SOL CAMPBELL claims that former Tottenham owner Lord Alan Sugar was the reason for him leaving White Hart Lane.
The former defender made arguably the most controversial transfer in English football history by quitting Spurs for Arsenal in 2001.
Campbell, 50, ran down his contract before signing for the Gunners on a free.
The East Londoner had come through the ranks at Tottenham, but decided to make the unthinkable switch to Arsenal after growing disillusioned following a legal case.
Appearing on the Stick to Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet, Campbell told Gary Neville and Co: “The main thing for me was that they never paid the youngsters who grew up proper money.
“If someone is bought in, they’d put him on big money, but players coming up through the ranks who would be the future of the club, they wouldn’t want to pay them. It was bizarre.
“Going forward, it was four years [my contract]. The next four years was a difficult moment, because I’m moving up in the right direction and my contract was winding down.
“The thing for me was that I had a problem in a particular game which lingered on for 15 months, and it all started from a game against Derby County away, with two years left [on my contract].
“The problem was that you had Colin Calderwood, who was playing alongside me, and he was having a barney all day long in the game against [Francesco] Baiano, and I didn’t know why.
“I scored the winner, game finished 1-0, everyone was happy, and I’ve gone off the pitch. As I’m walking into our changing room, he [Colin] runs past me and jumps into the Derby County changing room, looking for Baiano.
“So, everyone’s jumped in, and I’ve said, ‘F*** him, whatever, let’s get back into the changing room.’ I said it three times.
“Three weeks later, David Pleat comes to me and says I’ve got a letter saying that someone [a steward from Derby County] has broken their arm or wrist, and I said, ‘What, what do you mean? I’ve done nothing’ – I went in [to the changing room after the game].
“Three weeks later, it goes on and on and the steward who broke his wrist is looking to press charges. I was thinking, what is going on here as I’d done nothing.
“So, it rolls on and on, I’ve got affidavits and people have got to come in for character witnesses, and then I got drafted up there – I’m in the Derby police station, it’s a mess.
“I’m then getting fingerprinted, and my picture taken and at the same time there is people asking me for autographs. I was thinking, ‘Am I getting arrested for something I’ve not done?’ That went on for 15 months and I was thinking why it went on for so long because I’d not done anything.
“Just before the case, I had an internal lawyer [from Tottenham] who said there was a snippet, a Lord getting bound over. I said, ‘What do you mean getting bound over?” Bound over means you admit it, pay a fine, and it all goes away.
“But I said I wouldn’t do it, I live and die by my words – I’ve not done anything. I left it, things go on and the case is about a month away and Tottenham say they’re pulling out – pulling out funding, not paying for anything, so I had to pay for everything.
“My lawyers start looking through all the paperwork and couldn’t understand how it had all gone on for such a long time because [someone said] you’re in front [during the incident], another person said you were on the side – it was all over the place so how had it gone on for such a long time?
“Ten days before the case, they drop out and the case is dropped. In the paperwork, there was an old fax when they’d sent it to me and back in the day you saw a name scrubbed out and then a Derby County player put in there.
“I was supposed to have done this [incident] at ten-to-five, but on the hospital report he’d [the steward] had done it at half-past-ten, pre-match. He’d done it [broken his arm or wrist] pre-match.”
‘A CRAP DEAL’
Quizzed if Tottenham chiefs knew that the steward had suffered his injury before the game, Campbell added: “Either the hierarchy did or the lawyers. It was trying to get one over me, so if it came out, I’d sign a crap deal. I think it was all about the deal.”
The former England international, feeling that Spurs had tried to use the Derby incident in contract negotiations, added: “They wanted to get one over me or have leverage over me. It’s like Virgil van Dijk going through his contract situation now, trying to pin something on him now – it’s the same thing.
“In the Sky documentary, you’ve got David Pleat saying that Alan Sugar wanted to take me out of the first team, and out of England, to slap me on the wrist so I’d come to my senses and sign a crap deal.
“Once that happened [the legal incident], I didn’t have time for that [signing a new contract] – they literally tried to put me away for no reason.
“You start thinking to yourself about how people are innocent and get put away for something they hadn’t done.
“For me, going around to banks or wherever, people look at me and think I’ve bust someone’s wrist, but it was someone else, a South American player. It’s sad, it’s unbelievable. You’re a young boy, coming out, and they’re trying to pin that on you.”
On what pushed him to sign for Tottenham’s fierce rivals, Campbell revealed: “For me, the episode of trying to frame me for no reason, that really governed my decision, and I wanted to win.”
And further quizzed if he made the move to get back at Spurs, he added: “Not revenge, but when you look at it, I’d been done over for no reason. I hadn’t decided where I was going but my mindset shifted after that.”
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