Sol Campbell’s move across north London from Tottenham to Arsenal in 2001 is one of the most controversial transfers in English football history, with the then Tottenham captain and star player crossing the divide between the bitterest of rivals.
The move saw the established England international leave Spurs to join Arsene Wenger’s Gunners who were winning plenty of honours at the time. The move was the equivalent of Harry Kane joining Arsenal today, an unthinkable prospect given the current levels of animosity in north London.
This has been precipitated by the rise of social media, creating a hostile atmosphere between fans of both clubs. However, things were not simple in 2001 either, with the stresses placed on Campbell following the move revealed by Wenger in a recent interview with German magazine 11 Freunde.
Campbell suffered years of abuse from Tottenham fans, but Wenger has revealed that he even faced a jokingly hostile environment following his arrival at Arsenal, with boos from his own teammates. Wenger explained how Campbell was jeered upon his arrival, saying: “They did that, and they also made jokes about it.
“But 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.”
Despite Wenger’s doubts about the transfer since, on the pitch Campbell made a fantastic impact at Arsenal with two Premier League titles and three FA Cup triumphs in his time at the club. He also earned immortality status at the club with his key role in the Invincibles team of 2003/04.
Campbell has revealed his own struggles with the transfer 20 years on, detailing in 2021 the abuse he has endured since the transfer which took place when he was in his prime at age 25. He told talkSPORT: “It’s ridiculous because it happened such a long time ago. Are you going to keep worrying about me when I’m 80 years old?
“I was 25 and now I’m 46. You’ve probably done things when you’re 25 or 15 or whatever. It doesn’t even make any sense now, move on. New team, new stadium, new type of lifestyle going forward, and still passing it around like a campfire story. It’s ridiculous.
“For me, it is what it is. We all made our decisions, you accept it and you move on. It’s football. It’s a game. People go way beyond it and they touched on surfaces like race.
“People go way beyond football and forgot they went way beyond football and started encroaching on who you are, your personality, your family and things like that, which was bang out of order. That was not right.
“You couldn’t get away with it now. You’d get put inside or you’d get a criminal record. It’s different now, but back then people got away with it.”
