Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa had just helped Argentina win the 1978 World Cup, and Keith Burkinshaw had travelled to South America to bring both players to north London. Miller remembers the excitement, the disbelief and the impact their arrival had on the club.
“Keith went over and signed them, you know, in Argentina," Miller told Football Presse. "So none of us knew about this. And I actually was still on holiday. We were on holiday, we weren't back yet. And we just read it in the paper. It was like, wow, wow.
“On the Sunday, ‘Spurs signed the world’, I think it was one of the headlines in the paper. Massive. And it was like everywhere, you know. There were no mobile phones then, just ordinary phones, but everyone I spoke to in the street, whatever, ‘Oh, you see, you signed!’
“We'd signed good players before, but never like this. No one had signed a foreigner before. They were the first two to come, so it was quite unique.”
Miller was playing for Skeid in Norway at the time, having gone abroad to continue his career. He came home to London during a break in the Norwegian season, so he was there when the news broke. When he returned to Norway, the questions followed him.
“I came home for three weeks, so I came home when they signed because we had a break in the season. Mid-season break, and that's when it had happened. So I saw it in London and I obviously went back to Norway and, you know, it was even more talking to me about, ‘Did you meet the Argentinians?’ or whatever.
“I said, ‘Well, no, I didn't, but I will do when I go back.’ So, yeah, it went all over the world, didn't it? The Norway papers were full of it as well.”
The reaction was about more than two famous names arriving from the World Cup winners. Tottenham had just returned to the First Division, and the signings gave the club a new profile. Miller believes their effect was immediate, even before the pair had established themselves on the pitch.
“Did it lift Tottenham to another level as a club? Yeah, because we'd gone down then got promotion straight away. And it took us up another niche. All of a sudden as well, when we started playing away games, everyone sold out because they wanted to see the Argentinians.
“Undoubtedly, commercially and favouritism, it certainly took us to another level, yeah, I would say that.”
For a young player coming through at Spurs, the attraction was not simply the attention surrounding Ardiles and Villa. It was the chance to train alongside two footballers whose approach and technique were different from anything he had experienced before.
“Good, because you're learning different techniques and then you're learning from them. You're seeing what things they do. But, I mean, yeah, Ricky and Ozzy were unplayable when they were on form. In training, I certainly didn't kick any of them. I was told not to kick them.”
Miller saw their influence in the way they played as well as the attention they brought to the club. Ardiles and Villa had arrived as World Cup winners, but they were not simply famous imports. Their skill and style offered something different to English football at the time.
“Ozzy and Ricky brought a different flamboyance and style to our club that hadn't been seen before, hadn't been seen in England before. And obviously they won the World Cup in style, didn't they? Came here and both had great times at our club. Great, great servants, helped us win trophies.”
The pair became central figures in Tottenham's successful teams of the early 1980s. Villa's goals in the 1981 FA Cup final replay against Manchester City became part of the club's history, while Ardiles remained at Spurs until 1988 and helped the team win the UEFA Cup in 1984.
Together, Ardiles and Villa helped transform Tottenham and ushered in a trophy-winning era. Villa became immortalised by his two goals in the 1981 FA Cup final replay against Manchester City, and Spurs retained the cup in 1982. Ardiles would also be part of the club’s story when Tottenham lifted the UEFA Cup in 1984.
For Miller, it all began with a newspaper headline and the astonishment of seeing two World Cup winners arrive at his club. The excitement travelled far beyond north London, reaching him in Norway and following him back to Tottenham.
What began as a signing nobody in the dressing room had expected became part of the story of a team that won trophies and captured the imagination of supporters. Ardiles and Villa had come to England as world champions. At Tottenham, they became part of the club’s history.