The Best Bargain Transfers of All Time: Part Five

Posted by Rob Shepherd on Friday, May 19, 2017

In the 5th in our series on football’s best transfer bargains we continue our look at the best buys in football. Money can’t buy you love but if you are canny enough, a little money can buy a legend.

What is special about the player that we feature today is that despite playing over 500 Premier League games, 41 Champions League games and representing England over 70 times, he has never commanded a transfer fee. Not a penny!

Sol Campbell Tottenham – Arsenal 2001

On Saturday 13th May 2017, Tottenham Hotspur said goodbye to their home of 118 years. Club legends David Ginola, Ledley King and Ossie Ardiles were among the capacity 31,848 crowd. One ex-spurs player who didn’t get an invite was Sol Campbell!

Despite playing 255 games for Tottenham, Sol was the enemy. He was branded a Judas following his free transfer to bitter rivals Arsenal in 2001. Campbell says he was shocked at the abuse and hatred that was directed towards him but has recently tried to diffuse the long running feud.

“’I’m not going to apologise for the move (to Arsenal) because I was very successful. I’m sorry about the hurt it inflicted on them.”

Commenting on the reception he receives from Spurs fans, “I am shocked a little bit. It’s been well over a decade, but you’ve got to look at the situation. The Spurs fans appreciated me and I tried to move the club on when I was there. I even proposed a contract to them and I thought “If they can pay me this, they can pay other guys to move the club on.”

1988, West Ham United – Youth Player

Sol was born in the borough of Newham in London. The youngest of twelve children, a young Sol found he was almost anonymous at home and football gave him a voice and a way to express himself.

Despite being known as a central defender in his career, Sol actually started off as a striker. Campbell left West Ham the next year after saying he was the victim of a racial slur by a coach at the club. The coach said to Campbell, “You must be pleased to hear that the West Indies are beating England at cricket?”. Campbell took this as reference to his Jamaican ancestry.

1990, Tottenham – Youth Player

Due to Sol’s problems at West Ham, he had vowed not to join another youth team. However, persistence paid off for Tottenham’s chief scout who had courted Sol’s services.

The youth team manager, Keith Waldon admitted that it was Sol’s immense build for a 14-year-old rather than skill that Keith wanted for the team. Sol became one of only 16 footballers chosen for a training programme at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall Hall in Shropshire.

1992, Tottenham – First Team

Sol made his first team debut against Chelsea on the 5th December 1992. Not only did he play well, he also scored Tottenham’s only goal in the 2-1 defeat. Rather surprisingly, manager Terry Venables never picked him again for the first team that season.

A new manager in the shape of club legend Ossie Ardiles brought Sol playing time albeit in a variety of different defensive positions. This versatility and good form saw Campbell rewarded with a new four-year contract.

Spurs have had a revolving door mentality when it comes to managers (they have had 19 managers since 1992) and another change at the top saw new manager Gerry Francis make Sol club captain. Not all future Tottenham bosses would value Campbell’s outspoken style and he had fractious relationships with George Graham and Christian Gross.

In the 1998-99 season Sol made English football history when he became the first black captain to hold aloft a major trophy at Wembley. This season also saw Sol make it into the PFA Team of the Year.

The next year, the first cracks in Campbell’s relationship with Tottenham could be seen.

In George Graham’s first game as Spurs manager, Tottenham won the game 1-0 but a scuffle in the tunnel after the game led to accusations that Campbell had broken a steward’s arm.

Sol went against Tottenham’s lawyer’s advice to have the case ‘bound over’, this would have meant the dropping of the case but Campbell was horrified about any suggestion of guilt and instructed his own

legal team to defend him. The case would eventually be dismissed but Sol resented the fact that the club had failed to back him.

In 2001 his contract expired, Sol had previously stated that he would never play for Arsenal and publicly Campbell had stated his desire to stay at Spurs. 26 at the time he declared, “I want to play for Tottenham – that’s it. I’ve been here for so long and there’s no reason to think I would want to leave. For me to do well at this club would mean everything. I play for Spurs with a passion and desire, and it hurts me when we lose.”

If Sol was to move, a top European club like Real Madrid, Barcelona or Inter was expected, domestically a move to Manchester United was dominating the talk on the back pages. So, it was a seismic shock when Sol Campbell announced he was signing for fierce rivals Arsenal.

Spurs fans, many of whom idolised their captain couldn’t accept this and vented their anger towards Sol. Even eight years later, four Tottenham fans were banned from football activities for three years after being found guilty of submitting Sol to a torrent of racist and homophobic abuse.

Arsenal had promised to protect Sol and to “have his back”, this support was something that Campbell had felt was missing at Tottenham.

2001, Arsenal – Free

Sol had always maintained that he joined Arsenal as he wanted Champions League football and a chance to win silverware. On that basis alone, his move to Tottenham’s sworn enemies was in hindsight a shrewd move.

In his very first season at The Emirates, Sol won the double with Arsenal. Made even sweeter by beating another local rival, Chelsea in the final of the FA Cup 2-0. A 1-0 victory over Manchester United the next week ensured a Premier League medal for Campbell.

The next season another double looked likely but an elbow on diminutive striker Ole Gunnar Solskjær would see Sol miss the tail end of the season with suspension. Arsenal won the cup but finished 2nd in the league. Sol was included in the PFA Team of the Year.

2003 would see Sol’s name written in footballing folklore, it was of course the year of “The Invincibles”! Before 2003, only one team had completed an entire season undefeated in the league and that was way back in the 1880’s when Preston North End achieved the same feat (although they also won the double).

The unbeaten run was finally beaten on the 49-game mark at Manchester United a game that would infamously be known as “Battle of the Buffet” or “Pizzagate” due to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson being hit with food by Arsenal players. No-one owned up to the pizza flinging crimes (my sources tell me Cesc Fàbregas!). Arsenal would get revenge by beating United in the final, Arsenal finished in second place this year in the league.

The next season would see Sol drop down the pecking order at Arsenal, not usually one to hide his feelings he went public with the fact that he thought Philippe Senderos was a “lucky player” because he felt that Senderos wasn’t as good as Campbell, yet he was starting games.

The 2005 season saw a lack of playing time for Sol, this was due to both niggling injuries and a failure to return to the form of old. Campbell also was suffering with problems in his private life, this led to Sol leaving the country to try and sort out his issues.

He would recover and find form to feature in the Champions League final. In that game, he scored a header which gave Arsenal the lead. Arsenal would lose that final 2-1, this performance would be somewhat a swansong performance from Sol as by July 2006, he had left to join Portsmouth.

2006, Portsmouth – Free

Juventus looked the likely destination for Sol and there were also approaches from Turkey but true to form with Sol, Portsmouth was quite a surprising choice of destination. His career at Portsmouth started well, five clean sheets was an A+ on a report card when you are playing for a team like Portsmouth who are often susceptible at the back.

Within a year, Sol became club captain and signed a new two-year deal. This year also saw a remarkable FA Cup final victory against Cardiff City to give Portsmouth their second FA Cup win, the last time they achieved this was 1939.

The club however was heading towards turmoil, popular manager Harry Redknapp resigned and the club were in financial difficulties. They led to Campbell leaving the club and he would go on to sue his former club £1.7 million for unpaid bonus and other money owed.

2009, Notts County – Free

This is the part in the Sol Campbell story when things get weird. Russell King and Nathan Willett claimed to be representing a wealthy consortium of investors from the Middle East and Europe, approached ex-England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson. They told Eriksson about a plan to get the oldest football team in world from League Two to the Premier League.

Sven said, “I liked the idea of the project, the challenge to do it. It was like a dream to me. And if all their promises had been true, we would have done it.”

At first it looked like this takeover would provide the resources to see Notts County succeed. Highly rated Kasper Schmeichel was signed as well as Campbell and it certainly was a statement of intent.

But then the wheels fell off!

Campbell played a total of 1 game. Yes, 1 game! He played in a 2-1 defeat against Morcambe and walked out of the club just three days later. It was later announced his contract had been terminated by mutual consent. It seems a wise move as rumours of unpaid bills were coming from Notts County.

2010, Arsenal – Free

Not many people expected Sol is play regularly but injuries to Thomas Vermaelen and William Gallas meant Sol played 11 times in the league that year. Another highlight for Sol was getting on the scoresheet against Porto in the Champions League last 16.

2010, Newcastle United

Celtic were the first club to offer Sol a concrete offer but he turned down their two-year contract deal to join Newcastle United. The one-year deal meant that Sol became only the second player to play in the first 19 seasons of the Premier League.

There isn’t that much to mention about Sol’s time at Newcastle, he made 7 appearances for the club. When Newcastle manager Alan Pardew stated that Campbell’s contract would not be renewed, Sol announced he was retiring from playing.

Sol Campbell was rarely out of the limelight and since retirement he has claimed the only reason he wasn’t England captain during his career was because he is black. Never one to shy from giving his opinions, Sol Campbell is now concentrating on a career in politics and ran to be the Conservative Party nomination for Mayor of London.

With his amazing record of not costing clubs any money to sign him, Sol definitely deserves his place on our best bargain transfers of all-time list.