What if Sol Campbel decided to stay at Spurs?

[thfcsteff]

I agree Steff.

Whilst I still dislike him, I don't hate the guy like I used to. As you said, it's not healthy to hold on to hate like that.

Interesting how you described Campbell. Any chance all the abuse he got actually hurt him deep down? By the way, I think some of it went too far and beyond "football banter/hatred".

I actually dislike Thierry Henry far more, I know I'm in the minority on that one. He has always gone out of his way to have digs at us. I remember once he questioned why we celebrated when we equalised against them the day they won the league. What did he want us to do? Not celebrate the goal "yea.. oh, hang on a minute, Thierry says were not allowed to celebrate."

I met him a few times...friend of mine was playing for us at the time, so I went to training/would sit in the west stand when back, etc...he was always uncomfortable and awkward, shy even. Very polite and very decent to my son, a wee lad at the time...I was shocked and angry when he left, but knowing a few things about the GGG era, I'd say there was never 'quite' the 'commitment' from the manager then that maybe there would've been from Hoddle? By the time Glenn came in he'd already made his mind up I was told after the fact (though I should say no-one knew where he was going and that DID cause some shock even within) but sadly, the players are not ever as invested as we are. So my hatred for him was one of being really really hurt by his duplicitousness, but long-term hate? Nah, not really. I don't hold it for anyone really, not even GGG who's about as close as I can get if pushed.

Yeah, agree on Henry, a tosser for sure and his sprint of 90 yards to knee-slide in front our corner at scumbury will never be forgotten, but even there I cannot summon the hatred.

I find that I hate the goons when we play them and generally despise them all the time, but I have gooner mates and I have found as life has gone on, with real issues, real lives, real deaths, real crimes, real tragedies, that I just don't hate like that any more. In fact, of all of them over the years I probably felt more cheated by the last manager than any of them, simply because he wouldn't accept any responsibilities, but that's MY thing, I understand that.

I don't hold the deep-rooted hatred of Campbell against anyone per se, I just don't have that in me anymore and don't even feel it anymore. Again, whenever I see him (post derby on MOTD for example) I find myself looking at him with curiosity trying to figure out what's wrong with him!

 

[Robspur12]

now that its a decade since his departure, i think we can, and should be able to see things more objectively.

although it hurts us that he left in the manner which he did, lets be honest, he was perfectly entitled to do so. since his departure, we have seen many more transfer moves of that nature. if anyone is to blame, it was maybe our board/management at the time. they could've done more to predict this situation and either sold him, or actually tied him down with 12 months of his contract to go.

as for him choosing to move to arsenal, well that was just plain unfortunate for us. but to be fair to him, he had to go there:
1) clearly he wasnt a genuine spurs fan (well at least not in the way we are. he is a professional footballer so that's somewhat understandable <we see a similar situation with Ashely Cole a few years later>)
2) if i remember correctly, didnt arsenal offer sol a world record breaking wage packet for a defender?
3) at the time, if he wanted footballing glory (trophies etc) in england, it was either arsenal or manchester united. so his options were limited. and he may have preferred to stay in london for familiy/personal reasons.

in regards to sol as a football player, for me, he was/and is the best ever center back there was in football history. he was a massive part in arsenal going unbeaten in the league that year. i remember whoever he was partnered with at his time at arsenal, he would perfectly compliment them. whether it be adams, keown,toure. look at toure now, he doesnt look half the player he was next to sol.
sol simply had everything you would want in a modern day centreback. pace. strength. arial ability. and good understand of the game too. i cant think of a similar player to him that plays at the moment. maybe micah richards. but sol was twice the size and was positionally far better than richards.

i just hope that some of the absolutely horrendous personal abuse that he gets will stop. and that we will still be able to appreciate his ability as a footballer and at least be thankful of his services for us for the years that he was with us, and for england.

Neymar, imo, you have missed the point completely about Campbell. Firstly let me say I do not condone in any way the extreme abuse or wishing serious illness/death on him. That said I do understand the anger of the fans myself included. Football is first and foremost a fans game - Sol claimed to have been a fan so he should have understood how much he would have hurt fans and the club that made him. Club captain, youth player, player in his peak moving to his club's most hated rivals. Add to that he strung the club along believing he was going to sign a new contract. The Board could not force him to accept a contract or sell him against his will. (I believe at the time Alan Sugar was getting death threats from macaronic so called "fans" and did not want to inflame things more by selling Campbell). The club was humiliated, lost alot of money and fell even further behind Arsenal. I understand that foot ball is a job for these guys but to screw a club in the way campbell did to us, imo, is unprecedented. Just look how Arse fans reacted to Adebayor going to Emirates Marketing Project or West Ham fans to Scott Parker and these moves are not even comparable to Campbell. I will always dislike the guy, yes I can appreciate he was a very good defender but not nearly good enough on the ball, unlike King, to be considered a great imo. On the Ashley Cole point, Cole had already made a T!T of himself and fallen out with the Arsenal Board prior to his chelsea move. IIRC Arsenal did rather well out of his deal money + Gallas in his peak. Hardly comparable then to Campbell's move.

 

[Jurgen the German]

now that its a decade since his departure, i think we can, and should be able to see things more objectively.

although it hurts us that he left in the manner which he did, lets be honest, he was perfectly entitled to do so. since his departure, we have seen many more transfer moves of that nature. if anyone is to blame, it was maybe our board/management at the time. they could've done more to predict this situation and either sold him, or actually tied him down with 12 months of his contract to go.

as for him choosing to move to arsenal, well that was just plain unfortunate for us. but to be fair to him, he had to go there:
1) clearly he wasnt a genuine spurs fan (well at least not in the way we are. he is a professional footballer so that's somewhat understandable <we see a similar situation with Ashely Cole a few years later>)
2) if i remember correctly, didnt arsenal offer sol a world record breaking wage packet for a defender?
3) at the time, if he wanted footballing glory (trophies etc) in england, it was either arsenal or manchester united. so his options were limited. and he may have preferred to stay in london for familiy/personal reasons.

in regards to sol as a football player, for me, he was/and is the best ever center back there was in football history. he was a massive part in arsenal going unbeaten in the league that year. i remember whoever he was partnered with at his time at arsenal, he would perfectly compliment them. whether it be adams, keown,toure. look at toure now, he doesnt look half the player he was next to sol.
sol simply had everything you would want in a modern day centreback. pace. strength. arial ability. and good understand of the game too. i cant think of a similar player to him that plays at the moment. maybe micah richards. but sol was twice the size and was positionally far better than richards.

i just hope that some of the absolutely horrendous personal abuse that he gets will stop. and that we will still be able to appreciate his ability as a footballer and at least be thankful of his services for us for the years that he was with us, and for england.

1. Of course he had every right to leave. But the way he went left a lot to be desired. He was too much of a pussy to announce it before the end of the season. As much as I dislike Modric for wanting to go to Chelsea, at least he stated his true intentions and it gave us options. He did what he did to earn as much money for himself as possible, and to win trophies. But he could have won trophies and still earned a brick load of money, albeit not as much as he did be leaving on a bosman.

2. He had the pick of clubs in world football so to say his options were limited is a stretch. Man United were actually the league champions, and he probably would have got more money.

3. I don't condone some of the personal abuse he got, but I understand why fans were so angry with him.

4. It annoys me when people compare everyday jobs to playing professional football. Football is not the real world. We can't just refuse to go into work whilst under contract because a better company offers me a job. Some footballers may view their profession as a job. Most of them would probably jump at the chance to join a rival if the money was good enough. But there's also some players that get the rivalry that exists in football between certain clubs. Do you honestly think Lampard or Terry would ever come to Spurs?

5. Most importantly, King was better