Arsene Wenger admits that he probably wouldn’t do it again if he had the chance to sign Sol Campbell from Tottenham, after the backlash that the defender suffered.
Arsenal and Spurs have one of the bitterest rivalries in world football and one of the greatest sins that one can commit is moving from one club to the other.
Because of this, even Gooners were surprised that Arsenal pulled off the transfer coup and signed Campbell in 2001.
The Englishman was one of the best defenders in the land at the time, and he was out of contract at Spurs.
Wenger managed to convince him to make the move across town, but things turned really bad for him quickly with Tottenham fans branding him “Judas.”
The defender was also afraid for his life and couldn’t walk freely in London.
Wenger has now revealed that it was probably not worth it, even though Campbell won numerous trophies for the Gunners.
Wenger said in an interview with 11 Freunde:’The situation was really stressful for Sol and he told me afterwards how severe it became.
‘He couldn’t go to certain places for dinner or walk freely in London because of the anger of the Tottenham fans.
‘In hindsight, I’m not sure if I would sign him again bearing in mind the difficulties he faced.’
Only a Frenchman could be surprised by the reaction of the moronic wing of the Spurs fans. At the time Sol was saying he would stay at Tottenham and next day signs for Arsenal ( Spurs biggest rivals).
After Eric Cantona’s karate kick against Palace fan the reaction of moronic Man U fans was there as a warning to any sensible person like Arsene Wenger. Or Shankley’s statement about football being more important than life!!!
Misleading headline again, in the article it says he is not sure if he would do it again, that’s a long way from saying that he regrets it.
Agreed. But I guess a headline writer’s main responsibility is to be creative. Even though they are sometimes way off the mark contentwise, they still reel me in lol.
WELL NOTICED! Tabloid newspapers are so cunning in how their phrase their headlines. Not justb papers though; how about this site too? I reckon Ad PAT must have worked at sometime in the newspaper industry. I am always calling him out on his dubious headlines on this site.
We forget at our peril – if we seek the whole truth – that fans sites , as with papers, are businesses and businesses thrive by making profit. Total honestly can make that profit more difficult to get.
This is a somewhat suprising Wenger statement on the one hand . But on the other, the humane Wenger would typically put the players welfare first. I see both sides of this and though I would take that CAMPBELL again and in a heart beat, I do sympathise with what he had togo through.
MY VIEW IS THAT HE IS AN UNUSUALLY COMPLEX AND DIFFICULT TO KNOW PERSON. GREAT PLAYER THOUGH.