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| The Pride of North London |
When I started supporting Spurs at the age of 8 years old, I was unaware of the scale of our rivalry with Arsenal. Supporting what was a mediocre team (being generous) in the late 90's I always thought the biggest game of the year was against the dominant force at the time; Manchester United. In 1998 I had got bored of Manchester United constantly winning and was pleased that Arsenal had won the title, because it was someone other than United. Had I been aware of the size of the North London rivalry I may have looked at it differently.
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| Spurs win the 1999 League Cup at the old Wembley Stadium with Sol Campbell as Captain |
At the turn of the century Sol Campbell was seen as a Tottenham legend, a rock in defence and undeniably one of England's, if not the World's, best central defenders. We simply had to keep him. We'd lost Teddy, we'd lost Klinsmann, we'd lost Ginola. All the speculation was that Campbell was going to leave, despite giving TV interviews saying "I'm staying", see below:
I can't find the clip, but I vaguely recall an interview where he said: "Nah, I'm Tottenham through-and-through."
July 2001, I put on Ceefax (for those unaware, it was a digital news page that we could access on BBC channels in the UK), and on the Sports headlines it simply said: "SOL CAMPBELL SIGNS FOR ARSENAL."
Sorry, WHAT?!
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| Originally from Woolwich, South London, Arsenal moved to Spurs territory in 1913 and thus began a fierce rivalry |
The first time Sol Campbell returned to White Hart Lane as an Arsenal player, I remember watching the news of it and being shocked by the hostility but strangely agreeing with it. The Arsenal team bus was being peppered with glass bottles and bricks and the Spurs fans looked terrible because of it, I totally disagreed with that. But I agreed with the sentiment of making Arsenal afraid to be at Tottenham, give them a hostile environment and make them know they wouldn't be in for an easy game.
Inside the stadium, the crowd booed, jeered, whistled and let 4,000 balloons go with the word "JUDAS" emblazened across them. Now, that I did agree with. A protest without violence. At the end of the day it's professional football and legally Sol Campbell did nothing wrong, some would argue morally he didn't either. He saw out his contract at Spurs without speaking to any other clubs, was fully involved with Spurs right up until he became a free agent but by doing so he would, somewhat ironically, stiff Tottenham royally.
My point of view at the time was he deserved some stick for saying one thing and doing the complete opposite. Sol didn't help himself by emerging out of the White Hart Lane tunnel and immediately clapping and waving at the Arsenal fans, almost goading the Spurs fans, although I'm sure the intentions were merely to force his own focus onto his new fan base. I have since learnt that at one stage Sol Campbell looked to the stands in that game and saw his own brother Tony in amongst the Spurs fans, and he was supporting Tottenham. Sol has expressed dismay at this, however it makes sense. Fans pick a club and stick with them. Players are professionals, it's a job to them so they can move to whatever club is best for them. You can't deny that Arsenal were the better team at the time, but while I am sure Tony Campbell wanted to see his brother succeed, he wouldn't want to see Arsenal succeed at Tottenham's expense.
Sol Campbell's reasons for leaving Tottenham were fair enough, he wanted to fight for major trophies and Spurs at the time would not have given him that chance. Arsenal could, and that is a painful thought for Spurs fans. We could have forgiven a move to Manchester United, Liverpool, maybe even Chelsea. We could have even supported a move abroad, to Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Barcelona or somewhere in Europe. But not Arsenal. Strip the rivalry away and the move makes sense, but football fans aren't that objective.
In 2004, Arsenal were invincible and Campbell was part of the side that went unbeaten as Arsenal won the Premier League. They won the title with a 2-2 draw... against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. Arsenal clinched the title on Tottenham territory. As much as I hated Campbell in an Arsenal shirt, he did something that day which I respected him for... he was interviewed on TV and said he left the pitch at the Final Whistle and didn't join in the Arsenal celebrations because he didn't want to
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| Sol Campbell lifting the Premier League trophy as an Arsenal player |
The best Spurs ever got out of their games against Arsenal while Campbell was there in his first stint were draws. No wins. Sol Campbell got vitriolic abuse, a lot of it completely unnecessary and a lot of it disgusting, including homophobic and racial chanting. For the record, Sol Campbell is not a homosexual and if he was... so what? This type of chanting is horrific and too personal. Some would argue the chants of "Campbell, you're a c**t! Campbell, Campbell, you're a c**t!" or "Sol, Sol Campbell! Ooh-ahh! I wanna knowwww why you're such a c**t!" (See below) are too far as well, however those don't bother me too much, and whilst it is strong language I don't think it was wrong to use. It's a word that a lot of British people are offended by, and perhaps I'm taking the Australian way of looking at things but to me it's just a stronger way of calling someone a dickhead, a twat, a wanker... all used in everyday conversation and on football terraces. But the word "cunt"? People lose their minds over it.
Come to Australia, where people call their mates "cunts" and their enemies "mate". Ask people why they are offended by it and the majority will only be able to come up with "because it's a disgusting word!"... In this case I think it's justifiable, it's an expression of what level of ire these people had with regards to Campbell's character for appearing to crap all over Tottenham to go to Arsenal. I'll reiterate that professionally, Sol did nothing wrong. But the Spurs fans felt betrayed, felt like they'd been deceived. Trust me, there are some individuals who I feel personally betrayed by and I would quite happily call them cunts too.
What fuelled the fire is that Spurs have not had anything near the amount of success as Arsenal, we are envious, jealous even, of the level of success Sol achieved with our rivals. It should have been us! We won the League Cup again in 2008, beating Arsenal 5-1 in the Semi-Final, but Campbell had left by then. He returned to Arsenal and faced Spurs in April 2010, and finally Spurs won a Premier League North London derby 2-1 courtesy of goals by Danny Rose on his debut (see below, one of my favourite goals ever) and Gareth Bale. This was the beginning of an era where Tottenham would gradually get closer and closer to Arsenal.
Perhaps it's the passage of time, perhaps it's the fact that Spurs have beaten Arsenal on more than a few occasions in recent years... but Sol Campbell's transfer doesn't carry too much weight for me now. Spurs have finally finished ahead of Arsenal in the Premier League for the first time in 22 years, and deserve to. Spurs are now the team more likely to push for a Premier League title in the coming seasons. But it's only one season, Spurs were only superior over the last 12 months. There is a strong argument still that Arsenal are the bigger club. Personally, I disagree but then that's what bias done for me. Yet, still to this day Sol Campbell is seen as a hate figure by Tottenham Hotspur fans. I think that the time has come to let bygones be bygones. You can forgive Sol Campbell, even if you can't forget. The man is human.
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| Sol Campbell in Spurs colours, where he spent most of his playing career |
I recently read that Sol Campbell was here in Sydney a couple of months ago ahead of Arsenal's visit to Australia in July. If he comes back, I would actually welcome the chance to sit down with him over a beer, talk to him about his time at Tottenham, the switch to Arsenal and what exactly both clubs mean to him. Despite his time at Arsenal it is clear that members of his family have a love of
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| Sol Campbell in Arsenal colours |
I have no idea how many Spurs fans would agree with this article, I suspect the percentage would be low. I personally feel Sol Campbell owed Spurs fans an apology over the way he left the club, and indeed he did apologise HERE. OK, he technically did nothing wrong and he honoured his contract, but the fact that Spurs got no compensation for his move to the rivals is what rankles. Having said that, I feel the Spurs fans as a whole owe Sol Campbell an even bigger apology for the vitriolic abuse
he has received from our fans since the move. I mean the homophobic, racial and disgusting abuse. The pantomime abuse can be understood and I don't mean that, but Spurs fans went too far. With that in mind neither side is in the right and as such it is high-time to move on. Tottenham don't need Sol Campbell in the same way they did 16 years ago, but football as a whole has never needed that level of hooliganism or vitriol.
I don't think he ever would read this, or even accept the invitation... but I would like to shake Sol Campbell by the hand and thank him for his role in growing my love of Tottenham Hotspur as a child, for showing huge courage to do what was best for him at the time and to have a beer with him and show him that this Spurs fan at least has moved on. White Hart Lane has gone, and with it so has some history of which Sol Campbell was a part of. The future of the club looks bright, and Spurs fans are now beginning to look forward and lose that sense of jealousy and injustice. The man has apologised for the hurt he caused Spurs fans, and that contrition is more than enough to forgive a man that ultimately put up with a lot more abuse than he ever deserved.
Sol Campbell statistics:
Tottenham Hotspur: 255 appearances (10 goals), 1 League Cup
Arsenal: 146 appearances (8 goals), 2 Premier Leagues, 3 FA Cups, 1 Community Shield
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