Players risk crowd anger in moves to local league rivals

Peter Crouch’s wife Abbey Clancy is not a happy woman.

She has complained about the giant striker’s transfer deadline move from Tottenham to Stoke City. Not for footballing reasons – I’m not sure that Abbey has a view on Stoke’s long ball game – but for the fact that her husband’s new club is away from the bright lights of the capital.

“I’m gutted Peter had to leave,” she said. “I love London”. Footballers’ wives have to accept that their partners move around the country, with all the upheaval that implies.

A new house (even if it is a mansion), away from the workplace, having to find new friends, new restaurants, and new schools for the children.

For some, this means frequent moves. DJ Campbell, Queens Park Rangers’ new striker, has played for league sides Brentford, Birmingham City, Leicester City and Blackpool before Neil Warnock signed him. He also had a spell on loan at Derby County.

And all this in the past six years. Happily, Campbell has now returned to his home club: his mother still lives in one of the streets that surround the West London club’s Loftus Road ground.

Of course a player can stay with one club. Ryan Giggs is the most notable example of one who has done this successfully.

Not everyone (or indeed anyone) is like Giggs, however. Faced with the need to move clubs, the other option available to players is to transfer to another club in the same city.

This has a number of advantages. There is none of the hassles of moving home or adjusting to a new part of the country. But despite this, it’s a path not often followed.

This has much to do with that group of people other than partners who are interested in footballers’ lives: the fans.

Most fans have double identities: they love the club they follow, and they hate, sometimes with an equal passion, rival clubs in the neighbourhood.

For one of their idols to move a short distance is far worse than if they were to move to the other end of the country.

And annoying your former fans is generally seen as being a very bad idea. Most obviously because when your current club visit your former home, it is unlikely you will get a warm reception – in fact, it may be one game you would prefer to avoid.

Also, when you are out shopping, you are very likely to bump into former fans (and even old club mates) who you’d rather avoid.

So, for the most part footballers are prepared to risk the wrath of the one they love and move a long way away.

But it does sometimes happen that a player makes a local transfer, and the results are often memorable, if only because it is so infrequent.

Unfortunate consequences

Players travelling from the Red side of Manchester to the Blue one used to be a rarity. The most famous example was Denis Law.

The one-time hero of Old Trafford moved to Manchester City near the end of his career with unfortunate consequences.

In a crucial game at the end of the 1974/75 season, he scored a goal for his new club that had a part in ensuring Manchester United were relegated from the top division (it really did happen – Red Devils may not believe it, but their team hasn’t always been dominant in England).

Law never celebrated that goal: he still felt a great affection for his old team. It’s unlikely that the two most recent players to have followed him will feel the same way.

Carlos Tevez was happy to appear in giant form on a billboard welcoming visitors to the city wearing the City kit, a clearly provocative act. Of course he may not feel the same way now.

And this summer’s arrival, Owen Hargreaves, has gone on record criticising the treatment he received during his long injury period at United, saying that he felt like a guinea pig. Sir Alex Ferguson has, of course, rushed to the defence of his medical staff in response.

It may be that it is easier for players nearing the end of their playing career to make the switch without risking fans’ vilification. That is certainly the case in London.

When Pat Jennings, the Northern Ireland goalkeeper, swapped the jersey of Tottenham for that of Arsenal, complaints were not that noisy whereas Sol Campbell, who moved on a free transfer from White Hart Lane to Highbury in 2001, had to put up with years of abuse from Hotspur fans.

And yet, from a pure footballing point of view, Campbell had made the right move.

After years without a major trophy, he won a Premier League and FA Cup double in his first season under Arsene Wenger in a series of trophy-winning seasons at Arsenal.

He even scored a goal in the Champions League final of 2006, something he could never have dreamt of at Spurs.

Now there is another player who combines both Manchester and North London. Emmanuel Adebayor may have got to Tottenham via City rather than directly from Arsenal.

But the Togolese can still expect a frosty welcome from Arsenal fans. And this may cross the line from friendly banter to real, offensive abuse if the game between the two at White Hart Lane is anything to go by.

It is perhaps as well that Adebayor has time to prepare before visiting the Emirates. And he can take advice from a team mate who is greatly experienced in such moves.

William Gallas has not only moved from Arsenal to Spurs but before that he was at another London club, Chelsea.

Now that’s the sort of transfer behaviour – staying in the capital – that would have pleased Abbey Clancy. Maybe Crouch should have taken some tips before he signed for Stoke.

When not thinking about football, Guy Maughfling (Facebook Group: “Premiership Chat”) is a director in PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Advisory business in East Africa. The views expressed here are his own