Sol Campbell found himself the subject of much public derision last week when he described himself as “one of the greatest minds in football”. It was a bold claim and the general reaction to the former player’s modest self-evaluation suggested that if the erstwhile Saturday night quiz show Family Fortunes had surveyed 100 people to fill in the blank in the sentence: “Sol Campbell is one of the greatest [BLANKS] in football”, the word “minds” would scarcely have featured among the few broadcastable answers, let alone those all-important top ones.
Campbell made his pronouncement while appearing as a guest on the Highbury & Heels podcast, where he bemoaned the reluctance of the powers that be at Oxford United to give him the vacant manager’s job that looks certain to go to Craig Bellamy. “Maybe it was a lack of experience,” he said. “Things like that, but it’s like a full circle. Experience? How do I get experience? Well, I need a job to get experience. I don’t want to go too low that it’s a struggle, and I don’t want to go too low that I’m under someone and thinking: ‘What am I doing here?’”
While Campbell’s frustration with the catch-22 situation those entering such a competitive job market find themselves caught up in is understandable, his reluctance to get a foot in the door by taking a position he considers beneath him does him few favours. Bellamy’s assessment of his own position in football’s cerebral pantheon is unknown, but one suspects that even if he considers himself the equal of Campbell, it is one of few opinions the famously outspoken Welshman is sensible enough to keep to himself.
It is also a near certainty that during his time working on the coaching staff at Cardiff City under volatility’s Neil Warnock, the man they call “Bellers” occasionally wonders what he is doing there.
On a recent episode of their Feast of Football podcast, the comedian Elis James and former Wales internationals Danny Gabbidon and Iwan Roberts discussed Bellamy’s encyclopaedic knowledge of football history and willingness to go anywhere or do anything to best prepare himself for his first opportunity in management. Compare and contrast with Campbell’s blithe and rather arrogant insistence that he could figure out what’s required to make a success of managing a League One club in “two or three games” because “it’s not like it’s rocket science” and you can see how Oxford United’s recruitment panel might have plumped for Bellamy. “I’m one of the greatest minds in football and I’m being wasted because of a lack of experience,” said Campbell, who has a Uefa Pro Licence but has thus far applied his great mind to no task more taxing than a brief coaching role with Trinidad & Tobago.
While it should be stressed that Campbell did not say he is being discriminated against because he is black, many of those commenting on his public frustration at being overlooked for assorted managerial roles appear to have decided, correctly or incorrectly, that the implication is clear. In a different interview, with The Telegraph, he claimed he had applied for 10 jobs and been granted three interviews, which seems a decent return in a managerial job market where each vacancy attracts hundreds of applicants and those with little or no experience are automatically at a disadvantage.
Indeed, the very fact that three prospective employers were prepared to meet Campbell and hear his sales pitch suggests they would have been equally prepared to give him the job if he had impressed them. While the FA has adopted the “Rooney Rule” which dictates it must interview at least one BAME applicant for any future managerial vacancy, clubs such as Oxford United are as yet under no such obligation but allowed Campbell to lay out his manifesto anyway.
Writing in the Observer three years ago, Daniel Taylor told the story of how Helen Grant, the then sports minister, convened a pow-wow involving the Premier League, the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Football League at Whitehall to discuss the depressing paucity of black managers and coaches in the game, which continues to this day. As well as guests from Kick It Out and Show Racism The Red Card, Campbell was also invited to vent his frustration over the lack of managerial opportunities available to former black players.
Quizzing the FA’s technical director Dan Ashworth, he asked why Gary Neville had been fast-tracked to the England assistant manager’s job. It was an entirely reasonable question, but while having the nitty-gritty of Neville’s rapid rise to such a high-profile technical area explained to him, he interrupted Ashworth. “But I am Sol Campbell.” Unsure how to respond to such an interjection, Ashworth just finished his explanation. The counter-argument? Once more with feeling: “But I am Sol Campbell.”
While there is no doubt that there are shameful barriers preventing black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates from getting senior coaching and management roles in football, these insights into Campbell’s commendably high self-regard suggest this highly decorated if slightly eccentric former footballer is not being overlooked because he is black or inexperienced. The more simple explanation seems to be that it’s because he is Sol Campbell.