Steve Perryman

Stephen John Perryman MBE (born 21 December 1951) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender or midfielder. He is best known for his achievements with Tottenham Hotspur in the 1970s and early 1980s, where he spent 17 years and won the FA Cup, League Cup, and UEFA Cup twice each. In 1982, he was named the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year, and he holds the club record for most first-team appearances, with 854.

Perryman was born in Ealing, Middlesex. He made a total of 866 first-team appearances in all competitions for Tottenham between 1969 and 1986, making him the club's longest-serving player. During his time in north London, he won the UEFA Cup in 1972 and 1984—playing both legs of the 1972 final but only the first leg of the 1984 final due to suspension—and the League Cup in 1971 and 1973. He captained Tottenham to consecutive FA Cup victories in 1981 and 1982, following Joe Harvey and Danny Blanchflower. Although he rarely scored, he netted both goals in a 2–1 home win over AC Milan in the 1972 UEFA Cup semi-final first leg, a tie Spurs won 3–2 on aggregate before beating Wolverhampton Wanderers in the final.

After leaving Tottenham in March 1986, Perryman joined Oxford United but was cup-tied for their 1986 League Cup final win. He then became player-manager of Brentford, retiring from playing in 1990. He managed Watford from 1990 to 1993, keeping them from relegation, then returned to Tottenham as assistant manager to Osvaldo Ardiles in 1993, also serving as caretaker manager in November 1994. He later managed Start in Norway (1995), Shimizu S-Pulse (1999–2000), and Kashiwa Reysol (2001–2002) in Japan. With Shimizu, he won the J.League second stage championship in 1999 and the Asian Cup Winners' Cup in 2000. He also worked unofficially at Exeter City to help them stay in Division 3 before returning to Japan with Kashiwa Reysol.

In the 1980s, Perryman lent his name to a chain of sports stores in West London, featuring the Tottenham cockerel, with locations in Uxbridge, Ruislip, Greenford, Hayes, and Hayes Town. A store in Bergen, Norway, opened in the early 1980s and still operates.

From 2003 to 2018, Perryman served as director of football at Exeter City. On 5 May 2012, during Exeter's final match of the 2011–12 season against Sheffield United, he fell ill and was taken to Derriford Hospital in Plymouth for successful heart surgery. He later said he might have died without immediate medical help and spent three weeks in a coma on life support. He announced his retirement as director of football in January 2018, effective at the end of the 2017–18 season, but in August 2018 joined former Exeter manager Paul Tisdale at MK Dons as an associate director until November 2019.

Perryman played 17 times for England U23 and earned one full England cap, coming on as a 70th-minute substitute against Iceland on 2 June 1982. The match was originally an England B fixture but was later upgraded to full international status, awarding him his cap.

He has been married twice and has four children. A close friend of Ossie Ardiles, he lives in Kington St Michael and has said he supports the Labour Party. He was appointed MBE in the 1986 Birthday Honours for services to association football.