Arsenal and Tottenham are two of the biggest rivals in English football.
Indeed, there’s a lot of bad blood between Arsenal and Tottenham, and it’s not often you see players crossing the north London divide.
Of course, there are a few famous examples of players who have swapped Tottenham for Arsenal and vice versa.
Now, another former Arsenal player has claimed that he almost joined Tottenham directly from the Gunners at one point.
Speaking on the Grumpy Old Men of Football Podcast, Tony Woodcock has shared how he almost signed for Tottenham when he left Arsenal due to the fact he was angry with Arsenal after his contract negotiations didn’t go to plan.
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Tony Woodcock almost signed for Tottenham
The former England international spoke about almost joining Tottenham from Arsenal.
Woodcock scored 63 goals for Arsenal during his time at the club, and was an important player for the Gunners in the 1980s.
However, Woodcock left Arsenal on bad terms, and, at one point, he was so angry he wanted to sign for Tottenham.
“I came to Arsenal. I signed a four year contract and it came up again. In those days, you couldn’t offer a player a penny less or it would be a free transfer. I get my renewal, which was absolutely crazy, they said I’d agreed things I hadn’t agreed on,” Woodcock said.
“I’d signed a contract, a blank contract, if you can’t trust Arsenal who can you trust after being there for four years? It came back and went to tribunal. I won the case. I should’ve signed and stayed at Arsenal, but I was so angry about what had happened that I wanted to play for Spurs. I negotiated with Spurs, Spurs wanted me at the time, but Arsenal said you’re not going there in any way whatsoever, so I went back to Koln.”
Transfers between Arsenal and Tottenham
Swapping Arsenal for Tottenham is one of football’s big no-nos, but there have been a few players over the years who have crossed the north London divide.
As you can imagine, many of these players aren’t popular on one side of north London or the other.
| Transfers between Arsenal and Tottenham | Year | Team left | Team joined |
| Jimmy Brain | 1931 | ||
| Laurie Brown | 1964 | ||
| Jimmy Robertson | 1968 | ||
| David Jenkins | 1968 | ||
| Pat Jennings | 1977 | ||
| Willie Young | 1977 | ||
| Steve Walford | 1977 | ||
| Sol Campbell | 2001 | ||
| Rohan Ricketts | 2002 | ||
| William Gallas | 2010 |
Sol Campbell is perhaps the most famous player on this list. Campbell was a fantastic centre-back at the peak of his powers when he swapped Spurs for Arsenal, despite the fact Liverpool wanted Campbell at the time too.
Most recently, William Gallas joined Tottenham from Arsenal in 2010, but the Frenchman had already burned many bridges at Arsenal around that time, so there wasn’t the same vitriol towards Gallas that there was for Campbell.
Other players have indirectly made this move, Emmanuel Adebayor went to Tottenham from Arsenal, via Manchester City, while David Bentley signed for Tottenham, despite being advised not to, after coming through at Arsenal.
Woodcock didn’t join Spurs in the end, and he’s still considered something of a hero at Arsenal to this day.
