Two old sparring partners locked horns at White Hart Lane yesterday as Dave Bassett's Leicester lost 2-1 to Mauricio Taricco's Spurs. After the game Bassett had some harsh words on the subject of the former Town star, labelling him a "disgrace to the game".
In an astonishing outburst Bassett even went as far as to say the best thing to happen to Taricco was when Neil Heaney hit him in a post-match scuffle on some stairs outside the Portman Road Players' Lounge after Town's play-off semi-final with the Addicks in 1998.
The Leicester manager's main beef with Taricco yesterday was that he tried to get Andy Impey sent off: "That man should be done away with. He is a disgrace to the game. I warned my players that he'd be up to his tricks.
"He deliberately tried to get Impey sent off. If they had both been sticking on to each other and got sent off I'd say, good lads. But Taricco is one of these peripheral players when it comes to this.
"He's never in a major battle. The guy has a reputation, a record for this. He's not so brave. He wasn't brave in the tunnel. He was the last man off and he had a police escort.
"I warned them this would happen, he would try anything. I watched him because I could see it happening. He went to put his head in Andy's face and Andy pushed him away. That was it. The next moment he screamed and rolled on the floor."
Bassett's dislike for Taricco goes back to an Ipswich-Sheffield United match back in the 95/96 seson when Dane Whitehouse was sent off for striking the Argentinian in the face. Subsequent games between the two sides saw Taricco involved with a number of other Blades' players with him famously telling TWTD: "I don't like Sheffield United, they don't like me, I don't like them."
It seems this animosity towards all things Blade and Blade-related continues to this day.