Former Pompey skipper: I have one of football's greatest minds

Sol Campbell on his return to Fratton Park in December. Picture: Joe Pepler

The 43-year-old is desperate to break into management but feels he hasn’t be given an opportunity because he’s too outspoken.

Speaking to Arsenal fan podcast Highbury & Heels, Campbell revealed he was recently turned down for the vacant manager’s job at Oxford United.

It comes after he declared his desire to return to Pompey in a coaching role on his Fratton Park return in December.

Campbell, who skippered the Blues to FA Cup glory in 2008, has struggled to get a foot into management since retiring in 2012.

However, he is confident he can succeed as a boss if given the chance and reckons his knowledge is being ‘wasted’.

‘I did go (for the Oxford job) and they didn’t accept me,’ the former centre-back said.

‘Maybe it was a lack of experience, things like that but it’s 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?” I would rather be managing a club myself.

‘I’m confident and it’s not like it’s rocket science to run a football club, especially when you get to that level.

‘If you’re intelligent enough and a quick learner you will learn pretty soon, within two or three games, what the team needs, training-wise, to survive in that league, get better in that league, to get in the play-offs or even win the league.

‘I’m intelligent enough, it’s not like I played on a fox and dog pitch all my life.

‘I can’t believe some people, I’m one of the greatest minds in football and I’m being wasted because of a lack of experience or “maybe he talks his mind too much”.

‘Go to Germany, they love people who speak their minds. They get the jobs.

‘I’m sorry that I’ve got a mind, but don’t be scared of that.

‘That should be something you want at your club, but obviously not.’