The 7 most acrimonious reunions in Premier League history - will Raheem Sterling soon join the list?
Sterling is preparing to face his old club
Liverpool this afternoon, but will it be as nasty
as these other player-club encounters?
Oh, the acrimony
Though a top footballer should ideally remain
calm and concentrated in all circumstances,
Raheem Sterling could be forgiven for feeling
a bit of trepidation ahead of today's match
between Manchester City and Liverpool .
It's probably not going to be a particularly
pleasant game for young Raheem. Facing his
old club for the first time since his big-money
summer transfer, he's likely to be roundly
jeered by Liverpool's travelling support for the
duration of the match.
It's bound to be an acrimonious reunion - a
real boo-fest.
Still, Sterling can take comfort in the fact that
he's certainly not the first player to face a
difficult encounter with a former fanbase. He's
about to join a select group of top flight
footballers who've been reunited with their ex-
employers in the bitterest of circumstances -
some of the most divisive characters in
Premier League history.
Without further ado, let's meet the men
who've upset, vexed and enraged their former
supporters by their mere presence. Here are
the 7 most acrimonious reunions of the
Premier League era.
Sol Campbell and
Tottenham Hotspur
When Sol Campbell swapped White Hart Lane
for Highbury back in 2001, he became one of
the brave few players to cross the North
London derby divide. Even by the standards of
that bitterest of rivalries, his reception in his
first game against Spurs was pretty shocking.
With deafening booing and anti-Campbell
chants throughout, the match took on the air
of a pantomime with the most hostile
audience of all time. Some of his former fans
brought 'Judas' balloons, while others turned
their back on him for considerable portions of
the game. Campbell was quite clearly
affected. Understandable, really.
His move to Arsenal still rankles with Spurs
fans today. The sheer rage of that first
reunion has never been forgotten.
Ashley Cole and Arsenal
Arsenal fans have had a few of their own
pantomime villains down the years, of course.
Ashley Cole is probably the least popular of all
of them. An academy lad who rose through
the ranks to become an "Invincible" (and
perhaps the best left-back in the world), he
forced through a move to Chelsea in 2006 -
and considerably increased his wages in the
process.
The reaction in his first game against the
Gunners was rather predictable. Fake money
fluttered through the air like angry confetti
throughout the game.
Cole was then booed in every subsequent
reunion with Arsenal, right up until the end of
his Chelsea career.
Eric Cantona and Leeds United
It's easy to forget just how bitter the rivalry
between Leeds United and Manchester United
was back in the early nineties.
With Leeds winning the title the season before
the conception of the Premier League, they
were direct rivals to the Red Devils at the
time. As such, star man Eric Cantona's
autumn move to Old Trafford was deeply,
deeply unpopular.
He got the expected treatment once reunited
with his old club - snarling abuse, basically.
However, he went on to have five hugely
successful seasons with United while Leeds
faded. The last laugh was Cantona's.
Carlos Tevez and Manchester United
When Carlos Tevez moved from Manchester
United to "noisy neighbours" Manchester City
in 2009, the enmity between the two was not
quite at its peak.
Though City's megabucks had propelled them
further up the league, they weren't quite good
enough to mount a prolonged title tilt - United
still felt relatively superior to their local rivals.
However, Tevez's move went some way
toward changing that. Upon signing for the Sky
Blues, he was infamously greeted by a
billboard with ironically read: "Welcome to
Manchester". United fans could hardly fail to
notice the slight - their collective fury on his
first appearance against them was
intimidating, to say the least.
Fabian Delph and Aston Villa
With Fabian Delph making perhaps the most
glaring football U-turn of all time this summer,
his reception on his first return to Villa Park
was never going to be pretty.
In response to his move to Man City, Villa
fans brought countless inflatable snakes to
the ground and threw them about for the
entire 90 minutes.
They also booed him a lot. Obviously.
Samir Nasri and Arsenal
Oh, Samir. Samir, Samir, Samir.
By the time Nasri moved to Manchester City in
2011, Arsenal fans were sick to death of
losing their star players to rival clubs. The
post-Emirates austerity era was biting hard,
and Nasri's move was the final straw.
It didn't help that the Frenchman was entirely
unapologetic about the transfer - for him, it
was just business.
It meant more than that to his former
supporters. Hence the constant abuse.
Emmanuel Adebayor and
Arsenal
If Arsenal seem like the common denominator
here, that's because they are. The Gunners do
not take rejection and perceived disloyalty
well. Still, they're clearly not the only ones.
Special mentions should go to the generous
vitriol aimed at Robin van Persie in his first
game against Arsene Wenger's side - Michael
Owen's return to Liverpool was pretty nasty,
too.
Will Raheem Sterling top the acrimony list by
the end of today's game at the Etihad?
Quite possibly. Brace
yourself, Raheem.
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