Alan Brazil had been a consistent scorer for Ipswich Town and a thorn in Tottenham's side almost every time he played against them, but his move to White Hart Lane failed to see him replicate that sort of form in the lilywhite shirt.
Having been brought through the Celtic Boys Club system in Scotland, Brazil moved down to Ipswich Town to begin his career in earnest, building a good reputation as a pacy striker with a good finishing prowess, as well as a sharp turn and good dribbling skills. laying on the shoulder of the last man, his pace often took him clear to beat a keeper one-on-one.
Spent the summer of 1978 in America playing for Detroit Express, where he scored ten goals playing in attack with Trevor Francis to get some experience and returned to Ipswich a better player for it. During his time at Portman Road, Ipswich were a club challenging for honours and Bobby Robson's side took the UEFA Cup back to Suffolk in 1981. His form had drawn a lot of interest in him and Spurs secured his signing towards the end of the transfer window in 1983, with a fee of £425,000 paid.
His first game was away at Watford and as he ran towards the Tottenham fans end, he had a big grin on his face, with his thinning afro waving in the wind and his two thumbs raised to the supporters. While he never looked quite right in a Spurs shirt (either visually or in playing terms), Brazil hit the ground running scoring six times in the last 12 games of the 1982-83 season, as Spurs went on a good run to qualify for the following season's UEFA Cup in fourth place in the league.
With Keith Burkinshaw departing, Brazil followed him out of the Lane after a month of the season's end and he was sold to Manchester United for a profit. Later went on to be sold to Coventry City (for whom he scored against us) and QPR. Dropping out of league football, he turned out for various sides around Suffolk and Essex and also played in Australia and Switzerland before Brazil's career ended with a back injury at the age of 27, when he needed spinal fusion.
Ran a pub when he retired and then went on to have a career in broadcasting, starting off as an expert summariser on TV and then as a radio presenter on TalkSport. Alan wrote a successful autobiography "There's An Awful Lot of Bubbly in Brazil", in which he revealed that he had been sexually abused as a youngster at the Celtic Boys Club by one of the coaches.
On 23rd April 2008, Brazil was banned from driving for being twice over the limit of alcohol allowed in his blood while in charge of a vehicle. He was also fined £750 and made to pay costs of £450 by Sudbury magistrates.
Lived in Hadleigh, Suffolk,