The former England defender has had to deal with rejection and said he would take an unpaid role. Now he is taking over at the Football League’s bottom club Back in July 2017, I sat down with Sol Campbell at an Italian restaurant off the King’s Road. I had interviewed him at the same venue six years earlier and, having maintained a line of contact with the former Arsenal and England defender in the interim, our latest meeting was designed to be nothing more than an informal chat on a warm summer’s afternoon. It came as a surprise, then, when Campbell used the opportunity to open up on his desire to become a manager. Normally reserved and a little withdrawn, he spoke like a man at his wits’ end . He had standing, qualifications and coaching experience but simply could not nail down a job, and such was his desperation to do so he claimed he would be willing to work for free. “I’m up for that,” Campbell said. “I’m itching to start, I just need a chance, even just an interview in which ...
