They meet like old friends who have been through a good deal in a younger life. The embraces are warm and memories are easily stirred. Yet as they talk, all around them a significant landmark which binds their past is being dismantled.
Ricky Villa, Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle, perhaps the three most iconic Tottenham players of the last 45 years, were at White Hart Lane last week as they took out some of the peripheral items: unnecessary signage, spare chairs. On Monday they begin the demolition proper of 118 years of history and Tottenham will not be the same again.