Former England striker reveals Arsenal blocked him from joining Tottenham
A former Arsenal striker has revealed that he was extremely keen to sign for Tottenham Hotspur, but the Gunners forced him to move abroad instead.
There is no love lost between the two North London clubs, with the rivalry being one of the oldest and fiercest in English football.
That is why there is only a handful of players who have played for both Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in recent history, with direct moves between the two clubs being even rarer.
The last player to make a move from one to another was Willian Gallas, who made a free switch from the Emirates to White Hart Lane back in 2010.
The most infamous is undoubtedly Sol Campbell, who moved in the opposite direction and remains enemy number one for Tottenham fans to this day.
Tony Woodcock reveals Gunners blocked Tottenham transfer
Tony Woodcock made 131 appearances for Arsenal, scoring 56 goals in his four-year spell at Highbury from 1982 to 1986.
The England international arrived at the Gunners from Koln and went back to the German club four years later, but he has now revealed that Tottenham was his preferred destination at the time.
Woodcock said on the Grumpy Old Men of Football Podcast: “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 on things I hadn’t agreed on.
“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 the 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 Tottenham, Tottenham wanted me at the time, but Arsenal said you’re not going there in any way whatsoever, so I went back to Koln.”
Spurs fans can have the last laugh over Arsenal this season
As disappointing as this season has been for Tottenham in the Premier League, they could still have the bragging rights over Arsenal, as they have a big chance to end the season with silverware.
Jamie O’Hara has said that Tottenham would have had a better season than Arsenal if they had won the Europa League.
That is something that the Gunners fans would find it difficult to refute since they were the ones who argued that trophies are the only thing that matter when Tottenham were consistently finishing above them in the Mauricio Pochettino era.
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