Campbell is seen in the white part of North London as public enemy number 1 for abandoning Spurs for Arsenal on a free transfer shortly after Gower himself left Spurs.<\/p>\n
The two former team-mates will come face to face next weekend when the Swans take on holders Portsmouth at Fratton Park in the FA Cup and Gower is happy enough to shake the defender’s hand but cannot forgive him for what Spurs fans see as the ultimate act of betrayal.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Wales on Sunday, the Swans winger said \u201cSol was a couple of years older than me, but we knew each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he was just immense in my time at Tottenham. It doesn\u2019t happen enough at Spurs for my liking when a young kid from the area comes through the ranks and establishes himself. There has been a tendency to go out and buy players rather than giving homegrown lads a chance, but Sol did well and within 12-18 months of stepping up he was a pivotal figure in the side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked up to him for that and he was a great role model for the younger lads who were inspired by the fact he had gone on to be such an important part of the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then he did what he did and that was unforgivable. He probably had his reasons, but I\u2019ll never understand them. It\u2019s something I could never do with Spurs being so close to my heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerhaps it should be a case of full credit to him for being so brave and making his decision in the face of all the stick he got at the time and still gets to this day.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll never be forgiven, but I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll polish his Premier League winner\u2019s medal at his home and not worry about it too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you ask him he\u2019ll probably say that\u2019s what we went there for \u2013 though I can\u2019t bring myself to say that it was justified.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I\u2019ll shake his hand \u2013 at the end of the day I was his friend when we were at Spurs and that won\u2019t change for what he did.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he was a guy who in his prime was unstoppable and a world-class defender.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut saying that, if I can stop him adding another medal to the pile he\u2019s got since leaving Spurs then it\u2019ll be a nice little bit of revenge!<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually saw him not long after he left Spurs and I had gone to Barnet. We played Arsenal in pre-season and I went up to him and said, \u2018What have you done?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBut he said, \u2018I\u2019m just playing football.\u2019 And that was that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was at a time when my dream had been taken away from me a little bit. When you\u2019re a fan like I was and stood on the terraces and sung all the songs, to then actually go ahead and play for Spurs was a dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I didn\u2019t play for them as many as times as I would like. Then for Sol to do that is something I could never forget, nor will a lot of Tottenham fans. And it\u2019s strange because I\u2019m a Spurs fan, but I\u2019m also a friend \u2013 I guess I just won\u2019t mention it when I see him this time!<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had so many cup games where it\u2019s been about banana skins that this game will probably suit us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey like to play the game in the right way, it\u2019s a Premier ground and a Premier stage but importantly it\u2019s a chance for us where we have nothing to lose.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not been many games when we haven\u2019t dominated things so they\u2019re going to be optimistic of getting a decent result.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we as players are too. Our confidence levels are up, there\u2019s a good spirit in the camp, we\u2019re playing well and if we can perform like we know we can, why not?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been lucky enough to go back to Tottenham with Southend in both cups before,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it would still be the game I\u2019ll be dreaming of if we can both get through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Campbell is seen in the white part of North London as public enemy number 1 for abandoning Spurs for Arsenal on a free transfer shortly after Gower himself left Spurs. The two former team-mates will come face to face next weekend when the Swans take on holders Portsmouth at Fratton Park in the FA Cup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}