Arsenal’s Hotspurs: Adebayor, Gallas, Jennings and more players to cross the North London divide
Emmanuel Adebayor's potential transfer to Spurs would place the striker in a unique group of players who have crossed the divide to represent both Arsenal and their north London rivals Tottenham.
Here are six of the best players who did the same…
SOL CAMPBELL
White Hart Lane's favourite hate figure ended a nine-year spell with Spurs in 2001 by popping along the road to join their fierce (and more successful) rivals. To make matters worse, the Gunners paid nothing for their new man, since Campbell's contract had expired as he'd failed to agree a new deal. The former England defender, who captained Spurs to League Cup glory in 1999, went on to win the Premier League twice and the FA Cup three times with Arsenal, returning for a swan song in 2010 after spells with Portsmouth and, bizarrely, Notts County.
William Gallas
You get the feeling Monsieur Gallas has little regard for his public perception among football fans in London, reportedly moving from Chelsea to Arsenal in 2006 after threatening to score an own goal if the Blues kept him on board. Four years later the moody Frenchman was on his bike once again, this time answering Harry Redknapp's call for more experience in defence, after falling from grace at the Emirates, where he had been captain. Gallas helped Spurs into the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in 2011, but his only silverware in English football remains the two Premier League trophies and League Cup he picked up at Stamford Bridge.
PAT JENNINGS
Northern Ireland's most capped player with 119 games enjoyed the rarity of moving between north London rivals without infuriating at least one set of supporters. He'd already lifted two League Cups, an FA Cup and UEFA Cup crown with Spurs and the club (wrongly) assumed that, at 32, he the end of his playing days were fast approaching, when Arsenal made enquiries in 1977. Eight years later, Jennings was still turning out for the Gunners' first team, where he won another FA Cup in 1979. The goalkeeper's professional career would span 23 years in total, ending with a second spell at Spurs ahead of Northern Ireland's 1986 World Cup campaign in Mexico.
JIMMY ROBERTSON
The flying Scotsman scored the first goal for Spurs in their 1967 FA Cup final victory over Chelsea and won his solitary Scotland cap during the six years he spent bursting down the wing for the Lilywhites. In October 1968 he left for 18 months at Highbury, after moving in a swap deal for the Gunners' David Jenkins. Robertson became the only player to score for both sides in a North London derby, before joining Ipswich after falling out of favour with Arsenal boss Bertie Mee.
JIMMY BRAIN
We won't pretend anyone at talkSPORT Towers was knocking around to see Jimmy Brain bang in 139 goals for the Gunners just after World War I, yet the first man to break the triple figure goal barrier for Arsenal takes his rightful place on our list. An FA Cup finalist with Arsenal in 1927, when they lost out 1-0 to Cardiff, Brain moved to Spurs for three years in 1931, where he scored ten goals in 47 appearances. [It's fair to say he had a good football Brain, then? – talkSPORT Features Ed]
GEORGE HUNT
Hunt was the top goal scorer at Spurs for five seasons in a row in the 1930s, bagging 138 goals in 198 games before becoming the first player to move from White Hart Lane to Arsenal in 1937. He replaced the legendary Ted Drake at Highbury and picked up a First Division winner's medal in his first season, but managed only three goals in 21 games, moving on to Bolton in 1938.
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