24th May - Spurs in History

With the football season over, the memories recalled are of summer tours, friendly matches and summer signings, with the occasional acrimonious departure.

24th May, 1914

Stuttgart 1 Spurs 1 (Friendly)

During the close season Spurs played a series of games in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. They won seven of the nine games, drawing the others. Details of the tour are sketchy but it is recorded that in Germany the atmosphere was tense and there was general hostility towards Spurs by their German hosts.

With the outbreak of the First World War only two months away, almost anything was allowed when Spurs went on to the pitch. So bad was the situation that the Chairman, Charles Roberts, declared that ‘no Spurs team would ever again visit Germany while he was still alive.’ And they didn’t, only returning for a tour in 1950, seven years after his death.

It was reported in the Tottenham Weekly Herald of the time that Spurs had returned from Germany, having signed a six-foot tall German centre forward from Berlin called Fred Strechfuss. However, by the time the club Handbook was produced at the end of August, no reference was made of this new signing.