EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Tottenham legend Gary Mabbutt believes it does not bother players to lose a star team-mate
While Harry Kane got a good night’s sleep before Sunday's home debut for Bayern Munich, another Tottenham legend was up at 3am to have one of the seven daily injections he needs to maintain a normal life.
Gary Mabbutt, Spurs captain for 11 years and still involved with the club into a fifth decade, is a byword for overcoming adversity.
Diagnosed with diabetes as a youngster, he defied specialists who considered his football career over to become one of the game’s great influencers.
During his playing days at Tottenham between 1982 and 1998 he saw great players such as Glenn Hoddle, Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker leave White Hart Lane.
Yet every time the prophets of doom circled, exciting new players would end up making their own headlines; from Jurgen Klinsmann and David Ginola to Gareth Bale and Kane in more recent times.
So while there was consternation in Britain at seeing the England captain head to the Bundesliga, Mabbutt insists the Spurs dressing room would barely have batted an eyelid.
‘The game is littered with superstars leaving their club and others carrying on,’ says Mabbutt. ‘It is very rare that one player leaves and the club collapses. Players are stoical. You get new managers, new players, you deal with what is front of you.
‘I joined Bristol Rovers as an apprentice in 1977 and it was ingrained in me immediately that outside noise is irrelevant. In 1992 I roomed with Links [Lineker]. I knew he was going — the offer from Japan was phenomenal. The club also needed the money for Gazza. But life went on.’
Mabbutt played 611 games for Spurs, captaining them to the 1991 FA Cup when he needed an extra injection at half-time to control his blood sugar levels.
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