Donald McRae talks to Tottenham legend Steve Perryman as the two non-league clubs he is involved with plan to take on giants in the FA Cup
When Steve Perryman leans forward and talks huskily about this coming weekend his exuberant words about the third-round "magic" of the FA Cup sometimes catch near the back of his throat. The furrows around his eyes deepen. At 53, the once inexhaustible captain of Spurs seems suddenly weary as, beyond his enduring passion for the Cup, his more recent disillusionment with English football emerges. And then, typically of Perryman, anticipation prevails.
Exeter City, for whom Perryman works as an unpaid director of football, play Manchester United, the FA Cup holders, at Old Trafford. Less than 24 hours later Yeading, for whom Perryman is vice-president, face Newcastle United. It will not be quite as heady as those May afternoons in both 1981 and 1982 when he lifted the FA Cup for Spurs but this bizarre coincidence of non-league connections is still the closest Perryman has got to big-time English soccer since he and Ossie Ardiles were fired as a management team at White Hart Lane more than 10 years ago.
The poignance of Perryman's fleeting return is accentuated by his pragmatism. He knows that a week today it will probably be all over. Exeter and Yeading will be back to Conference and Ryman League reality while obscurity once more envelops an ageing Tottenham legend who made 654 appearances in 19 years at the club. And yet he cannot help himself. He can hardly wait for the weekend.
In his homely way Perryman remembers the moment he felt the old surge of excitement. "That afternoon, when we were actually drawn against United, I jumped higher than I ever did on the pitch. Then Yeading got Newcastle. Incredible. My links with Yeading go back 34 years. Suddenly, for the very first time, I'm seeing my brother Bill (Yeading's commercial manager) on television. It was surreal. Bill was there with Spud (Phillip Spurden, Yeading's chairman). All these TV presenters were saying 'Mr Spurden' and I couldn't believe it. And while I'm watching them on telly in my front room I'm being filmed by another TV crew. They hook me up to the Yeading boys and we have this strange conversation on live television which ends with me saying: 'Good luck, Spud'."
Yeading's average home gate is 129, and their away support rarely amounts to more than eight regulars - including Spud Spurden who once kept goal for the club. "He was a decent 'keeper," Perryman confirms. Spurden also helped build Yeading's ground, The Warren, when Hendon Council gave the former pub team some land in 1982.
"They handed it over for free because, if it weren't for the football team, you'd never have heard of Yeading. Me and Bill started our first sports shop up the road in Hayes when I was 19 and all the Yeading boys, who were Spurs supporters, used to come and see us. At their end-of-season dinners I'd get someone like (Alan) Gilzean to present their trophies. My dad also worked close by at Heathrow and he used to get cheap air tickets for him and the Yeading crew to watch me play for Spurs in Europe. So we were always pretty tight and, when Bill and me sold the last of our shops a few years ago, he became their commercial manager. It's rare for a club six divisions below the Football League to have a full-time employee but Bill loves it."
With their home tie against Newcastle being shown live by the BBC on Sunday, a far larger cash injection has secured Yeading's future for years. Yet the inevitable decision to switch the match to Loftus Road has robbed the FA Cup of a chance to visit the haven of The Warren.
"That has done Newcastle a big favour," Perryman confirms. "Going to Yeading would have shocked them." Yet he dismisses the idea that Newcastle's bling-bling peacocks might be complacent when facing a side of builders and plasterers who nickname themselves The Ding.
"No chance. (Graeme) Souness will get them right. He's a hard man, Graeme, but what a player. We were in the same youth team at Spurs and he'll not want any humiliation at Yeading, especially as they'll have had their warning if we get a replay at Man United the day before."
Perryman cackles knowingly at that last line. For his main current club, Exeter, "last year was a struggle. It was our first year out of the League and my first year in this position. I'd helped out the club once before when a friend of mine, Joe Gadston, said he'd put some money into Exeter. I was like 'Why?' But it's a good club with a big catchment area. The only problem was that they were going down. I came in as an unpaid adviser and we kept them up that year."
In his second stint at Exeter Perryman is an admirably relaxed director of football. "It's lovely but football is such a cynical business that no one believes you can do a job for nothing. But there's real freedom in not being paid. If they make some crack, I can always say, 'Just take another zero off my wage'."
Though Perryman earned enough money from five years of management in Japan not to need a salary now, his philanthropy has real meaning for Exeter, who were threatened in 2002 by the terrifying presence of Uri Geller as their co-chairman and self-appointed saviour. Geller, before he was ousted, hailed the "positive aura" Paul Gascoigne would bring to the beleaguered club as a possible manager.
"If you'd asked me a couple of years ago if this club would still be here in the first week of 2005," Perryman sighs, "I would have said 'no way'. Fortunately the fans took over. Our supporters' trust reduced a £4.5 million debt to £750,000 by getting 2,000 members to pay between £5 and £100 a month to keep the club going. But it's still hard. We're losing £20,000 a month."
An FA Cup windfall - which Perryman says "should be £500,000 plus" - will sustain Exeter a while longer. Beyond the financial battle, he has uncovered a less tainted game in Devon.
"I don't want to work for clubs like Manchester United or Tottenham. When I'm watching Exeter I feel cleaner. It's all about ethics. I've been exposed to the likes of (Alan) Sugar and (Irving) Scholar. I fell out of love with football, and Spurs, when I was assisting Ossie under Sugar. I saw then what businessmen can do to football and it soured everything."
Though he still returns occasionally to White Hart Lane - where Spurs have named their lounge after him - he feels more at ease at Exeter. "They're a real football club owned by real people. The whole Premiership atmosphere is suspect and goes hand in hand with this cheating culture that's crept into the game. Suppose one of our players dives in the box on Saturday and gets us the penalty that gets us a replay and another £500,000 pay-day? Is that really the way I want to go?"
"You'll never get a penalty at Old Trafford," I suggest. Perryman laughs bleakly. "Yeah, money runs everything. A few years ago a lot of decent people were left in football. I'm not so sure now."
United still personify the corporate evil of modern football to many traditionalists. Their withdrawal from the FA Cup in 2000, to play in FIFA's spurious World Club Championship, defined the moment when the lustre disappeared from a venerable competition. "It was a telling sign for English football. But we lost the reins on football tradition a long time ago and we'll never get them back. It's sad.
"I only really appreciated that when I worked abroad. I couldn't believe that people in other countries actually hold 1981 FA Cup final parties. They dig out the video (of Spurs beating Manchester City in that famous replay) and impersonate Ricky Villa's goal. That made me understand the power this competition once had."
It was in Japan, Perryman stresses, that he "really rediscovered my love of football. Ossie and I were offered the chance to go over soon after our Tottenham experience when we'd been sacked and slaughtered. The easy accusation was that Ossie's teams were great going forward but terrible defensively. Japan gave us a chance to prove everyone wrong. "
Ardiles and Perryman succeeded in Japan. Perryman's Japanese record is superior to that of an old rival in the country, Arsene Wenger. After Ardiles left the club Perryman guided Shimizu S-Pulse to the championship in Japan and the Asian Cup-Winners' Cup. He insists that the template had been laid by his old friend.
"That man", he says in hushed awe of Ardiles, "is incredible. Ossie is so intelligent. His managerial reputation here is a travesty. I'm sounding old but (Bill) Shankly didn't win anything for seven years and (Matt) Busby was a point away from being relegated at Man United in 1963. Five years later they were European champions. We were never given time at Tottenham."
Though it is impossible to be swayed by Perryman's madcap conviction that Ardiles is Wenger's managerial equal, it is easy to sympathise with his shabby treatment since returning to England.
"After all I did in Japan I thought I'd get a chance here. Lots of clubs phoned me about specific Japanese players but whenever I applied for a job at those same clubs they didn't have the decency to even reply. The fact that I'd just given 'em some free advice didn't mean I should get the job but I expected a rejection letter at least."
Despite his noblest intentions this weekend has reawakened a longing in Perryman for another full-blown footballing affair. "I'm really happy now but, if another big job came along, I'd jump at it. I'd love another crack."
Defeat at Old Trafford and against Newcastle United might be almost certain but, at least for the next seven days, Exeter and Yeading have given Perryman one last footballing dream. "FA Cup third round," he says with a little shiver. "Still great, innit?"
