Fraizer Campbell will play against Hull City tomorrow, assuming Juande Ramos decides to select him.
It's not easy to gauge how I feel about the prospect of seeing City's sparkling loanee of last season, the extra bit of class which proved the difference between play-offs and mid-table, trying to put one over on us at White Hart Lane.
That said, I hope he does play. Every Hull City fan wants to applaud this remarkable young man again for what he gave to the Tigers in eight immortal months.
He could have been ours permanently, of course. But for Spurs' bit of panic negotiation after it was obvious Dimitar Berbatov was off, Campbell could have been playing against them this weekend, in the black and amber stripes of Hull City.
He's never been ours, but he feels like ours. He adored our club. He was a runaway success, a quick, nimble, disciplined, skilful and ruthless front man whom no defender in the Championship could cope with.
He worked hard in the play-off games though he'd largely shot his bolt by then, underperforming by his standards and yet still making telling contributions with roles in both of the first leg goals at Watford and, of course, chipping a perfect clipped ball on to the instep of Dean Windass at Wembley.
Yet, despite my craving for his return on previous blog entries here, I'm glad we haven't got him now. Or, to clarify, I'm glad he hasn't returned in the circumstances which looked likely - ie, in exchange for £7million. That was a lot of money to pay for a striker with no Premier League heritage whatsoever. Potential is surely not worth that much, even if the money is chicken feed compared to your overall wealth. In City's case, I'm not sure it is.
If the bid had been accepted, it could have emptied City's transfer coffers for the year. And I'd rather like Phil Brown to be able to strengthen again in January, should we need to. The money men, and the manager, clearly knew what they were doing, but the bid was akin to a serious game of chance.
Campbell could be best served by seeing out his year at Tottenham, playing well, returning to Old Trafford and finding out about his future. Assuming we stay up, I'm in no doubt that our best chance of landing Campbell to everyone's benefit will be in the summer.
Meanwhile, I hope he has an off-day this weekend. Nothing personal, of course...
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