Club Connections – Spurs

Of course this coming Monday, Manchester United will face Harry Redknapp’s Spurs up at Old Trafford looking to make it 2 wins out of 2 in the Premier League so far. With that in mind it’s worth looking at 8 individuals who have both spent time at United and Spurs in their careers in the game.

Alan Brazil

After enjoying a successful spell at Ipswich Town under the late Sir Bobby Robson, Brazil a skilful striker moved to Spurs in 1983. He never settled in London and his form dipped. That didn’t put off Ron Atkinson who brought the Scot to Old Trafford in 1984.

Sadly Alan never settled really at United and despite scoring some nice goals, never played in the same vien of confidence that had won him admirers whilst playing at Ipswich. His career faded after leaving United in 1986 and he retired at the age of only 27 due to ongoing-injuries. He’s now a successful radio presenter for TalkSPORT.

Dimitar Berbatov

He may always be an easy target by his critics for his work-rate and relaxed approach to the game, but there’s doubt Berbatov proved his critics wrong last season when he was United’s leading goalscorer with 21 goals. After coming to prominence at Bayer Leverkusen, he moved to the Premier League to join Spurs in 2006.

In two seasons at White Hart Lane he won many plaudits and formed a prolific partnership with Robbie Keane. Sir Alex Ferguson obviously was impressed with the Bulgarian and paid a reported £30.75 million in 2008 to bring the forward to Manchester. Despite not hitting the heights in his first two seasons he shone last year and now looks to be comfortable with the pressure at United.

Frazier Campbell

After impressing in season-long loan spells at both Royal Antwerp and Hull City there were high hopes that Campbell, a product of United’s academy might be able to break into the first team and make a name for himself not just in the Premier League but in Europe.

Sadly Frazier never got the chance really to prove himself as after his successful loan spell at Hull, he moved to Spurs on-loan as part of the deal that saw Berbatov join United. He found life tough at Spurs and he moved permanently to Sunderland in 2009 where after missing the majority of last season is focused on getting his career back on track.

Michael Carrick

Despite impressing after coming through the West Ham ranks, many United fans were surprised when Sir Alex swooped to sign Carrick from Spurs after the 2006 World Cup. Fans argued that despite being a good passer of the ball that he wasn’t good enough to slot into our midfield and be a regular.

Michael  has proved them wrong and whilst he still has his doubters at Old Trafford there’s no doubt that as he enters his sixth season at United, that he has gone onto achieve the kind of honours and success in the game that many at Upton Park expected him to when he was a youngster breaking into Redknapp’s side.

George Graham

Graham is of course best remembered for his time in charge of Arsenal for nine years in which he formed arguably the best British back four of the late 80’s and early 90’s. Despite that it’s easy to forget that he was a good solid midfielder who gained the captaincy at United following Bobby Charlton’s retirement.

His time at Old Trafford though was a disappointment and he was often criticised for his ‘relaxed’ style which often found United wanting in the middle of the park. George ended his career in America before turning to management. After his success at Arsenal, he joined Spurs from Leeds in 1998 and won the League Cup before being sacked in 2001.

Terry Gibson

After graduating from Spurs’ youth system, Gibson a small nifty striker made a big-name for himself at Coventry City where he scored 52 goals in just over 100 appearances. That form convinced Atkinson enough to bring the Londoner to Old Trafford in January 1986

Sadly due to Mark Hughes’ deal to Barcelona not being completed until the end of the season and the signing of Peter Davenport, Terry never got enough of a run to impress and even before Sir Alex’s arrival when Atkinson was sacked never looked like having a long-term future at the club. He left in 1988 and went onto win the FA Cup with Wimbledon the next year. He is now a pundit covering La Liga for Sky Sports.

Joe Jordan

A big tough old-fashioned striker, Jordan joined United from bitter rivals Leeds  becoming Dave Sextion’s first signing. Although he didn’t quite hit the heights of his career at Elland Road at Old Trafford, there’s no doubt there were few forwards who gave as much to the cause as he did.

After 3 and a half seasons at Untied, Joe moved to AC Milan in 1981. In his first season in Italy, he suffered relegation before winning promotion back to Serie A the following season. After several stints in management (including two spells at Bristol City) he has been a key part of Redknapp’s coaching set-up first up at Portsmouth and at Spurs where he’s a first team coach..

Teddy Sheringham

Life at Old Trafford at first was tough for Teddy. Brought to the club at the age of 31 from Spurs after Eric Cantona retired, he faded badly in his first season despite starting well. All was forgiven in his second season when he scored a goal in both the FA Cup and Champions League Final to ensure United won the treble in 1999.

After having to make do with being United’s fourth striker again for the next season, Teddy turned it round in his last season and was the club’s top goal-scorer before returning back to White Hart Lane on a free in the summer of 2001. He stayed there for 2 seasons before enjoying spells with Portsmouth and West Ham in the top-flight before retiring at the age of 42 after a year at Colchester United.

By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87