QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I can’t believe some people. I’m one of the greatest minds in football and I’m wasted because of a lack of experience or maybe ‘he talks his mind too much’” – [
I’m] Sol Campbell on not being given the Oxford United manager’s job.
fudge me what an ego!!!
Immodest Campbell lets his ego do the talking
A few weeks back, the sports minister, Helen Grant, arranged a summit at Whitehall to discuss why there are so few black managers and coaches in the game. Senior figures from the Football Association were there, along with the Premier League, the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Football League. There were guests from Kick It Out and Show Racism the Red Card and Sol Campbell also received an invitation, as an ex-England player who is frustrated, understandably, by the lack of opportunities.
What Campbell does not appear to realise, perhaps, is that the best way to get a point across is without ego or too much self-esteem.
On this occasion he wanted the FA’s technical director, Dan Ashworth, to explain why Gary Neville had been fast-tracked through the system to become one of Roy Hodgson’s assistants with the England team. Ashworth started talking about the favourable impression Neville had made on Hodgson and the players and was running through the processes that were involved when Campbell put out his hand to interrupt him. This is when things started to get a little strange.
“But I am Sol Campbell.”
As you might imagine, that isn’t a particularly easy sentence to come back from. Ashworth did his best to continue because, well, what else could he do? But it is fair to say the entire room had been engulfed in awkwardness and when Ashworth stopped talking there was another tumbleweed moment. Campbell, hand out, ended the conversation in the same way he had started it.
“But I am Sol Campbell.”
He was correct. But whether he gets an invitation the next time there is one of these discussions is not entirely clear.
