487: Sol Campbell, Tottenham Hotspur, Merlin’s Premier League 99 Official Sticker Collection

Tag someone and if they don’t reply in five minutes they owe you a trip to Disneyland. Pick your grandmother’s name and the last dessert you had – this is your drag queen name. And so on and so forth. Social media is awash with similar posts which, at the innocent end, are yet another way to wile away the time you’re spending on the toilet at work and, at the more sinister, are apparently devious traps used to extract personal information for nefarious purposes.

Within a day of lockdown several such posts had appeared on social media including one which set up the activity you would be doing whilst staying at home alongside a football manager. Whether you were watching Netflix with Joey Barton, doing puzzles with Sam Allardyce or youth hostelling with Chris Eubank you might have had a much needed laugh during self-isolation, even if you did end up manscaping with Neil Warnock.

Strangely enough souring your relationship with the fans with Sol Campbell wasn’t an option on this game but it is with arguably one of the bravest, or most unforgivable depending on your allegiance, transfers in English football history that we come to today’s sticker. In the 1998/99 season Campbell was in his tenth year with Tottenham Hotspur and led the team to League Cup victory against Leicester City, becoming the first black captain to lift a major trophy at Wembley. His excellent performances in a relatively mediocre season for Spurs saw him named in the PFA Team of the Year and, going into the twenty-first century, Campbell was certainly a fan’s favourite at White Hart Lane.

However, behind the scenes the situation was not as rosy as Merlin’s sticker collection suggested. Campbell had difficult working relationships with managers Christian Gross and George Graham as well as suffering significant injuries. Also, during the 1999/2000 season he was wrongly accused of assaulting a steward during a game with Derby County and, having refused Tottenham’s legal advice to have the case ‘bound over’, was forced to pay his own legal costs to defend his name. Whilst the case was eventually dismissed the relationship between club and captain was fractious to say the least.

Campbell’s last appearance for Spurs came against their bitter north London rivals Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-finals. Glenn Hoddle, Spurs’ third manager in as many seasons, put Campbell in the starting line-up despite fears over his fitness and could only watch as the centre-half injured his ankle tackling the Romford Pele Ray Parlour. Worst still Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira scored the winning goal as Campbell received treatment on the sidelines. Campbell missed the rest of the season with injury and, with his contract due to expire, began to look elsewhere for his employment.

Aware of the Bosman ruling, which would allow Campbell to leave the club on a free transfer, Spurs hastily put together a contract offer which would have made him the club’s highest paid player. Nevertheless Campbell was determined to play Champions League football and, owing to his reputation and ability, instantly attracted the attention of the biggest clubs in Europe. Despite the obvious disappointment of losing one of their star players, Spurs’ fans could at least rest easy that Campbell would not move on to their hated rivals. After all Campbell had stated in the club fanzine, Spurs Monthly, that he would never move to Arsenal.

Sol Campbell made his Arsenal debut on the opening day of the 2001/02 season and went on to play a key part in the Gunners’ double-winning side. Two years later he was an integral part of Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ who finished the 2003/04 unbeaten in the league – still only the second side to complete this feat after Preston North End in the inaugural Football League season in 1888/89. He left for Portsmouth in 2006 and went on to captain the side to FA Cup victory over Cardiff City in 2008. He made a surprise return to Arsenal in January 2010 where, despite his age, he impressed back at the heart of the Gunners’ defence and is fondly remembered by the Emirates’ faithful for his key role in their most successful years in recent history.

However, elsewhere in north London, Campbell was met with hostility regardless of the jersey he was wearing. His first visit to White Hart Lane in Arsenal colours saw him subjected to a barrage of insults from the aggrieved Spurs fans, including his older brother Tony. As late as January 2009, when Campbell was playing for Portsmouth, four Spurs’ supporters were banned from all football grounds in England and Wales for three years due to the extremely offensive nature of their chants aimed at their former captain.

Few footballing rivalries can match the hostility of that between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur and only the most determined of players would dare to cross the divide. Campbell’s achievements at both clubs were incredibly impressive yet, by making the decision to head to Highbury in the summer of 2001, much of what he did at White Hart Lane in over ten years at the club has almost been erased from history. While we are surely all desperate for social contact of any description it seems unlikely that any Spurs’ fans would be to keen to do anything with Sol Campbell.