As Manchester United are linked to ex-Man City and Liverpool player Raheem Sterling, four players who have crossed divides

Sol Campbell’s controversial transfer across London

Few days in the Premier League calendar are as anticipated as the North London derby, a rivalry so ferocious that few dare cross the divide - let alone directly. Sol Campbell was a victim of fans’ hatred when he departed Tottenham Hotspur in 2001 straight for Arsenal. The defender had spent almost a decade at White Hart Lane and captained them to a win in the League Cup in 1999 - it remains their second most recent major honour, followed only by a win in the same competition in 2008.

Only two years after that success, though, Campbell angered Spurs fans by choosing to move to their biggest rivals on a free transfer - despite a contract offer that would have made him Tottenham’s highest-ever paid player. The move was met with unprecedented anger: Campbell told The Guardian last year that when the time came for his first North London derby in red, bricks were thrown at the team bus and there was an effigy of him being burned.

Years on from the transfer, in 2008, abuse hurled at Campbell when he was playing for Portsmouth against Spurs saw the first case of indecent chanting to be brought to courts. In his Guardian interview, Campbell opened up about the traumatising effect of the abuse, saying: “It’s almost as though people have forgotten how to be human.” He spent five years with Arsenal and was part of The Invincibles.

Kenny Miller sees the Old Firm from both sides

The Old Firm derby is the most hotly contested rivalry in Scottish football - only five players have represented both Rangers and Celtic in the post-war era. Kenny Miller is one of them: the striker has had something of a tumultuous relationship with Rangers in particular after returning to them following a spell with their rivals.

He spent just one season with Rangers in 2000/01 before leaving for Wolverhampton Wanderers and then joining Celtic in 2006. After he spent that season beating his former club to the title with their biggest rivals, he had some making up to do on his eventual return to the Ibrox in 2008.

He did so in style, though: Miller scored twice in the Old Firm derby in August 2008 and helped Rangers reclaim the Scottish Premier League title from their crosstown enemies. He was Man of the Match against them once again in 2009/10 and continued to rack up the goals for Rangers until he departed for Turkish side Bursaspor in January 2011.

In 2021, Miller said: “The tough one was going back to Rangers a second time. There were a lot of people out there who didn’t agree with the move, because I’d played for Celtic. But, again, I had the same belief – turn up and give my everything for the club; make my spell there a successful one and I’d win fans over.” He added that his brace in his first Old Firm game back in blue helped: “I couldn’t have done much more for the fans than that.”

Carlos Tevez’s “Welcome to Manchester”

If Sterling’s move to Old Trafford does materialise, he’ll be the 15th player post-war to don both the red and sky-blue, but the most famous of them is Carlos Tevez. The Argentine first moved to England to play for West Ham in 2006 before a complicated two-year loan deal saw him join Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United just in time for their 2007/08 campaign, which saw him help the team to another Premier League title and Champions League glory.

That year was dogged by whispers about his contract situation and whether he would join United on a permanent contract, as many fans hoped - but in June, United confirmed that he turned down a five-year deal that would have made him one of the club’s highest earners. Supporters knew he would be leaving, and could only hope he didn’t do exactly what he did next.

Tevez became the first player in two decades to move across Manchester. He signed a five-year deal with City, who infamously erected a billboard on Deansgate reading ‘Welcome to Manchester’ in a reference to the transfer. It achieved its aim of infuriating Ferguson, who went on to call City a “small club with a small mentality.’

Tevez went on to become club captain with City, but attracted controversy there too: after apparently refusing to come on as a substitute against Bayern Munich in September 2011, he was suspended and fined several weeks’ wages. He was eventually welcomed back into the fold as City went on to win the 2011/12 title, and left for Juventus in 2013.

Peter Beardsley’s Merseyside move shows it can be done right

Switching one side of Liverpool for the other is not generally a popular move with fans of either club, but Peter Beardsley showed with his transfer activity that it’s possible to leave on good terms. His playing career is unmatched in terms of high-profile switches, taking him to both sides of Manchester as well as Liverpool - something even Sterling would not match if his rumoured Old Trafford move goes through.

After four years with Newcastle, he signed for Liverpool in 1987 and scored 15 league goals on their journey to the First Division title. With him in the strike force, Liverpool won the FA Cup the next year and were only narrowly beaten to the league title, which they reclaimed in 1989/90. It was in 1991 that manager Graeme Souness, in an ironic twist of fate, signed Everton target Dean Saunders - which had the domino effect of setting Everton in pursuit of Beardsley as an alternative.

It came as something of a surprise that the Reds accepted their rivals’ offer and Beardsley went on to score 25 goals in 81 appearances for Everton - including against his former club, making him only the second player to net for both sides in the Merseyside Derby. Despite playing both sides of the line, Beardsley had a welcome surprise in the Kop end chanting his name when he returned to Anfield for his first derby in blue - an unusual reception for an ex-player in any case, but particularly one who’d signed for their greatest rivals.