd be discussing Pearcey [Stuart Pearce] and Terry Venables, and Cloughie would arrive at the last minute, with just a towel tied around his waist because he'd finished a sauna.'

For the first time since 2010, Giovanni van Bronckhorst's Rangers (right) qualified for the group stage of the tournament, defeating PSV Eindhoven in Wednesday's play-off. In Group A, against Jurgen Klopp's side, Ajax and Napoli, the Scots have been given a daunting challenge. Liverpool (left) has had a slow start to the season, but they will be expected to advance from the group in European competition after losing to Real Madrid in Paris last season. Liverpool has never met Rangers in a competitive match, and Klopp said, "They are a new foe for us but we know them." Their story over the last few years has been really interesting and they did really, really well to qualify'