Former Arsenal striker reveals he had a failed medical at Tottenham

There are very few players who have worn the shirts of both Arsenal and Tottenham.

One look at the jeers and chants that the likes of Sol Campbell and Emanuel Adebayor have been subjected to tells you all you need to know about why it is typically avoided.

However, former Arsenal striker, John Hartson, has revealed that he came close to doing just that in the 1990s only for his move to Tottenham to fall through after he failed a medical.

Hartson spent two years at Arsenal between 1995 and 1997 before being sold to West Ham. Although he enjoyed a fine record in front of goal during his brief spell at Upton Park, the striker has revealed that he came close to swapping the Hammers for Tottenham.

The Welshman revealed that he would have completed a big-money move to White Hart Lane if he hadn’t failed his medical.

Speaking to The Debate (18/03/2020 from 19:00 – Sky Sports Main Event), Hartson said: “On medicals, I was going for £7m, £6.5m 20 years ago – that’s £100m today.

“So if I was going for £300,000 [it would have been] ‘stick him through, not a lot of money, he won’t play that many games’.

“But I failed a medical at Spurs for £6.5m and at that particular time it was George Graham, Alan Sugar, David Pleat was chief executive.

“I would have gone Arsenal, West Ham, Spurs in that particular order.

“You forget that at that particular time. But as I said it was because of the levels of money and breaking transfer records.”

Spurs Web Opinion

For fans who struggled to cope with some of our poor football this season, it is worth casting our minds back to how shocking we were in the 1990s. We had an extremely poor squad and were poorly run both on and off the pitch. The progress we’ve made in the last decade and a half is monumental, to say the least, and Daniel Levy deserves a lot of credit for that.

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