The shock Notts County, Sol Campbell situation that won’t surprise Spurs supporters | OneFootball

Sol Campbell made a habit of going back on his word in his career, firstly with Tottenham Hotspur and then with Notts County.

Back in August 2009, soon to be 35-year-old Sol Campbell signed a five-year contract with League Two side Notts County – he lasted less than two months of that five-year deal at Meadow Lane.

Then former England international Campbell had played Premier League football as recently as the previous season with Portsmouth and he was a key part of the Pompey side that had won the 2008 FA Cup just 15 months or so before his move down to the fourth-tier of English football.

A storied footballer, Campbell earned 73 England caps and was a part of the Three Lions’ squads at UEFA EURO 1996, the 1998 FIFA World Cup, UEFA EURO 2000, the 2002 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2004 – only playing his last game for his country less than two years before his move to the Magpies.

Within three days of his debut for the club, Campbell had departed Meadow Lane in what was a chaotic and frankly bizarre period for the club – but Campbell bailing out would not come as a surprise to Tottenham Hotspur supporters.

The bizarre Notts County situation

In the summer of 2009, there was a high profile takeover of the club by Munto Finance, who had said they wanted to take the club into the Premier League and former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson was appointed as Director of Football.

County had already brought in many players for the new season before the takeover but then added strikers Luke Rogers and Lee Hughes in the week after the takeover was completed before the arrivals of Campbell as well as Kyle Hawley, Ade Akinbiyi, Kasper Schmeichel, Johnnie Jackson and Matt Ritchie among others – whilst also being linked with players such as Roberto Carlos.

Campbell had begun to suspect that the money involved in the takeover of the club was not real and defender Mike Edwards had said that Campbell had begun to warn teammates of that.

Two days after a 2-1 loss to Morecambe, the Football League confirmed that they were indeed investigating the legitimacy of the takeover and that it had not yet been approved, demanding to be made aware of the identity of the new owners – which remained a mystery.

A day later, Campbell walked out on the club and terminated his contract, saying in his 2014 autobiography, that he “was being a mug” in believing the club’s owners were ambitious billionaires with intentions of making the Premier League.

The Football League did approve the takeover, despite not knowing the identity of the owners, a month later, and a month after that, Eriksson held talks with Roberto Mancini about becoming the new manager.

Eriksson, though, had reportedly himself grown suspicious and concerned about the finances of the club so warned Mancini and told him to wait with Eriksson’s former Manchester City and Mexico assistant coach Hans Backe taking charge instead.

It eventually became clear that the club had been acquired by convicted fraudster Russell King, who had attempted to enlist the club as a fake mining company on the stock exchange but he fled when the scheme collapsed and it left the club in financial turmoil.

Ray Trew completed a takeover later in the season to save the club from bankruptcy and, with Steve Cotterill now in the managerial dugout, County somehow achieved automatic promotion to League One as fourth-tier champions, amid all of the gloom and chaos, with Hughes scoring 30 goals in the league campaign.

Campbell’s habit of a change of heart

Having come through the academy first at West Ham United but then at Tottenham Hotspur, Campbell was worshipped at White Hart Lane as one of the club’s best ever centre-backs, making 315 appearances for the Lilywhites before the end of his contract in the summer of 2001.

Campbell had said in a post-match interview towards the end of the season that he would indeed remain at Tottenham and that he wasn’t leaving the club, even though he had yet to agree terms on a new deal.

However, with no leaks to the press as they arrived for a press conference which was expected to be Arsene Wenger unveiling the signing of Richard Wright, out stepped Campbell, who had decided to join Spurs’ arch-rivals Arsenal.

The lack of rumour or speculation that he would or could possibly move to the Gunners left north London and the footballing world in shock – so Campbell producing a spectacular u-turn, as he did with Notts County, will probably not have surprised many Spurs fans.

In terms of County, whilst they gained promotion, his own concerns about the ownership were proven to be right and, in terms of Arsenal, he did go on to become an ‘invicible’ in the 2003/04 Premier League season as well as winning the 2001/02 league title, three FA Cups and the Community Shield, also scoring the opening goal in the 2006 UEFA Champions League final defeat to Barcelona at Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

Campbell could well make the argument that on both occasions he was right to do what he chose to do in the end but, on both occasions, he had gone back on his word in dramatic fashion.