Gary Stevens came to Tottenham's attention when playing and scoring for Brighton and Hove Albion in the 1983 FA Cup Final and despite never quite winning over the Spurs crowd, he served the club well in his years at the club.

Having moved to Suffolk, Gary represented the Suffolk Schools side and given the chance to sign as a junior, Stevens failed to break through at Ipswich Town.  The London born midfielder was picked up by Brighton and converted into a defender at the Goldstone Ground.  He started in the centre of the back four, but could play right back too and at Brighton, he had a good partnership with captain Steve Foster.  When the skipper was suspended for the FA Cup Final, Stevens led the defence and put in an outstanding performance.

Tottenham must have been aware of the ability of the player and during the summer of 1983, they signed Stevens for a fee of £350,000 from Brighton, who were starting the following season in the Second Division after suffering relegation.  There was a move to full back and he settled in the new position, before moving up to midfield in Glenn Hoddle's absence.  Whichever role he was asked to play, Stevens read the game well and was willing to get stuck into the tackle.  Not blessed with the greatest speed, Gary always showed good stamina, a product of the days of long-distance running when a schoolboy.

Tall and rangy, his dynamic performances saw a full international call-up for a first cap in 1983 and he went on to win seven caps in total, most of them from the subs bench, but he went out to Mexico with the 1986 World Cup squad.

Back at Tottenham, his presence in the side was important once Peter Shreeve took over as manager and the best challenge Spurs made on the First Division title was ended in a game against Manchester United, when Stevens suffered a back injury and was ruled out  for the remainder of the season.  Another knee injury in 1986 when he was tackled forcefully from the side by Vinnie Jones of Wimbledon, ruled him out for six months and he never really recovered his previous form when he returned, often suffering more niggling injuries.

To try and get him fit for first team action, Spurs put Stevens out on loan to Portsmouth and his spell there impressed the management at Fratton Park to sign him on full-time two months later.  Unfortunately, the knee injury that he sustained at Tottenham meant that he could not carry on playing regularly and he retired in February 1992.  However, his interest in football was not finished, as he coached the youth team and reserves at Charlton Athletic, set up his own soccer schools and carried out a lot of commentary work with Capital Radio, Greater London Radio and TalkSport and on TV with BSky TV.

Was coach to Tony Adams at FC in .