They say ‘never go back’. They say it won’t be the same, it’ll never be as good as you remember it. But are ‘they’ right?

 

 

Paul Scholes and Thierry Henry have both recently grabbed the headlines by returning to Manchester United and Arsenal respectively. But could their reputation with the fans, who once revered them, be damaged by a forgettable second spell?

 

The much travelled Robbie Keane left Spurs in 2008 to join Liverpool in a £20million move. Keane played 197 times for Spurs, lifting the Carling Cup and being named as the clubs player of the year 3 times. Keane upset many Spurs fans with his move to Liverpool but soon had a chance to make amends with them.

 

After a disastrous spell in Merseyside Keane came back to Spurs just 7 months later. But Keane was unable to capture the fans imagination like he did in his first spell. After loans out at Celtic and West Ham Keane left for the LA Galaxy in the summer.

 

Kevin Keegan is a Newcastle United legend, due in no small part to his spell as a player, and then inflated by his time as manager of the Premier League club in the mid-nineties. Amongst his notable achievements were leading the Toon Army to second in the Premier League, their first European football since the 70’s, and bringing home Alan Shearer for a world record £15million.

 

So when Mike Ashley sacked Sam Allardyce in 2008 there was only one man who could answer the call. Keegan took charge and received a hero’s welcome on Tyneside. But Keegan failed to recapture the magic of his first spell in charge and left within the same year after a major fallout with owner Ashley.

 

The initial furore around his move aside, Sol Campbell had a hugely successful spell at Arsenal. The former England centre back won the League and FA Cup double in his first season with the gunners and went on to win numerous other honours, including having a huge hand in Arsenals unbeaten season in 2003/04. He also scored for Arsenal in the 2006 Champions League final, before leaving the club that summer.

 

After an extremely brief spell with Notts County Campbell begun training at Arsenal to maintain his fitness. After an appearance for the reserve team he resigned for the club and made a further 11 appearances in the red and white. This came during Arsenal’s continuing trophy-less spell and Sol was out of contract again in the summer.

 

Shaun Wright-Phillips became a hero at Manchester City, playing for the club in two divisions and earning himself his first England caps in the process. This led to him earning a big money move to free spending Chelsea under then manager Jose Mourinho. Wright-Phillips never really made the grade at Chelsea and struggled to earn a regular starting spot. He was left out of the match day squad for the 2008 Champions League final and was allowed to leave by coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.

 

 

Manchester City were credited with an interest and SWP returned to the citizens in the summer. But shortly after City came into money and Wright-Phillips was left behind a raft of expensive stars for the second time. With big money spent on midfielders such as Gareth Barry, David Silva and James Milner his options were limited and he left for QPR in 2011.

 

Jürgen Klinsmann became a phenomenon when he signed for Spurs in 1994. He came to a country who only really knew and disliked him from his role in England’s World Cup exit at the hands of Germany in 1990. But by the time he left a year later he was the Football Writers player of the year, had scored 21 goals and even had his own waxwork in Madame Tussauds. His fall out with Spurs Chairman at the time Alan Sugar meant that his stay in England was brief, but he no doubt left a lasting impression.

 

So when Spurs were struggling in the league in 1998 the German hit-man was summoned. However after fracturing his jaw early on in his loan spell from Sampdoria Spurs season was on the rocks once more. He did return to score four goals in the second last game of the season to keep Spurs up, but his impact could have been so much more.

 

It may not be all doom and gloom though. If the press are to be believed then Cesc Fabregas had been pining for a move back to his native Barcelona for years, the club he left as a 16 year old. And it would be easy to believe that his return to the Catalans this season has been everything he’d wished it could be. Cesc has easily bedded into what is considered to be the best team in the world.

 

So, so far so good for Mr’s Scholes and Henry, but only time will tell if they can really recreate the impact they each had first time around.