Ray Clemence’s former Tottenham teammates Glenn Hoddle and Pat Jennings paid tribute to a ‘fabulous guy’ both on and off the pitch.
Clemence on Sunday passed away at the age of 72 and will be remembered as a legend of the game.
He enjoyed phenomenal success with Liverpool, winning five league titles and three European Cups among his haul of 13 trophies between 1967 and 1981.
For the latter stage of his career he moved to Spurs where he won the FA Cup and UEFA Cup before retiring in 1988.
Spurs legend Hoddle paid tribute to Clemence and revealed the influence he had on that Tottenham team in the 80s.
He told SportsDay on talkSPORT2: “A lot of people could have finished with Liverpool and just stood back and admired what they’d done and rest on their laurels – but not Ray.
“He wanted the challenge of coming to Tottenham and winning things with a different club, and he certainly did. He was a massive part of us during the 80s and a massive reason why we did what we did and were successful.
“Of all the seven years playing with Clem, I don’t think I heard him once talk about his successes at Liverpool.
“He never used that in training, or the dressing room or when we didn’t play well. He didn’t say, ‘well I’ve won European Cups here or there’. He never once said that, which I thought was wonderful.
“He was about the present and the future, and his desire to be successful. I learnt a lot from that and it was a wonderful example of being humble and also professional.
Hoddle added: “On and off the pitch he was a fabulous guy, he really was. A fabulous goalkeeper and we are all so, so sad for his loss.”
Hoddle was also the man to bring Clemence into the England set-up in 1996 as goalkeeping coach while he was the manager, and he ended up serving under Kevin Keegan, Sven-Goran Eriksson, Steve McClaren and Roy Hodgson.
Clemence was initially hesitant to join the national system and his former teammate explained how he convinced him.
“Don’t forget I got him to come to England with me when I was manager,” added Hoddle. “He was on my staff straight away; he was the one I wanted and I remember spending three or four hours trying to convince him.
“He was manager of Barnet at the time and I went round and had a cup of tea – more than one cup of tea – and was there for some time trying to persuade him to become the England goalkeeping coach.
“He wasn’t quite sure. His wife kept saying, ‘has he not said he’s coming yet?’. She kept bringing tea in, bless her.
“In the end we persuaded him to come to England and he ended up outlasting me and a few others as well. He was just fantastic doing the job.”
Pat Jennings’ career only overlapped with Clemence’s as the duo neared retirement, as he returned to Tottenham in 1985 and played back-up for a season.
But he loved spending time with his fellow goalkeeper, and there was plenty of competition between them.
Jennings also said on Sportsday: “An absolute gentleman. You couldn’t hope for a better teammate and he was always great company to be with and great craic.
“What a fabulous goalkeeper and when you look back at his record and the things he won… that speaks for everything.
“We always admired each other; we knew the problems you had as a goalkeeper no matter what team you had.
“I went back to Tottenham in my last year in 85 because Ray was the only fit goalkeeper at the club at the time. Peter Shreeves invited me back and asked me to help out and spend the year back at Tottenham.
“It was fabulous because I was still competing and trying to beat him at sprints, but I never could at that age. It was still competitive between us but you wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“Without a doubt [he’s one of the greats]. You don’t win with a poor goalkeeper.
“Even his record with England – 61 caps… it was just unfortunate him and Peter Shilton were so good at the same time, otherwise he’d have broken all the records had he been the top goalkeeper at that stage and not had Shilton to contend with.”