Sol Campbell: ‘I’m one of the greatest minds in football’

Ian Watson

Sol Campbell has declared himself as “one of the greatest minds in football” in reaction to being snubbed by Oxford.

Former England defender Campbell has spoken often of his confusion as to why no one will give him a manager’s job, with his fruitless search for employment in the game coming on the back of his failure to launch a career as a politician.

The latest post the former Arsenal star applied for was at Oxford United but the League One club declined his application and are now set to appoint Craig Bellamy, who has been working at Cardiff as a coach under Neil Warnock.

Campbell has taken the latest rejection as well as you might expect.

“I did go it and they didn’t accept me,” he told the Arsenal podcast Highbury & Heels.

“Maybe it was a lack of experience, things like that, but it’s a full circle. Experience? How do I get experience? Well, I need a job to get experience.

“I don’t want to go too low that it’s a struggle, and I don’t want to go too low that I’m under someone and thinking ‘what am I doing here?’ I would rather be managing a club myself.

“I’m confident and it’s not like it’s rocket science to run a football club, especially when you get to that level. If you’re intelligent enough and a quick learner you will learn pretty soon, within two or three games, what the team needs, training-wise, to survive in that league, get better in that league, to get in the play-offs or even win the league.

“I’m intelligent enough, it’s not like I played on a fox and dog pitch all my life. I can’t believe some people, I’m one of the greatest minds in football and I’m being wasted because of a lack of experience or ‘maybe he talks his mind too much’.

“Go to Germany, they love people who speak their minds. They get the jobs. I’m sorry that I’ve got a mind, but don’t be scared of that. That should be something you want at your club, but obviously not.”