While a 22-year-old goalkeeper with Aldershot, Reynolds wrote to Southampton asking for a trial but unfortunately Saints declined this offer and he instead went to White Hart Lane initially as the understudy to Ted Ditchburn.
During his spell at Tottenham, Portsmouth had tried to sign him, but Reynolds was considered too valuable to be released and it wasn't until ten years after he had first contacted Southampton that Ted Bates, beating the transfer deadline by 24 hours, bought him from Spurs for £10,000.
It was the era of the maximum wage, a time when players could not leave their club without the express say-so of their bosses; employers had a serfs and masters mentality, which was famously described as 'soccer slavery' by Jimmy Hill.
Reynolds himself was quite a character - fastidious and outspoken he was a formidable PFA (Professional Footballers' Association) representative and was behind many of the perceived insurrections of his more famous soul-mate Danny Blanchflower, with whom he shared a passion for the glory of the game.
In the book he reports an incident of "tapping-up" – whilst at Southampton, he was astonished to be contacted by the great Alf Ramsey over a possible transfer to Ipswich Town.