Highlights
Tottenham have had a plethora of truly world-class players ply their trade in north London over the years.
Harry Kane left to join Bayern Munich in 2023 after several incredible campaigns for Spurs.
Jimmy Greaves and Bobby Smith starred for Tottenham during the club's most successful era in the 1960s.
Tottenham Hotspur have not won a major trophy since 2008. It means the club — and naturally their fans — are always on the receiving end of lazy jibes, but they have had some of the best players of all time turn out for them over the years. From winning the First Division in the 1960s to claiming FA Cup glory in 1991, these legendary figures have been at the heart of the club.
Trophies always seem to be the centre of attention for anyone at the top of the professional game. It's what makes the difference even when deciding who wins the Ballon d'Or, with Champions League and World Cup champions all but guaranteed to be vying for the most prestigious prizes. While the overall quality of a squad invariably decides each piece of silverware, sustained individual excellence should not be discredited just because they failed to win a trophy.
Throughout Tottenham's chaotic history, some of the club's greatest players have outshone their peers without lifting a silver pot at the end of the season. Here are the best campaigns any Spurs player has ever recorded.
Ranking Factors
Output - The number of goals and assists they registered is crucial when assessing a player's performance.
Overall play - It's not all about goals though, so those who tormented the opposition without finding the back of the net have also been ranked highly.
Influence - A player's direct contribution to the team's overall success has also been considered.
Paul Gascoigne was one of the most naturally gifted players the country has ever seen. That's no exaggeration as, despite his off-field problems, the playmaker glided past defenders like they weren't there. The Englishman only spent four seasons in north London, but his 1990/91 campaign took the world by storm. He scored a stunning and iconic free-kick against bitter rivals Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final, helping the Lilywhites on their way to domestic glory. He was named in the PFA Team of the Year in the 1990/91 season after registering 11 goal contributions in 26 league matches and earned a record-breaking £5.5m move to Lazio that summer.
Ossie Ardiles joined Tottenham at the same time as Ricky Villa, with the combined transfer considered to be one of the greatest decisions in the club's history. During his third season in the capital, the diminutive Argentine assumed centre stage. Ardiles helped Spurs win the FA Cup in 1981, whilst also famously collaborating with pop duo Chas & Dave and the rest of the Tottenham players for a song, "Ossie's Dream", which will always be etched in the club's history. While his five goals and six assists in 36 matches may not seem impressive, it was his natural elegance which captured countless hearts and minds.
Glenn Hoddle is Tottenham's greatest-ever midfielder. The upright orchestrator spent 12 years as a first-team player, acting as a magician on the ball — and his most impressive campaign came early on in 1980. As 'one of their own', he emerged onto the world stage as a world-class player, scoring 19 goals in 41 league appearances as a 22-year-old from the middle of the park. It saw him named PFA Young Player of the Year. No one truly expected a relatively unknown name to shine in one of the hardest competitions to win, but Hoddle defied the odds. He was fearless, always determined to break into the final third and certainly knew his own worth.
Gary Lineker didn't have a long spell at Tottenham — and, in truth, he is more famous for his time at Leicester City, Everton and Barcelona — but his 1991/92 campaign at Spurs remains one of the best in the club's history. During the season, he scored 33 goals in all competitions, with 28 of them coming in the First Division, narrowly missing out on the Golden Boot to Arsenal legend Ian Wright. Lineker's feat is even more remarkable when you consider that Spurs only finished 15th in the table. Almost half of Tottenham's goals were scored by their lethal centre-forward. Without the England legend, the Lilywhites could have been relegated; in a world where we focus on trophies, Lineker's performances should be highlighted.
Harry Kane is Tottenham's greatest striker ever. Some would argue he is their best player of all time, but there's no doubt he brought life to the club during a remarkable spell in N17. During his final campaign in the capital, Kane was in the form of his life. With defensive manager Antonio Conte in charge, it was up to the England captain to take control of matches, yet he did it with ease, dropping deep, controlling the tempo and spraying balls out wide. Throughout the season, he was the beating heart, racking up 32 goals in 49 matches to finish second in the Golden Boot race. Even as Spurs slumped to eighth place in the league, Kane remained a beacon of light during a challenging campaign.
Bobby Smith joined Tottenham in 1955 for £18,000 after five years at Chelsea and his most successful campaign came five years later, as he played an integral part in Bill Nicholson's famous double-winning side. He was Tottenham's top scorer in that season, amassing 33 goals in 43 games, including the opener in that year's triumphant FA Cup final. The 19601/61 campaign remains Spurs' greatest season of all time, so Smith is naturally always going to be thought of in high regard. As a natural number nine, he possessed a confidence which put him a step above everyone else in the league, during an era which was drastically different to the modern day.
Plenty of older Tottenham fans will argue Jimmy Greaves is Tottenham's greatest player of all time. He stood as the club's record goalscorer until a particular England captain came along, scoring 266 goals in 379 appearances. In truth, it's hard to pinpoint Greaves' best season at Spurs — and that highlights just how consistently world-class he was — but his performances during the 1963/64 campaign deserve plaudits. He scored 35 goals in the First Division, three more than anyone else in the league, as Spurs finished fourth. They didn't win any trophies, but his natural instinct in the final third proved crucial for Tottenham throughout.
Harry Kane features twice on this list — and he could have easily been involved more. The homegrown hero was electric under Mauricio Pochettino in the 2016/17 season and proved to be a consistently terrifying attacker to face, but his performances during the 2020/21 campaign rank as his best.
Spurs only finished seventh, qualifying for the Europa League in the process, and Jose Mourinho, one of the greatest coaches of all time, was sacked. Yet throughout all the misery, the England captain was the best player in the league. In all competitions, he scored 33 goals and registered 17 assists in 49 matches. Kane was unstoppable, dictating matches with an unerring sense of control as the team's beating heart alongside his partner in crime, Son Heung-min.
GIVEMESPORT Key Statistic: In the 2020/21 campaign, Harry Kane finished as the outright top scorer and leading assist provider in the Premier League, becoming the first player to achieve such a feat since Andrew Cole in 1993/94.
Despite all the world-class players who feature on this list, none of them are able to topple Gareth Bale. The Welshman who transitioned from a quick left-back to a lethal winger in N17 was at his very best during the 2012/13 campaign. Spurs were unashamedly a one-man team as Bale hauled his side to fifth in the league under manager Andre Villas-Boas.
Bale scored 21 league goals and registered four assists to bring belief to the club's faithful fans. Most notably, he scored the second goal in their 3-2 away victory over Manchester United, their first win at Old Trafford since 1989. Bale also scored a stunning last-minute winner away to West Ham in late November, which is widely considered one of the best goals in Spurs' history and represented one of his record-breaking nine league goals from outside the box that term. From any distance, Bale could not be stopped.