Many will feel that this is a golden era for English teams but it was the success of a team guided by a visionary manager 60 years ago this very week which lit the touchpaper on a new and more successful era.

Tottenham Hotspur, nicknamed "Spurs" and managed by former player Bill Nicholson, became the first British team lift a European trophy in 1963.

The Football Association and the Football League had been criticised for their insularity and are thought to have blocked Chelsea from taking part in the first year of European competition in 1955.

Real Madrid won the European Champions’ Cup - now known as the UEFA Champions League - in the first five years of its existence.

Their team included Ferenc Puskás, a Hungarian emigre, and Alfredo Di Stefano from Argentina. 

Both had become naturalised Spanish citizens with a supporting cast of gifted Spanish players and other stars from Brazil and France.

Their matches had been televised across Europe by the new Eurovision link which brought their skill to a new audience.

For Nicholson, Real's style proved a revelation.

Nicholson soon decided that Tottenham would play in an all white strip in European matches partly in tribute to Real.

Other managers, including Don Revie at Leeds United, followed the example.

The all white strip looked particularly impressive under the floodlights when matches were played in an electric atmosphere and the fans sang "The Spurs Go Marching On," to encourage the team.

Spurs were captained by Danny Blanchflower of Northern Ireland and reached the European Cup semi final before they were knocked out by Portuguese side Benfica.

In what was a golden era for the club, Tottenham also won the FA Cup again in 1962.

A 3-1 victory over Burnley meant they were to be involved in European competition for a second successive year, this time in the Cup Winners’s Cup.

By this time, Nicholson had added another key individual to his squad.

Jimmy Greaves, already considered one of the finest goalscorers in the world, had signed for AC Milan in Italy, but he had been unhappy there and was keen to return home,

Nicholson negotiated a fee of £99,999 ($126,128/€114,391) for Greaves who was destined to play an important part in the club's European success.

In October 1962, Spurs met Scottish Cup winners Rangers at White Hart Lane and won 5-2.

In the second leg, Greaves scored the opening goal in a 3-2 win at Ibrox, giving Spurs  an 8-4 aggregate victory.

In the next round, they lost 2-0 in the first leg to Slovan Bratislava,but in the return under the lights in North London they proved unstoppable.

Greaves was on target twice as Spurs swept the Czechoslovakia team aside 6-0.

In the semi final, Spurs travelled to Yugoslavia and, although Greaves was sent off against OFK Belgrade, his team mates gave a resolute performance to take a 2-1 advantage.

In the second leg, they won 3-1 on a very wet and muddy pitch to reach the final.

The final been set for Rotterdam and Atlético de Madrid, 1962 Cup Winners' Cup winners, were to be the opponents.

At the beginning of May, Atlético coach José "Pepe" Villalonga joined nearly 43,000 at White Hart Lane to watch Spurs beat Sheffield United 4-2.

Nicholson travelled in the other direction to assess Atlético beat Hercules 4-0 in a domestic match.

"The Spurs will have to be careful with Atlético," Nicholson warned.

"Even though they played against weak opponents, it is obvious they are a very good side."

In the days before the final, it rained heavily in Rotterdam.

"The interest the match creates depends very much on the weather but ticket sales are going well," Feyenoord Stadium director Bas Van Krimpen said.

“If it rains like it has been doing, Spurs will be favoured by the soaked turf, my boys don’t like the wet at all," Villalonga declared with more than a hint of pre-match psychology.

There was a blow for Tottenham when Scottish international Dave Mackay was ruled out with a stomach injury on the day before the match.

Mackay was known as a "wing half" and had been a critical presence in the club's success over the preceding two seasons, and many considered him the most important player in the squad.

"I compare him with Roy Keane," team-mate Terry Dyson recalled years later.

"He used to drive people on by his own efforts, he didn’t shout at anybody, you just got inspired by what he did, you thought, if he can do it we, can all do it."

Dyson was destined to play the game of his life that night, but It was Greaves who gave Tottenham an early advantage from close range.

"Jimmy to me was the best, he was so clinical in front of goal and so easy, he used to side foot them in," Dyson recalled.

At half time Spurs led 2-0 but Atlético launched an assault in the early stages of the second half.

The turning point came with a remarkable goal from Dyson.

He attempted a cross but Atlético's goalkeeper Edgardo Madinabeytia seemed certain to collect the ball safely.

"As I crossed it, I thought I’ve got it too near the keeper, but he went and pushed it in and that changed the game completely." 

Dyson created a fourth for Greaves and then scored goal number five himself.

"It was absolutely electric I can’t honestly describe it winning it was unbelievable," Dyson said.

Team-mate Bobby Smith told Dyson after the match, "Terry son, If I were you I’d retire now, you’ll never play another game like that in your life."

The black and white television pictures showed a dominant Spurs performance across Europe which made a big impression.

"The British clock has been set in motion," Spanish sports newspaper Mundo Deportivo declared.

"Tottenham played with greater class," admitted the Spanish press.

The following morning the Dutch newspapers eulogised about the Tottenham performance.

"Splendid Spurs crush fierce Atlético," the Volkskrant newspaper said.

"Tottenham Hotspur restored confidence in English soccer, it was a well earned victory for a team that played more direct," reporter Hans Wielick wrote in De Telegraaf.

A few days later, a crowd estimated at 150,000 welcomed the Tottenham team home to North London.

"This is the greatest thrill of them all," Blanchflower conceded as he looked out over the massed crowds on the Tottenham High Road.

Nicholson was not a man known for his emotion but he insisted, "It will always be a wonderful moment of pride to look back on the Atlético match."

The victory in Rotterdam proved to be the last hurrah for that particular group of players.

Blanchflower retired, Mackay broke his leg and most tragic of all, his fellow Scot John White was killed by a lightning strike when sheltering on a golf course during a storm.

Yet Tottenham’s performance had won a new respect for British football internationally.

In 1965 West Ham beat Munich 1860 in another Cup Winners Cup Final and  the following year skipper Bobby Moore returned to lift the World Cup with England.

Then came the success in the European Cup for Glasgow giants Celtic in 1967 and Manchester United in 1968.

At least one British club appeared in a European final every year until 1985 when UEFA banned English clubs following the death of 39 Italian and Belgian football fans at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels in a riot caused by Liverpool fans at that year’s European Cup final.

The ban lasted five years.