From City to Spurs (or vice versa)
There are several English sides who have won more trophies than Manchester City and Tottenham, but the two clubs have provided a home to some talented players down the years.
Several footballers have spent time at both City and Spurs, including the 14 we've selected in this slideshow. But who's got the better deal overall when it comes to those players who have turned out for both?
14. Bert Sproston
Pictured above during his Leeds days, Sproston spent time at both City and Tottenham during a career which was interrupted by the Second World War. The full-back spent only a few months at Spurs before joining City following their relegation to the Second Division in 1938; he resumed his career at Maine Road when football returned in 1945, before hanging up his boots five years later after 125 appearances for the club.
During an England trip to Berlin in 1938, Sproston shared his views of the German ruler with fellow international Stanley Matthews: "I know nowt 'bout politics and t'like. All I knows is football. But t'way I see it, yon 'Itler fella is an evil little twat.”
Ratings per team: Man City 6/10, Tottenham 4/10
13. Ben Thatcher
Few surnames raise emotions like Thatcher’s. The kind of tough-tackling left-back despised in opposition and harboured in your own team like a guilty secret, Thatcher made his name with Millwall and Wimbledon before George Graham paid £5m for him in summer 2000. Graham’s successor Glenn Hoddle was less keen; after three years, 46 games and a League Cup runners-up medal, Thatcher left for Leicester.
When the Foxes dropped from the top flight a year later, Thatcher moved to City. Although he played 51 times for City before a January 2007 move back south to Charlton, his time in Manchester is best (or worst) remembered for an elbow-first challenge on Pedro Mendes which left the Portsmouth player unconscious and requiring oxygen.
Rating per team: Man City 4/10, Tottenham 4/10
12. Michael Brown
Between the ages of 18 and 39, combative Hartlepudlian midfielder Brown turned out for 10 clubs – starting with City. Despite being sent off within 10 minutes of his debut appearance as a sub, he went on to make 103 appearances for the Citizens, winning Player of the Year for the 97/98 campaign in which they dropped to the third division.
After a productive spell at second-tier Sheffield United, Brown joined Spurs in January 2004. Dropping deeper in midfield and developing a reputation for robust tackling – he eventually totalled 137 bookings and seven reds – he found himself out of favour and left for Fulham in January 2006 after 64 games.
Rating per team: Man City 7/10, Tottenham 4/10
11. Bobby Mimms
Mimms made his name at Rotherham in the early- to mid-1980s, before joining Spurs towards the end of the decade after a fruitless spell with Everton. With Goodison No.1 Neville Southall arguably the planet's finest goalkeeper, Mimms was farmed out on loan to Notts County, Sunderland, Blackburn and City, for whom he played just three times in 1987.
Mimms fared better at White Hart Lane, making the No.1 jersey his own following Ray Clemence's retirement, but he was on the move again by 1990 - this time on a permanent contract at Blackburn, where he won the Premier League and probably enjoyed the happiest times of his career.
Rating per team: Man City 1/10, Tottenham 6/10
10. Chris Jones
Jones joined Tottenham as an apprentice in 1973, but he had to wait until the following year for his first-team debut. The forward scored once in his 16 league appearances in 1974/75, before hitting five in 34 games the next season.
Jones’ best individual campaign at Spurs came in 1976/77, but his nine goals were unable to keep the club in the top flight. He then helped the Lilywhites return to the First Division at the first time of asking, but the Jersey-born frontman managed only seven outings in his final three seasons at White Hart Lane. His time at City was just as frustrating, Jones playing just three matches before joining Crystal Palace two months after his arrival in November 1982.
Rating per team: Man City 2/10, Tottenham 7/10
9. Paul Walsh
Flamboyant Londoner Walsh cost Tottenham £500,000 from Liverpool in 1988. A livewire on and off the pitch, the diminutive striker fell out with various managers including Bobby Robson and Kenny Dalglish, and punched Spurs reserves boss Ray Clemence in the face for substituting him, pretty much ending his White Hart Lane career after 21 goals in 156 games. He did, at least, make a late substitute appearance in the 1991 FA Cup final win.
After rehabilitating his reputation with a two-year stint at Pompey, he was taken back to the big league by City manager Brian Horton in March 1994. Walsh helped them stay up, and they started 1994/95 well before slipping back into trouble, narrowly avoiding the drop. New gaffer Alan Ball built the side around Georgi Kinkladze and Walsh left after 19 goals in 62 games.
Rating per team: Man City 7/10, Tottenham 4/10
8. Billy Felton
After a year with Grimsby and seven with Sheffield Wednesday, one-time England international Felton joined City in 1929. He helped the club to a third-place finish in his first season with the Sky Blues and played a total of 83 games for the club, with one of his final appearances proving costly as the full-back's mistake led to an Arsenal goal in the FA Cup semi-final.
Despite helping their rivals into the final, Spurs snapped up Felton in 1932. He was appointed captain and was virtually ever-present as the north Londoners fought their way back into the top flight, but he lost his place in the First Division and was placed on the transfer list in 1934.
Rating per team: Man City 7/10, Tottenham 6/10
7. Clive Wilson
Mancunian Wilson helped City to the FA Youth Cup final in 1980 before graduating to the first team soon after. The defender didn’t nail down a place in the XI until midway through the decade, however, initially starting in an unfamiliar midfield role before dropping into the backline in 1986.
Wilson moved to Chelsea when City were relegated a year later, but he returned to Maine Road for 11 loan appearances after struggling to break into the Blues side. Five seasons with QPR preceded his move to Spurs in 1995; Wilson was a reliable figure at the back at White Hart Lane, before departing for Cambridge in 1999.
Rating per team: Man City 6/10, Tottenham 7/10
6. Neil McNab
Scotsman McNab headed south of the border to sign for Spurs in 1974, becoming the club's youngest ever first-teamer at the tender age of 16. The midfielder made 72 First Division appearances for Tottenham across a four-year spell, before embarking on stints with Bolton, Brighton, Leeds and Portsmouth between 1978 and 1983.
City spent £35,000 on his signature in 1983, with McNab going on to spend the rest of the decade at Maine Road. As well as helping the Citizens to promotion from the Second Division in his final campaign, the future Exeter manager also won the club's Player of the Year award in 1987 and 1989.
Rating per team: Man City 8/10, Tottenham 6/10
5. Vedran Corluka
City snapped up Croatian defender Corluka for £8m in August 2007, with the former Dinamo Zagreb man immediately slotting into the side. The 21-year-old helped Sven Goran Eriksson’s side to three consecutive clean sheets in his first few Premier League outings, although he was also involved in humbling defeats by Chelsea (0-6) and Middlesbrough (1-8) during his sole season at the City of Manchester Stadium.
Corluka hooked up with friend and compatriot Luka Modric at Juande Ramos's Spurs ahead of the 2008/09 campaign, when he featured 41 times in all competitions. Corluka remained a first-team regular the following year, but when game time proved harder to come by in 2010/11 and 2011/12 he moved on to Bayer Leverkusen on loan then Lokomotiv Moscow, where he's still playing more than half a decade later.
Rating per team: Man City 6/10, Tottenham 7/10
4. Clive Allen
Having already spent time at QPR, Arsenal and Crystal Palace, London-born Allen made Tottenham his fourth capital club in 1984. Two goals on his debut against Everton proved a sign of things to come, with the forward netting 60 times in his 105 league appearances for Spurs, as well as 13 in 14 in the League Cup, nine in 12 in the FA Cup (including the opener in the 1987 final defeat by Coventry), and two in four in European competition.
He was altogether less prolific at City, managing 10 league goals on the club's return to the top flight in his first season but only four the following year. Allen then returned to London in 1991, first with Chelsea and later with West Ham and Millwall.
Rating per team: Man City 8/10, Tottenham 6/10
3. Paul Stewart
Born in Manchester, Stewart spent the first six years of his career at Blackpool, before returning to his hometown with City in March 1987. The forward spent just 15 months at Maine Road, where he was unable to return the club to the top flight despite hitting 24 goals in 40 Second Division appearances.
Spurs stepped in to bring Stewart to White Hart Lane in summer 1988, but he didn’t get off to the best of starts in north London: on his debut for the club, the striker missed a stoppage-time penalty to deny Tottenham all three points against Manchester United. He was later converted into a midfielder but still managed to score in the FA Cup final victory over Nottingham Forest in 1991, before leaving for Liverpool a year later.
Rating per team: Man City 7/10, Tottenham8/10
2. Emmanuel Adebayor
The controversial Togolese striker hit the headlines for both his on-field and off-field actions at City and Tottenham, memorably celebrating a goal for the former against ex-club Arsenal by running the length of the field and sliding on his knees in front of the visiting Gunners fans. That was one of 15 league goals he scored in 34 appearances for the Sky Blues; after a brief (and curious) loan spell at Real Madrid, Adebayor then returned to north London with Tottenham.
His debut campaign in 2011/12 was a success, the centre-forward finding the net 17 times as Spurs finished fourth under Harry Redknapp. He only managed five goals the following season, though, and despite a resurgence during Tim Sherwood’s time in charge, Adebayor was sidelined and eventually discarded by Mauricio Pochettino.
Rating per team: Man City 7/10, Tottenham 7/10
1. Kyle Walker
After beginning his career with boyhood club Sheffield United, Walker moved south to Tottenham in summer 2009 – only to return to Bramall Lane on a season-long loan a few months later. The defender also had temporary spells at QPR and Aston Villa, before eventually establishing himself as a first-team regular at White Hart Lane in 2011/12.
Walker remained Spurs’ go-to right-back throughout the next five seasons, helping Mauricio Pochettino’s side into the Champions League and then to a second-place finish in 2016/17. City spent £50m on his signature soon after, with Walker now eyeing a first Premier League winner’s medal after a fantastic start to life in the northwest.
Rating per team: Man City 7/10, Tottenham 8/10
Overall ratings: Man City 83, Tottenham 84
