The Four Best Players to Play for Both Arsenal and Tottenham
The North London Derby, Arsenal vs Tottenham, man vs man, streamer vs streamer, Twitter meme account vs Twitter meme account. A derby, that was mostly overlooked until the mid-2010s, or at least that’s how it felt to me. For Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, Chelsea’s might after their acquisition by Roman Abramovich were arguably the biggest local threat.
However, the passion of the North London derby is unsurpassed in England’s capital, as is shown by the lack of players that starred for both clubs. Whilst Chelsea and Arsenal have swapped players in recent years like caravanning enthusiasts swap partners at a campsite, only 15 players have represented both Arsenal and Tottenham since their first derby in 1887.
From those 15, 9 will be cast aside by my cruel hand and only four will feature in this video in ascending order… I think. Is ascending the one that goes from worst to best? Anyway, William Gallas. A product of the marvelous Clairefontaine academy, which I have covered in a previous article, Gallas turned professional with Caen and moved to Marseille after helping Caen into the top flight.
Even though he starred alongside Thierry Henry, David Trezeguet and Willy Sagnol at youth level, he did not make the cut for the 1998 World Cup, missing out on France’s success. The debacle suffered by Les Bleus in Japan and Korea, exiting the group stage in last place with just one point, opened the door for Gallas to become a full international. This came after he moved to Chelsea under Claudio Ranieri.
From 2002 to 2006 Gallas had arguably the best time of his career winning two Premier League titles under Jose Mourinho as well as the 2003 Confederations Cup. A World Cup winners medal might have been added to his honours had Zinedine Zidane not decided to blow a hole in Marco Materazzi’s chest with his head. After the 2006 World Cup, Gallas entered negotiations with Chelsea for a new contract but deemed the Blues’ offer too low.
Chelsea, despite being backed by the gassiest man in Russia and not having to worry about FFP did not offer him improved terms, but more importantly did not accept his transfer request either. A pretty long and unsavory saga ensued. Luckily Arsenal accepted a swap deal for Ashley Cole, who was also feuding with his club to let him leave and all was well.
Except when Chelsea claimed after the move had gone through that Gallas threatened to score own goals if he was not let go, a claim which Gallas strongly denies. Speaking of goals, Gallas always had a knack for scoring important goals, a perk of his that would continue at Arsenal.
Named captain and receiving the number 10 shirt from the recently departed Dennis Bergkamp, which is weird to say the least, he became an integral part of the team. His only blemishes on his Arsenal record came after an outburst in a game against Birmingham where he protested a penalty awarded to Birmingham by sitting down in the central area of the pitch and an interview, he later gave criticizing the club’s younger players.
Having been stripped of the captaincy due to the two incidents, his contract was not renewed at the end of the 2010 season and he continued his journey across London, joining Tottenham. With this move he became the first player to make an appearance for all three of London’s biggest clubs and despite being 33 he continued being as dependable as 90s Toyota Corolla.
That dependability meant Arsenal came to rue the decision to let him go when he helped Spurs to a 3-2 win at the Emirates, the first since 1993. After an injury plagued last season at White Hart Lane, he moved to Perth Glory before retiring in 2014. You know who else was reliable? My third-place inclusion, Emmanuel Adebayor.
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Before he became the divisive figure most people remember him as, Adebayor was a talented youngster from Togo who was spotted by Metz scouts, who brought him to France. Fourteen goals in 44 games caused Didier Deschamps to take notice of the youngster and he made the move to Monaco in 2003. Sadly, Deschamps did not have enough faith in him to offer him minutes in the 2004 Champions League final Monaco lost to Porto.
Having idolized Nwankwo Kanu as a kid Adebayor got his dream move to Arsenal in January of 2006, gaining the nickname “Baby Kanu”. In his three years at the Emirates Baby Kanu outgrew big Kanu, scoring a goal every other game, bringing him to the attention of Europe’s super clubs. Barcelona and Milan were supposedly interested in 2008, but Adebayor stayed put for one more year before departing.
Since back then Manchester City’s transfer policy consisted of signing Arsenal’s brightest talents you can probably guess where he went. Despite an impressive debut he found game time hard to come by at a club that featured Edin Džeko, Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli. Unusually Real Madrid came in with a loan offer and Adebayor scored 5 goals for Los Blancos winning the Copa Del Rey, before returning home.
Manchester City still had no room for him and sent him out on loan to Tottenham. Naturally, he provided the assist for Rafael Van der Vaart’s winner in the North London derby. The Arsenal fans hadn’t forgotten his over enthusiastic celebration for city after he scored against Arsenal, running the length of the pitch in order to celebrate his goal in front of his old fans.
Always a gracious and level headed bunch, the Arsenal fans sang about the time the Togo national team bus was fired upon whilst in Angola, resulting in three fatalities. His time at White Hart Lane could be considered successful, scoring 35 goals in 92 games. After being released by the club in 2015 he embarked on a journeyman career with short spells at Crystal Palace, Istanbul Basaksehir and Kayserispor before former Manchester City teammate Roque Santa Cruz convinced him to join Olympia Asuncion in Paraguay’s top flight.
In a season disrupted by the pandemic he only managed four games for the club before ending his career back in his native Togo with Semassi FC. At number two we have a player that still gets referred to as Judas today, despite retiring more than a decade ago. Sol Campbell was the definition of a wonderkid, but nearly gave up on his dreams.
Whilst in the West Ham youth academy which he attended after being schooled at the FA centre of excellence one of his coaches remarked that the West Indies were beating England at cricket and he should be proud. Campbell was of Jamaican heritage and took this as an offense and left the West Ham academy. Tottenham Hotspur’s chief scout Len Cheesewright, spent two months trying to convince him to come back to football and Campbell finally agreed and three years later made his debut in a game against Chelsea.
Despite making only one appearance in his first senior season at white Hart Lane his talent was undeniable. By 1996 he had made his England debut at just 21 and two years later he became England’s youngest ever captain. At Tottenham a rotating cast of managers, some of which feuded with the young defender, meant that the team was not exactly a stable place for Campbell to grow his game.
After picking up the 1999 League Cup, the penultimate trophy Spurs have won until now, his contract was becoming an issue by the time 2001 came around. The English footballing landscape had taken notice of Steve McManaman’s free move to Real Madrid, which served as a warning. Spurs were determined to tie him down to a new deal, offering him a contract that would have made him their highest earner.
Campbell reiterated his determination to stay at White Hart Lane whilst the negotiations were taking place, also claiming in an interview he would never join Arsenal. The Gunners, who by then were in the midst of Arsene Wenger’s revolution, hadn’t even been linked to Campbell in the press as everyone assumed he would join one of the continental giants interested in him.
Then, on Jul 3rd 2001, a date which will live in infamy, for Spurs supporters at least, the press was gathered at Arsenal’s training ground. The reason behind it? The unveiling of backup goalkeeper Richard Wright. Whilst I can’t know this for sure, I like to imagine the newspapers sent some of their junior staff to such an unveiling probably thinking a slow news day like that didn’t warrant them sending in their heavy hitters.
You can probably imagine everyone’s surprise as Sol Campbell nonchalantly walked into the room. The blockbuster move of the summer just happened under everyone’s noses. Immediately after joining the Gunners, Campbell won a double and just when Spurs fans couldn’t think things could get any worse, he partnered Kolo Toure in defence to become one of Arsenal’s Invincibles.
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Two years later, he helped Arsenal reach a Champions League Final for the first time in their history, whilst not conceding a single goal in the knockout stages. Despite scoring in the final, Jens Lehmann’s sending off meant that Arsenal succumbed to a 2-1 loss and Campbell decided to leave the club seeking a fresh start in his words.
After a move to Juventus failed, he joined Portsmouth’s vibes era, winning the FA Cup with them in 2008. After the financial mismanagement of the club finally caught up to the and still with unpaid wages Campbell, not learning his lesson joined the Notts County hoax in 2009.
At a time when mysterious foreign billionaires were all the rage in England, Notts County were taken over by a fictitious consortium that promised massive investment. Sven-Goran Eriksson joined as a director of football and Sol Campbell and Kasper Schmeichel were their marquee signings. Campbell would walk out just three days after signing, having become aware of the scam he fell for.
His time at Portsmouth and the failed move to Notts County came at a time when he was losing his national team spot to the new partnership of Ferdinand and Terry, but not before becoming the first English player to represent his country at six consecutive international tournaments. As a free agent he started training with Arsenal to maintain fitness levels and re-signed for them, playing 14 games. After 8 more appearances for Newcastle the next season he hung up his boots in 2012.
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Before I get to my number one pick one extra honourable mention needs to be addressed, namely Harry Kane. HA! You thought he would be at number one, but I tricked you. You see, my deception has a very valid reason. Kane never played professionally for Arsenal as he spent just one season in the Gunners’ academy before being released for “being too chubby and not very athletic”.
Kane repaid the faith Arsenal didn’t show him by becoming England’s all-time top goal scorer and punishing them 15 times during his meetings with his former youth club. The amount of dementia this caused in the ranks of Arsenal fans, who, let’s be honest, aren’t the most sensible people, is seriously one of the best things I have ever seen. Every time he plays, for either club or country, and doesn’t score you get Arsenal fans calling him a fraud on Twitter. This level of PTSD one man has inflicted on an entire fanbase seriously needs to be studied.
With that brief interlude out of the way we come to my number one pick, Pat Jennings. Now to those of you learning only now that football existed prior to 2015 this might come as a shock, but simply put, Pat Jennings is one of the best goalkeepers of all time. His first senior appearances came with Watford in the third tier of English football, after they spotted him playing in his native Northern Ireland.
After just one season in the third tier and aged just 19, Spurs immediately signed him in 1964. For a team that were crowned champions just three years earlier to put their faith in such a young goalkeeper speaks volume to Jennings’ talent. In his 13 year stay at Spurs he made nearly 600 appearances, winning three cups: FA, League and UEFA.
In 1977 aged 32 he was released by Tottenham, who thought he would be hanging up his gloves soon. Jennings stated that he was very hurt by this decision, and the manner in which it occurred, with club executives giving him the cold shoulder. Enraged at this treatment after having dedicated 13 years of his life to the club he sought out Tottenham’s arch rivals for his next move.
Arsenal couldn’t refuse the opportunity to sign the best goalkeeper in the league and rub their rivals faces in the dirt and offered him a contract. Jennings surprised everyone at his new club, staying on as first choice goalkeeper for 8 more years, retiring aged 40. In this time, he won an FA Cup with the Gunners and became the first player to reach 1000 appearances in English football.
Jennings also played a vital role in Northern Ireland’s best ever performance at a World Cup in 1982, conceding just one goal in the first group stage and defeating Spain as well as two British Home Championships in 1980 and 1984. Reading about him I got the distinct feeling that if he would have been English no one would have shut up about him, but instead not many people know about him.
By: Eduard Holdis / @He_Ftbl
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA / Getty Images