Martin Chivers was born to a German mother, who had moved to Southampton after the Great War and a Southampton docker. He had initiated his Dell career by writing for a trial and quickly progressed to a first-team debut at 17 (see scrapbook section), coming through the match v Charlton with “flying colors”, said the Echo. He had only signed as a professional earlier that week and on the Friday had posed for this first press photograph.

A long-striding, athletically-built forward, he was soon menacing Second Division defences.

If Martin had a fault, it was a lack of confidence – he was such a worrier he would often take tranquilisers before matches – and Norman Dean, who’d gone to lodge at Martin’s family home, recalls having to gee Martin up to face this or that defender in an upcoming game. Yet in the Saints’ promotion season of 1965-66, he scored 30 goals from the first 29 games. Four of them came in a 9-3 win v Wolves. That owed something to Martin’s superstitious streak. He’d decided he wasn’t comfortable in the No.9 shirt, so Jimmy Melia wore it against his old club and created havoc in their man-marking system. But after he’d scored for fun in February, including twice in a 5-2 win at Portsmouth, the goals dried up. He was handicapped by a back-problem that was requiring frequent trips to Harley Street. But he’d more than played his part in achieving promotion, a consequence of which was that Dean made way for a new signing: Ron Davies. Martin now became less of a marked man when the crosses were coming in:

“they couldn’t mark us both,”

he says with relish. As Davies top-scored, nation-wide, over the next two seasons, Martin was still contributing his share. And yet team-mates suggested that he was happier scoring four goals in a 5-4 defeat than not scoring in a win. That would continue to be said at Tottenham and Martin did not deny it – an example, for his team-mate, Steve Perryman, of how “very honest” he was. We know this from Martin’s autobiography, in which he reasons that he needed to move to Tottenham in order to “boost” his chances of adding full England caps to the 12 he had won at the U-23 level.

He got his wish, joining Spurs at a fee judged to be £125,000 (Frank Saul in part-exchange, plus £45,000), which broke the British transfer record (see scrapbook section). The plan worked, in that he would go on to play 24 times for England. Yet he struggled at first to adjust to managerial expectations at White Hart Lane. Whereas Ted Bates had “nurtured” him, Martin was frustrated by the “constant confrontation” with Billy Nicholson, for whom he was initially scoring too few goals.

Terry Paine recalls being asked by Nicholson how could he get his expensive new signing “to run towards the opponents’ goal?”

It all worked out in the end, though, as measured by Martin’s 200 goals for Spurs in 415 appearances. After Tottenham, his career included overseas adventures and dabbling in player-management, but since he retired from playing, his footballing activities have consisted mainly of media work, most notably on BBC Radio 5, and hosting match-day hospitality at White Hart Lane. He was also the landlord of the Brookmans Park Hotel between 1981 and 1999.

As a local boy who scored 100 goals for Southampton, Martin has the qualifications to be remembered as one of the club’s all-time great forwards. But in his unflinchingly honest way, he has made it clear – even in a pitch-side interview at St Mary’s – that he sees himself as a Tottenham man.

When he was questioned at half-time during the New Year’s Day fixture 2020 he recalled the first he knew he was leaving The Dell when he was walking through Southampton High St and he saw the billboard outside the Echo office saying “Chivers to Spurs”.