Rebooted: Edinburghs red mist that ended with Spurs celebrations

Publish date: 2024-06-05

When discussing his father’s achievements as a person and in football, Charlie Edinburgh fills up with pride. As a player, Justin Edinburgh was best known for the decade he spent at Spurs between 1990 and 2000 when he made 276 appearances and won two major trophies. As a manager, Edinburgh achieved hero status at Leyton Orient after spells at, among others, Gillingham and Northampton Town.

He was still managing Orient when, just a few weeks after overseeing their promotion back to the Football League, he died tragically in June 2019 aged 49 following a cardiac arrest.

“When he died, I lost my dad, my best mate, the person I looked up to,” his son Charlie, who was texting his father minutes before he collapsed, tells The Athletic nine months on. “I’m not ashamed to say he was my idol. He always will be.”

A fiercely competitive left-back on the pitch and a generous, warm-hearted man off it, Edinburgh’s death led to a host of tributes, including from his former Spurs team-mates. “One of the greatest guys you could ever wish to meet,” said Darren Anderton. “An excellent coach and a terrific full-back, who was a delight to share a dressing room with and have as a team-mate,” added Gary Lineker. In January, Orient announced they would rename one of the stands at their stadium after him.

In spite of the monumental sadness at losing his father, Charlie, 27 and with a strong family resemblance, remains positive. He is determined to honour his dad’s legacy and has set up the Justin Edinburgh 3 Foundation to campaign to make it a legal requirement for all health and fitness facilities to have defibrillators. “Justin’s Law”, as the family hope it will become known.

There is much to discuss but we begin looking back on the events of the 1999 League Cup final, which is many supporters’ defining memory of Edinburgh and took place 21 years ago today.

On March 21 1999, a six-year-old Charlie was so upset by what was unfolding in front of him that he made a dart for the Wembley exits.

His father Justin, 29 at the time, had just been sent off for raising his right hand towards Robbie Savage in the League Cup final between Tottenham and Leicester City. The incident started with a hefty challenge by Savage, who then made the most out of Edinburgh’s reaction, but a crackdown at the time on this kind of retaliation made a red card inevitable. “It’s a moment of madness from Justin Edinburgh,” said Andy Gray on Sky Sports. Edinburgh knew he had fallen right into the trap laid by the notoriously provocative Savage and, by a twist of fate, the two would be reunited soon after while on holiday in Portugal that summer — more on that later.

Back at Wembley, and with the score at 0-0 in the 63rd minute, left-back Edinburgh feared his sending off would cost Spurs the cup, while up in the stands, Charlie had to be persuaded to stay put by his aunt and uncle (his mother Kerri was sat separately with the other wives and girlfriends of the team).

“It’s one of my most vivid memories from dad’s career,” Charlie says as he reflects on a match that ended in a 1-0 win for a Tottenham side featuring David Ginola, Anderton and Sol Campbell in what was manager George Graham’s first season. “I was in the Tottenham kit from head to toe, with my dad’s name and number on the back as always. I had my face painted blue and white.

“When he was sent off, I tried to run out of Wembley Stadium in tears because my dad was running down the tunnel and getting booed. My face paint was all smudged — I looked a right state!

“I think for any boy at that sort of age; you worry when everyone starts shouting your dad’s name. We were sat in a neutral area but obviously, you had the Leicester fans that weren’t helping matters by saying he should be sent off.”

Hearing Charlie describe the situation, it’s hard not to think of Eric Dier charging into the stands after seeing his brother in a dispute with a supporter earlier this month. “I’m not going to say he was right or wrong because I’m not one to judge but he’ll probably look back and think he could have contained it,” Charlie says. “But I’ve sat in stadiums and heard people say hurtful and personal things about my dad. Ultimately, they’re human beings and yes, Eric will have regrets but would you or I be happy with people saying those things? I wouldn’t.”

Returning to 1999, Charlie explains: “There were 80,000-odd people making a big racket because my dad had supposedly hit Savage, so I started crying my eyes out. That was when I started trying to run out of the stadium but my auntie, bless her, managed to calm me down.”

Tottenham were also able to regain their composure, holding firm defensively and then nicking a winner in the 90th minute through midfielder Allan Nielsen’s diving header from close range. Edinburgh had just finished showering in the dressing room when he heard the roar of the crowd to signal that a winner had been scored.

“For all of us, seeing Allan score the winner meant it went from a day full of excitement to a bit of sorrow and then ended up being a really, really enjoyable day,” says Charlie.

Edinburgh was able to return to the pitch, collect his medal and celebrate with the rest of the team long into the night. It was Tottenham’s first trophy since winning the FA Cup in 1991, and with Edinburgh the only survivor from that team which included Paul Gascoigne and Lineker, he became — and remains — Spurs’ most decorated player since the mid-1980s.

Charlie laughs at that statistic: “Not to say my dad was a bad player but we’ve had some unbelievable players in that time, so it is a bit of a surprise.

“But it’s something that us as a family are extremely proud of and that he was extremely proud of as well.”

In the weeks and months that followed, winning the final made it easier for Edinburgh to forgive himself for his indiscretion. “I think ultimately, from dad’s perspective, there was a sense of relief there,” Charlie says. “Any player in that situation would think they’d potentially cost their team the final. Going down to 10 men at 0-0; he was absolutely gutted and felt like he’d let the players down but seeing Nielsen score that header, he said the relief was huge. And I think it meant he probably enjoyed that evening more than others.”

Was there animosity from father and son afterwards towards Savage? “Listen, you can’t raise your hands, we all know that,” Charlie says. “I think it was one of those occasions when dad saw the red mist. Savage had been niggling away at him all game and dad was a bit of a hothead and, more fool dad, he lost that particular battle when it came to containing himself.”

Savage, who was substituted for his own good in the 89th minute after also clashing with Steffen Freund and Nielsen, would later publicly apologise for his role in getting Edinburgh sent off. Having said similar in his 2010 autobiography, Savage said two years later: “I overreacted. When I look back now, I regret acting the way I did. I dived and got him sent off.”

Edinburgh, for his part, said in response: “We all grow up and get wiser. I made a mistake and it was his reaction which got me a red.”

Before all of that though there was a chance meeting between the two just months after the cup final.

Charlie picks up the story. “You’ll think I’m making this up but that summer we were away on holiday with a couple of football families we used to go away with — Colin Calderwood’s family and David Kerslake’s family (both former Spurs defenders).

“We were away in Portugal and we were walking along to a restaurant, all the parents and children and me, and we actually spotted Savage sitting out with his partner in a restaurant. I was like, ‘Dad, that’s Robbie Savage, that’s Robbie Savage!’. I think they spoke a little bit.

“As you can imagine, I wasn’t his biggest fan for the rest of his career but people make mistakes and ultimately, he would have done anything to see his team win the trophy.”

Surely though, at the time, you were encouraging your dad to go and lamp him?

“Probably,” Charlie says, laughing. “I would have said something along those lines, I’m sure. But no, dad kept his head in that situation, unlike at Wembley. And ultimately, dad took home the winner’s medal so that was the revenge he needed. I don’t think he held grudges too much.

“It was just so funny that we bumped into him, almost like it was fate.”

Edinburgh left Spurs in March 2000 and after a few years at Portsmouth, ended his playing career as player-manager of non-league Billericay Town. He managed a number of non-League and lower-league clubs before completely turning Orient around and leading them to the FA Trophy final at Wembley and promotion to League Two in 2019.

A few weeks after the end of the season, and just two days after being in Madrid to see Spurs lose the Champions League final, Edinburgh suffered a cardiac arrest while exercising in the gym. He did not regain consciousness and died five days later.

Aged just 49 and still in good shape, Edinburgh’s passing was a huge shock. There was an outpouring of grief and love from everyone associated with Orient, while his wife Kerri and children Charlie and Cydnie (Charlie’s younger sister) did their best to keep each other going. The three live together in the family home in Essex and are very close.

Charlie, who is 27 and works for a recruitment company in London, instantly resolved to honour his father: “Dad was in hospital for about a week from falling ill to passing away. I always felt he would pull through and so when we got the devastating news that there was nothing more they could do, I just got the idea. I had an urge not to have his name or legacy be forgotten about, especially given what he had achieved with Leyton Orient just weeks before.

“So we set up the Justin Edinburgh 3 Foundation — we are still in the process of getting our charitable status but hopefully that’s not too far away.

“What we are focusing on is raising funds to raise awareness around CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and to train people on that and the use of defibrillators. When dad had his cardiac arrest, he was training in the gym and there wasn’t a defibrillator on site.

“It’s also about raising awareness about the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest (the latter is more serious as the heart stops beating completely).”

Tottenham legends Glenn Hoddle and Ginola both survived after suffering heart attacks in 2019 and 2016 respectively.

“Our long-term objective is campaigning for a legislative change,” Edinburgh continues. “We want to call it ‘Justin’s Law’, where all sports and health facilities, whether that’s a gymnasium or a cricket pavilion, must be equipped with defibrillators so that if something as tragic as what happened to dad does happen, then you have the best possible chance of survival.

“A defibrillator in those stages is such a vital piece of kit. Doctors compare it to a seatbelt in a car. You might not ever need your seatbelt but it’s there in case anything bad should happen, and you only have to look at the stats, which show how much greater a chance you have of surviving if there is a defibrillator there at the early stage of that sort of trauma.

“And if we can save one person’s life, then we’ve done dad’s legacy the world of good. And if you save one person’s life, it’s not just that one person because there’s a ripple effect. Of course dad affected me, my mum and sister, but also our friends and family and even dad’s players and his work colleagues.”

Charlie and his family set up a JustGiving page to raise funds soon after Edinburgh’s death, with the figure now standing at more than £50,000. He, his mother and sister are all trustees for the foundation, as are other family members and Edinburgh’s captain at Orient Jobi McAnuff. Former team-mates, like ex-QPR captain Shaun Derry, are also involved.

“It’s been nine months since it happened but I don’t know whether it feels like nine minutes, nine months or nine years,” Charlie says. “I hadn’t actually lost anyone really close to me until last year. But then we lost my mum’s dad in March and then dad 15 weeks later.

“It’s crazy how quickly or how slowly time can move at times. Every day is different. But the good thing for me and my family is that when I look at my mum and sister, they’re making good progress. We’d much sooner have dad still here but we’re doing OK. We’re still putting one foot in front of the other and trying to do some really good work to make a positive impact on people’s lives. We’re trying to put a positive spin on it because that’s what dad was all about. That gives me comfort, that makes me proud and it gets me up and going in the morning.

“Dad was my best mate. We did a lot together. He’s given me experiences I’ll never forget, memories I’ll always hold dear to my heart. He’s shaped me into the person I am today along with my mum.

“I try and stay positive because I know that’s what he would want me to do. He wouldn’t want me to dwell on things too much. Life doesn’t stop. It keeps moving on, so we just have to keep moving forward.”

Though, as we finish, Charlie allows himself to cast his mind back to that 1999 final one last time. “Is it really 21 years?” he asks. “Blimey.”

To donate to the Justin Edinburgh 3 Foundation, go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/justinedinburgh3

(Photo: Tom Hevezi – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

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Rebooted: Edinburghs red mist that ended with Spurs celebrations