Sol Campbell - Race card played?

[rouseytastic]

Worthy of being raised only when he has a book to peddle.
Not sure who is more cynical, Campbell or me but what I do know is that I am not racist while Campbell by his actions is a racist of the worst sort.

Spot on

 

[keaton]

Almost zero Asians, no gay players, virtually zero black former players in positions of power. It makes you wonder.

Didn't they try and appoint a black former player but it turned out he hated gays?

I'm not sure the lack of Asian or openly gay players can be blamed on the FA.

 

[The Large One]

Isn't Sol Campbell gay? Rumours were abound in football 6 or so years ago.....maybe this was a factor?

Notwithstanding Sol Campbell is playing a very silly 'race card' game, I don't see - whether the 'rumours' are true or not - how this could be pertinent.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

for this to be even remotely accurate he would have had to be his club captain the whole time to demonstrate the ability to be a leader. Was he?

David Beckham was England captain without ever being the captain at Man Utd or Real Madrid.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

for this to be even remotely accurate he would have had to be his club captain the whole time to demonstrate the ability to be a leader. Was he?

David Beckham was England captain without ever being the captain at Man Utd or Real Madrid.

 

[piersa]

A Shameless money making exercise. That fact that he has played the race card to do it just makes me embarrassed for him. Idiot.

 

[shaolinpunk]

Newspaper/radio reporter Alex Crook on Twitter:

Sol Campbell might want to assess his own leadership qualities for reasons he was overlooked for #eng captaincy

When Sol Campbell was #pompey captain he didnt like teammates sitting next to him on the plane to away games #leader

 

[Vatican Citys No.2 Keeper]

A few apt quotes from football commentator Dan O'Hagan which sum up this whole debate pretty well on twitter:

"Sorry, Sol Campbell, you've got this all wrong. There were better candidates for the captaincy. Smacks of spicing up a book to sell copies."

"Campbell was an excellent player, but was notorious for avoiding fronting-up to the media. Big no-no for an England skipper."

"Also, his career coincided with a certain Mr Beckham, one of the greatest sporting ambassadors of all time!"



Also an interesting reply to O'Hagans tweets from a former Spurs TV producer:

"@danohagan spent 2 years doing Spurs TV. (Sol Campbell) Spoke to us once. As club Captain."

 

[The Birdman]

What a shame he was not made captain modest unassuming not bitter not a bit arrogant !!!

 

[Pavilionaire]

Sol's comments are quite bizarre. Former Spurs man Hoddle made Sol the second youngest England captain of all-time (after Bobby Moore) back in 1998. It's quite probable that had Hoddle remained England manager Campbell WOULD have got to be England captain a whole lot more. But Keegan took over, appointed another Newcastle man Alan Shearer as his captain and beat Poland 3-1 in a vital qualifier. Seems fair enough to me.

I don't think the Owen appointment aged 22 was any more of a shock than Campbell's own appointment as England captain aged 23.With Owen, Sven appointed him only stand-in captain while Beckham was absent, and Campbell was injured at the time anyway. Maybe the fact the match was being played at Anfield at the time of the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster might have influenced Sven? Regardless, Owen loved it, scoring in the 4th minutes of the match and England won 4-0, so Owen was hardly out of his depth.

What angers me about this is that Sol is able to play the race card with impunity, while the England management and FA officials of the time are being accused of being racist.

 

[keaton]

What angers me about this is that Sol is able to play the race card with impunity, while the England management and FA officials at the time are being accused of being racist.

Indeed.

A few months ago he was interviewed for the Guardian and used as his example of institional racism the fact that Brian Deane couldn't get a management job in the country.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Indeed.

A few months ago he was interviewed for the Guardian and used as his example of institional racism the fact that Brian Deane couldn't get a management job in the country.

Maybe he could take this up with Clark Carlisle, Chairman of the Management Committee of the Professional Footballer's Association?

 

[Cloughie]

Amazed he hasn't garnered more sympathy on here (or anywhere else I've looked). I recall reading an interview with Campbell last year sometime where he outlined his frustrations with Gary and Phil Neville's fast-tracking into coaching by the FA when he himself had struggled to get a foot in the door anywhere despite his incredibly impressive playing record. Without going into a character assassination of the aforementioned, but despite Gary's excellent work on Sky I am yet to see some new or innovative work with England. This reputation is therefore IMHO wholly undeserved as a coach. I have seen nothing tactically from him or no forceful input or insight into England's shortcomings either before games or during games (I am yet to see an English manager or coach with the wherewithal to change a game with the use of tactical substitutions).

The question now becomes - Why are the Neville brothers being fast-tracked into senior coaching roles within the FA and others are not? As I stated earlier there is no proof to suggest that either of them are more knowledgeable or competent than Campbell (P.Neville is currently part of the least successful Utd team in decades). Perhaps it COULD be down to race. Perhaps they MAY have to answer uncomfortable questions if someone with his background was involved. We all read what happened with the French FA (FFF) and their clear insistence on less black or ethnic players being allowed into the national youth federation academies.

Another thing to consider is the ethnicity of the England teams nowadays. I don't know how many of you watch the England youth games (From U16's-21's) but there tend to be at least 6 Black players per team. This is in itself a change from 10 years ago..

 

[spring hall convert]

Beckham absolutely led by example.

Why make someone who leads by example captain? The inference is that they'd do it anyway, armband or no armband.

 

[Potters mate]

The 'institutionally racist FA' employed a black manager for a large part of the time that Sol is talking about.

 

[Easy 10]

Campbell is something of an introvert, and has said himself that he wasn't one who would join in with the dressing room "banter".

Not that that in itself should automatically proclude him from the England captaincy. But good player that he was, he never really came across as much of a leader. I always like a captain to be vocal, someone who drives the team, offers encouragement, helps organise, gives bollockings where needed. That was never Campbells style.

Ridiculous to pin the reason for his lack of captains armbands on his colour. And if this was such a burning issue for him, how strange that its taken him until 6 years after his last England cap to actually come out with it. THis is just a tediously transparent headline-grabber to help shift a few more copies of what is (I'd wager) just another very humdrum footballers autobiography.

 

[BigGully]

The problem with top level football is there just arent enough jobs to go around.

You are always likely to not get selected or not to get your applied for job, it comes with territory.

I have yet to meet a footballer who hasn't something bad to say about someone else in a position that they would like to do.

So if your black, fill your boots !!!

 

[Mackenzie]

So, he's got a book to sell?

...Bullseye.....

 

[Dandyman]

I think if Ledley King had not had such bad injury problems he would have beaten the black record of 7 captain's caps shared by Ince and Rio.

Sol is a ****, great footballer but still a ****.

This.

 

[atfc village]

Never liked the bloke since he dropped down to the 4 th tier to play for Notts County on 40K a week ,played 1 game and left utter