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Spurs record in Europe:-

 
U.E.F.A Champions League
 
 P   W   D   L   F - A
12   5   3   4  25 -19
 
European Cup
P   W   D   L   F - A
8   4   1   3  21 - 13
 
(Semi-Finalists 1962)
 
European Cup Winners Cup
 
P   W   D   L   F - A
33  20  5   8  65 - 34
 
(Winners 1963)
 
UEFA Cup/Europa League
P   W   D   L   F - A
85 51  20  15  182-71 
 
(Winners 1972, 1984
 Finalists 1974)
 
Total
P    W   D   L   F - A
138 80  29  29  291-134 

It's not the way we thought it would start, but due to unforseen circumstances, Spurs' season starts this year not with domestic football but in European competition. Having graced the blue riband Champions League last year, we have to settle this time around for the Europa League. Spurs have yet to compete in this competition under its new name adopted last year, but of course we have plenty of equivalent UEFA Cup experience.

Spurs have never played a competitive game against Hearts (full name Heart of Midlothian), but of course there is one unforgettable piece of footballing history involving the two clubs. I refer, of course, to Dave Mackay.

Dave Mackay was born in November 1934, in Edinburgh, and played for Hearts between 1953 and March 1959, when he was snapped up by Bill Nicholson for a fee of £32,000. When hard pushed, the late great Bill would say that Mackay was his greatest-ever signing, and in his 16 years as Spurs manager, he signed plenty of good players, as we all know! Dave was of course a vital part of the Double side, and had a long and distinguished career at Tottenham, playing 321 games and scoring 51 goals. Dave captained Spurs to the 1967 FA Cup Final win over Chelsea. Perhaps his greatest regret whilst at Spurs was to miss out on the Cup-Winners Cup win against Athletico Madrid, due to injury. After Dave left Spurs, he went on to great success at Derby, firstly under Brian Clough's leadership, then as manager himself. Hopefully, we'll see the great man himself at one or both of the games against his old teams.

The trip to Tynecastle, Edinburgh on Thursday will be long enough for most, but comes as a relief compared to the other possibilities that we faced when the draw was made on August 5th. Expeditions to Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland or Turkey beckoned. Such delights could yet await us, but let's not count chickens over what will be a hard-fought tie against the Scottish third placed team.

There have been several meetings between Spurs and Hearts down the years. The first of these was in September, 1901, when both clubs were the Cup Holders in their respective Football Associations. The game at White Hart Lane was goal-less, and we lost a return match held in January 1902 3-1. In May 1952, a short series of matches was played in Glasgow for the Coronation Cup. Spurs had played the other Edinburgh side, Hibernian, twice, drawing one and losing the other game. We then played at Tynecastle and lost another friendly. The last meeting of the sides was at Tynecastle in July 1999, which ended in a 2-2 draw. The Spurs team that day was Walker; Carr, Taricco (sub Edinburgh), Gower (sub Fox), Campbell (sub King), Perry, Anderton, Young, Dominguez, Iversen and Ginola. Baardsen, Scales and Nielsen were unused substitutes. Iversen scored and there was an own goal in our favour.

Hearts qualified for the Europa League by finishing third behind Rangers and Celtic in the Scottish Premier League, but they were 29 points behind Celtic. They have had to play one more qualifying round than us - beating Hungarian side Paksi Sportgyesulet (Paksi) 5-2 on aggregate. The Hearts squad includes 27 year old John Sutton, born in Norwich and younger brother of former England striker Chris Sutton (now managing Lincoln). John featured in many Spurs Academy and Reserve games, scoring prolifically at Youth level. he left Spurs in 2003, and has played most of his football in Scotland since, for Raith, Dundee, St. Mirren and latterly Motherwell. John also had a couple of seasons with Wycombe Wanderers. John played in last season's Scottish Cup Final against Celtic (for Motherwell), and scored two of Hearts' three goals last week-end against Aberdeen. He will be desperate to play against Spurs. The SPL win last week was Hearts' first such win in 12 games since March.

Hearts' club chairman and majority shareholder Roman Romanov has quite often been in the news, and didn't win the hearts (no pun intended) and minds of many people early this season when he sacked manager Jim Jefferies, replacing him with 43 year old Portuguese Paulo Sergio, who last season managed Sporting in Portugal.

Tynecastle holds just 17,000, and the Spurs contingent will be relatively small. The average crowd for Hearts is around 14,000, and the atmosphere should be quite hot. Robbie Keane had been named in our squad of 25 for this tie, but now he has left for LA Galaxy. David Bentley was not named for this squad, which will not have given him encouragement. Despite the need to be at our best at Old Trafford next Monday, I don't see harry Redknapp taking any risks in this tie, and I expect our strongest available team to play. Hopefully, that will include Luka Modric and also Rafa van der Vaart, who picked up an injury in pre-season but is hoping to be fit. I'll take Spurs to bring home a one goal advantage from Edinburgh, and I'll be reporting on Friday morning!

STOP-PRESS:- The Spurs team news is not good with regard to the midfield. Huddlestone, Modric, Jenas, Palacios have been cited as doubts, whilst Sandro is out for a while yet, following his injury whilst on Copa America duty for Brazil. Rumour has it that Jake Livermore may start this one. Corluka played in central midfield during the pre-season, so may be Jake's partner. Both Ledley King and William Gallas are also missing. There is likely to be plenty of pace in the side in the shape of Kyle Walker, Aaron Lennon and Gareth Bale. The Spurs side should still be good enough to bring home a win.