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When Terry Dixon stepped through the doors at Hotspur Way last week he realised that plenty had changed at the football club he loves.

The £30m state-of-the-art training complex in Enfield is a world away from the old Spurs Lodge in Chigwell Dixon knew so well.

Not everything at Tottenham Hotspur changes though.

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That's because when it comes to Troy Parrott, Spurs' young Irish sensation, it's clear that sometimes life repeats itself. Only Dixon will be hoping that the teenager's tale comes with a happier ending than his did.

During his visit to the club last week, Dixon was asked if he would be willing to come back at some point to talk to Parrott about his own experiences as Tottenham and Ireland's golden child just over a decade ago.

Spurs are carefully looking after Parrott just as they did for Dixon back then.

Parrott, who turned 18 on Tuesday and signed a bumper new contract on Friday with Tottenham, is the name on Spurs fans' lips right now.

Gifted with an abundance of natural talent, the teen made his Premier League debut this season and earned his first cap for the Republic of Ireland all while he was just 17, and he has got the Tottenham supporters whipped up into a frenzy.

Yet before Parrott came Terry Dixon.

A once in a generation talent, Dixon's name was spoken about in the corridors of Spurs as the one, a homegrown superstar in the making.

A few age groups below him within Tottenham's academy was a certain Harry Kane, but it was the flame-haired Dixon, labelled as 'the Irish Wayne Rooney', that everyone was talking about.

This is the story of a teenager who had the world at his feet but had it snatched away by the cruelest of misfortune.

Islington-born Dixon has football in his genes. His father Darren had trials at both Tottenham and Arsenal but in his son's words "he was a bit silly when he was young, he didn't have any guidance whereas I had him keeping an eye on me".

It was a former Tottenham star who spotted Dixon's potential at just eight-years-old.

Ex-Spurs midfielder Garry Brooke oversaw Friday night coaching sessions at St Ignatius College in Enfield and quickly realised something special had fallen into his lap in one of the young pupils in front of him.

He took him to his Saturday team Alexandra Palace and within a fortnight had set up the youngster with a trial at Tottenham.

Spurs' academy coaches wasted no time in bringing Dixon into the club and for a young supporter it was a dream come true.

Now 30, it's clear in Dixon's voice as he talks football.london through his story that he remembers his time at the club with real fondness despite everything that would come down the line.

"I'm a proper Spurs fan, through and through. You can't beat the feeling of being able to play for that club," he said.

"Words can't describe it. Playing for Tottenham was my passion. I used to love just going to the training ground and training. Everything about the place I loved and still do now."

(Image: ©INPHO/Andrew Paton)

He rocketed up the age levels, scoring goal after goal and showcasing more natural talent than many at the north London club had seen in decades.

Then at 14 Dixon started to pay the price for his football obsession and everything was almost over before it began.

"It was wear and tear under my kneecap. They were quite worried about it. It was from playing so much football from such a young age," he explained.

"I was playing football at school, after school. Even before school while I was waiting for my mate to get ready I was playing football up and down the street on the concrete, hard concrete.

"It was non-stop football. I had a ball at my feet at all times. It was wear and tear and I don't think I was born with great knees to be honest."

Many footballers suffer their injury setbacks later in their career. For Dixon he missed a big part of his development at that tender age.

"I had near enough two years out from that point. It was only keyhole surgery that I had at 14 but they said they wanted to see how my body developed, how it grew and how my bones grew just to see how it happened. They were very worried about it," he admitted.

"You go from playing every minute of the day to watching out of the physio room window at everyone else playing football. It's just horrible. It's the worst thing in the world."

Dixon was a fighter though, his talent so exciting and his academy performances so scintillating that when he was given the green light to return to playing at 16, he was fast-tracked into joining up with Martin Jol's first team despite his knee issues.

His technique was natural, he was strong on the ball and his football brain mature beyond his years.

Most of all the teenager impressed everyone with his determination, putting everything he had into becoming a professional footballer for his dream club.

"I was only allowed to train about three times a week because of my knee. I'd go in around two hours earlier to do leg and power work even before I was ready to go out and train," he said.

It was all worth it though as he was able to rub shoulders with Jol's team in 2006, one bursting with Premier League talent.

"They would just throw me in and it was such a good experience," remembered Dixon.

"Martin Jol would talk to me and he wouldn't mollycoddle you. He was geeing you up. When you were running, he would be shouting at you 'come on, come on'. He wanted the best for you.

"I was playing with stars like Robbie Keane and Ledley King, who was class. It was a good bunch."

The teenager struck up a close relationship with Keane and it resulted in an unexpected Christmas gift.

"I used to clean Keano's boots at Spurs Lodge when I was a YTS boy," he said.

"Then one day I was in the gym with the fitness coach Nathan Gardiner doing my knee exercises and Keano suddenly walked in and gave me £300 cash for cleaning his boots.

"I was buzzing. I was only on £90 a week through YTS. It was just before Christmas as well. I was made up. He's a legend."

Tottenham also boasted a world star in their ranks in Dutchman Edgar Davids, who had won silverware with European giants like Barcelona, Juventus and Ajax before coming to the Premier League.

Dixon's memories of the bespectacled midfielder show exactly why Davids, then in his 30s, was so successful.

"Edgar used to come down to us at the U18s. When he finished training with the first team he would come down and join in with us," revealed Dixon.

"He would train just as hard as he would with the first team. He would make sure that it wasn't any different. He would train full-on, and I mean full-on, and that's why he was one of the best."

Dixon also grew close to King, the Spurs skipper no stranger to knee problems himself, and the pair would go through many of the same recovery processes after training and games.

"Ledley and I would be in the swimming pool a lot, on the bikes and in the oxygen chamber where you can't really breathe," he said.

"He was an inspiration but he was a freak. He was unbelievable. I thought he was outstanding. He would only train two or three times a week and he would be the best player on the pitch at the weekend."

Dixon's career had suddenly accelerated from zero to 60mph. He'd gone from the despair of being a child with his football dreams hanging in the balance to being a wonderkid, a player making headlines as one to watch.

(Image: ©INPHO/Andrew Paton)

He hadn't even played a reserve game let alone a first team game for Tottenham but journalists knew his name.

Word of mouth had spread from anyone who had seen the teenager starring in U18 matches for the club.

Nowhere was the buzz louder than in Ireland. Dixon's mother Marion hailed from Bailieborough in County Cavan and the young player had pledged his international future to her homeland.

"I was doing well with Ireland's U17s and was scoring goals in the European Championships. Even then I wasn't able to play every game for them. Even at the European Championships out of the three games I could only play 90 minutes in that," explained the striker.

"It was because Tottenham would put restrictions on me because of my knee. I totally understood it because at the end of the day they were paying my wages and didn't want me to get injured."

The media in the Emerald Isle gave him "The Irish Wayne Rooney" label and the similarities with the young England striker had also been noted at Tottenham.

"It was a tag that spurred me on to be honest. It was an honour to be called 'The Irish Wayne Rooney'," said Dixon.

"He was my idol back then. I felt I played a bit like him."

(Image: ©INPHO/Andrew Paton)

Then came the biggest surprise of all.

England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson named 17-year-old Arsenal striker Theo Walcott in his World Cup squad, despite the teenager having never played a Premier League game. He had played in the Championship for Southampton before his move to north London.

Republic of Ireland boss Steve Staunton decided to go one better, calling up 16-year-old Dixon to his squad for a training camp and friendly against Chile without the youngster having played a single competitive match at adult level.

"He is a very talented boy with good ability and he is highly thought of at Spurs," said Staunton of his decision.

"I feel he is a special talent and if he progresses nicely, we will see the benefits in a couple of years."

(Image: ©INPHO/Andrew Paton)

A shocked Dixon first found out about his call-up when a newspaper journalist rang his house. Soon after he was packing his suitcases to head off with the national team.

"We went to Portugal for a week's training and then headed back to Dublin for the friendly against Chile," he explained.

"I was in the squad and on the bench against Chile. It was a great experience and spending time away in Portugal. It was a real eye-opener.

"I came back and then I got called up again to the next squad against the Netherlands.

"Then I did my knee in training, it swelled up so I couldn't go, but I must have impressed them.

"It was a crazy time but I was just a kid playing football. I just love playing football and like any other kid you just want to keep playing and you block all of the media excitement and pressure out."

Dixon was on the verge of something special. He was being brought into more and more first team training sessions by Jol and his international career had already begun.

The knee still had to be carefully managed but with his determination to keep it in check with the physios it was under control.

"It was just about wear and tear. It would swell up and you'd feel all the crackling under the kneecap where there was a bit of cartilage floating about in there. They'd go in and clean it up and I'd be fine," he said.

Then fate showed just how cruel it can be as Dixon took part in an U18s match against Norwich.

"A ball came in, I'd dropped deep to come and get it, I flicked it off with the outside of my right foot out to the winger," remembered Dixon.

"The guy was so late coming in, that by the time I had my right leg standing, he's come straight into the side of me.

"So my leg has gone inwards and my kneecap has gone on the outside, it was facing the outside of my leg. It had snapped everything, all the ligaments. Everything you can think of in there, I snapped it. It was the worst pain I'd ever had in my life."

It was a horrific injury, a dislocated kneecap and much more, and for many footballers it would have been the end of their professional efforts.

However, as he had before, Dixon battled back with the help of Spurs from one of the worst knee injuries the club had seen.

It took a year of incredibly hard work, mental strength and treatment before the young striker was back in training and playing academy matches.

However, if he thought fate had finished with him, he was wrong.

"I was out for almost exactly year to the day. I did my knee on September 8 and then on September 9 I came back and was playing against West Ham in my third academy match back," he said.

"I was running down the line and crossed the ball for a goal and my right boot got stuck in the ground a bit. My kneecap subluxed again. It didn't fully come out this time but it was just sat on the edge.

"It had happened again. I certainly never wanted to play in September ever again. It's not a good month for me."

(Image: ©INPHO/Andrew Paton)

It was with the third knee injury that the decline began for Dixon. Beaten down by awful luck despite all of that effort he had put in, the teenager began to unravel.

"I did have good people around me, my family and friends, but there was a time at Spurs where it really did demoralise me," he admitted.

"I started to drink alcohol quite a lot. That wasn't a good time for me. I was quite depressed.

"I didn't actually go to the doctor about it but when I look back at it now I'm sure I was depressed."

He added: "Spurs were always good to me. They treated me so well. At times I would have said I was quite tough to deal with.

"You're young and at that age you're coming into the gym and sometimes I'd be quite disruptive.

"You've got to understand that I had been out for so long, from 14 to 18, and I've just done my knee again. It was a case of 'when's it going to stop?'. It was hard to be normal all the way through.

"Tottenham treated me well. They always did. After that West Ham injury, I was punching the pitch, saying over and over again 'my career's over, my career's over'. I knew that if I did it again I was finished, at Tottenham anyway."

(Image: ©INPHO/Andrew Paton)

So it proved to be on March 6, 2008, when after further surgery and extensive rehabilitation, the youngster parted ways with his boyhood club.

"Following meetings with Terry Dixon, his family and his representatives at which his long-term recovery and future well being after an unfortunate sequence of severe injuries were discussed, the player has now left the club," a club statement read that day.

Dixon remembers it as one of the worst moments of his life.

"That was after the big surgery I had. They had done a type of surgery from which nobody has played at a higher level after," he said.

"They basically said you're not going to play football again. It wasn't Spurs, it was the surgeon, but they all came to an agreement that I wouldn't play at the highest level again, which they were correct about.

"When I was growing up I didn't just want to be a footballer, I wanted to be the best. So to be told that I wouldn't be able to do what I set out to do, after all the years of work, I was just in tears.

"Especially to be told I couldn't do it for my club, to be released by my club. That killed me. It broke my heart. Tottenham is everything to me."

Various top flight clubs were keeping an eye on him though. The teenager was one of Britain's brightest young talents and there was a feeling that if his knee could somehow be fixed then someone could end up with a superstar on their hands.

Liverpool were among those who monitored him after he left Tottenham but in the end it was another London club who made the call.

"I was doing a coaching course, trying to start my badges because I was wondering what I was going to do with my life," said Dixon.

"Then I got a phone call from my agent John Moncur, saying West Ham might be interested. I remember saying 'oh my god that would be unbelievable'.

"He said we were going to have a meeting so I went to West Ham and spoke to their physios.

"They said 'we have a man over in Belgium who does rehab with people who have been out for a long time and he gets them back and he's really good with knees'.

"So they paid for me to stay over there for quite a few months, basically day in, day out doing my rehab with this famous man in Belgium.

"He had worked with Ronaldinho. They said do that and prove you can do it and we'll go from there. So I did that and signed a three year deal."

Everything seemed to be good again. Dixon was back in the Premier League. West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola would call him into his office frequently and promised him that if he worked hard, as he had always done in the past, then he would get his chance in his team.

It was the perfect second chance when all seemed lost, but there was a problem and this time it was as much mental as it was physical.

(Image: ©INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan)

Dixon was a young man struggling with everything life had thrown at him in such a short space of time and it ended up getting the better of him.

"To be honest with you at West Ham I never gave it 100 per cent. The mindset I was in still from leaving Tottenham, I was just never right," he admitted with pain in his voice.

"I never gave it 100 per cent there and it's one regret I will always have. At Tottenham I can always say I gave it 100 per cent and it wasn't my fault.

"Perhaps at West Ham it was because I knew I was never going to be the player I knew I could be.

"Also I was stuck in bad habits. I was still drinking and it was non-stop. Then they gave me all that money at West Ham and I didn't know what to do with it. I was just going out all the time and it kills me now just thinking about it."

He added: "Nowadays you can't drink alcohol every other day like I was. You can't drink alcohol every week and be a professional footballer in the Premier League. Those days are gone. You just can't do it any more.

"You've got to realise that it's that little margin that can be the difference. I don't think many professional footballers are out drinking in this day and age."

With those problems in the background his football suffered in the foreground and in April 2010, at the age of 20, Dixon's contact with West Ham was terminated by mutual consent.

Once again the striker had never played a first team match. He had made eight competitive appearances for the reserves, scoring twice.

(Image: ©INPHO)

Dixon slipped down the football pyramid. He finally made his professional debut, with Stevenage under manager Graham Westley in League Two, playing in the FA Cup as well.

"Stevenage was hard. Graham Westley was really tough. He was another one who only wanted the best for you, but his training, bloody hell!" he remembered.

The young striker had signed on non-contract terms with Boro in November 2010, but by January he had left another club, failing to agree terms on a deal, mostly due to fitness problems.

Dixon's football journey then became nomadic. He turned out part-time for sides far down the ladder into the non-league at Ware, Hitchin Town, Dunstable Town, Berkhamsted and others, interspersed with brief forays back up the pyramid at Bradford City and Dover Athletic.

It was never the same again though for the talented but broken forward and he knew the professional game was out of reach. There were still flashes of the wonderful technique he was born with but fitness was always a struggle.

Football even at the lowest levels was a means to an end, a way of distracting him from life's problems, but everything changed when the most important thing in Dixon's life arrived off the pitch in 2017.

"I just saw playing after all my problems as having a bit of fun and a kick-about, not so much at Dover as that was a higher level, but elsewhere it was something to just keep playing football, to keep me sane. You end up cracking," he said.

"I would say I wasn't myself until my son Teddy was born three years ago. I'd go as far as saying I was still depressed until that point. I know it's a long time but people don't realise that this was life. Football is all I knew.

"Now my little boy is my world. I say he's named after Teddy Sheringham but my missus will swear he isn't.

"He's my pride and joy. Everything I do is for him. I hardly ever go out any more. I'm basically just a normal family man."

Dixon is now in a far happier place. He works nights for a tunnelling company, still plays football at Walthamstow for a friend and has plans to earn his coaching badges.

If anyone can help teach young footballers about not only the skills required but also the mental strength required in the game it is Dixon.

That's what led to his return to Tottenham last week in what was a big moment for him.

"I went to the new training ground to see [academy head] John McDermott and it's a whole new world," he explained.

"It was the first time I've been back to the club since I left Tottenham when I was 18-years-old. I texted John and asked if he minded me coming down and taking a look at the place.

"I'm thinking about doing my coaching badges so it was a good chance to pick his brains. There are so many former players back there working with the academy, Ryan Mason, Stuart Lewis, Chris Riley, Troy [Archibald-Henville], there's a few of them."

He added: "It's something I want to do, whether it's one day being in the Tottenham academy, you've got to start somewhere.

"I've been there and I know what it's like and what to do and not to do. That's what John was saying to me. He'd like me to come in and speak to Troy, just to speak to him about everything.

"It was lovely to speak to John and I want to keep in contact with him and other people at Spurs."

What does Dixon make of Parrott, the Dublin-born teenager who is following somewhat in his early footsteps?

"What I've seen of Troy he's a goalscorer. He's very good. I just hope he breaks through and does well for us," said Dixon.

"I would say to him to just keep plugging away every single day in training.

"Don't look to do the minimum asked of you. Make sure you do more than anyone else and keep plugging away at your craft.

"It'll happen. He's a quality player. You can see that. It will happen sooner or later.

"It's just a question of time. If he keeps working hard it will come.

"I don't think he's too young either to go out on loan if that's what the club wants. You can see he's got an old head on his shoulders. He's very mature."

Parrott is playing for a very different Tottenham Hotspur to the one Dixon left 12 years ago, but he could see back then what was emerging.

"I've only been once to the new stadium when we lost to West Ham so I don't think I'm going to go again!" he said. "But it's amazing and it shows where the club is now.

"When I left Spurs I said to all my mates that you could see they were putting things in place, the way it was being run down to the tiniest details. The sports science, the staff they had were tip-top, they were the best.

"I could see what was happening then and now the proof is in the pudding. You can see the way the club is now. What a club to be at.

"It'll come on the pitch as well. They've just got to get used to the Jose Mourinho way. What a club though. I love that club."

His adoration for the club he gave everything for is clear. Now he will watch Troy Parrott have the chance to do what fate robbed him of and become a star for his beloved Tottenham Hotspur.

There is no bitterness nor envy, just excitement about another special talent coming through at his club.

Hopefully Parrott will seize his opportunity in the months and years to come and those within the club will certainly remember that it was a youngster named Terry Dixon who blazed the trail for him.