Sol Has Enough of County And Joins The Indecisives. Although He's Not Sure It's The Right Move

It’s finally dawned on him. It took him until he played his first game in the picturesque seaside surroundings of Morecambe before he realised that life down in the fourth tier of English football is a long way from the Premier League, even when compared to Portsmouth.

Having made a solitary appearance for County last weekend and posed and smiled politely yesterday for the team photos, Campbell has decided that the dream of leading County to the top flight is not for him and he has been released from his £40k per week contract by mutual consent.

The reasoning behind this bizarre decision to leave after only a little over a month at the club is that Campbell “could not adjust to the long-term nature of the project under way at Notts County” according to Executive Chairman Peter Trembling.

This begs the question what did he expect? Was he expecting the little Nottingham club that is even dwarfed by the Forest of their neighbours to suddenly worm their way into the Premier League?

I genuinely hope for Sol’s sake that there is another reason behind his drastic decision to quit other than the one given by his former chairman, as it just smacks of sheer stupidity on his part and lack of foresight.

It’s not as if the club is on the periphery of achieving promotion to the Big League and he has become disheartened by the lack of the progress, County are visibly a long way off this and even my cat could tell you they are no where near the top flight. So why leave now? Why not say no at the start?

Potentially he could have become disillusioned at the lack of the progress and the lack of quality signings that were supposed to follow his arrival, but he’s only been there a month and if the club is to grow, it surely has to crawl before it can walk.

Sol’s speedy departure has meant that he now joins a select group of fellow players with an equally terrible judgement when it comes to making decisions regarding their future. Unbelievably there are people who have made equally indecisive moves where one minute they are happy to sign on the dotted line, the next they’re off again, attempting to the break the record for playing for more clubs than Steve Claridge.

In 1997 David Unsworth decided to make the trip north from West Ham to Aston Villa for £3m, but after only a month of life in the industrial heartlands he decided it was not for him and signed for former club Everton for the same fee.

Perhaps more famous was Clive Allen’s move to Arsenal from QPR in 1980 for a fee of £1.25m. After only a handful of pre-season friendlies he was sold to Crystal Palace, fuelling rumours that have never been confirmed that Palace had secured a deal for Allen on the condition that QPR did not sell him directly to Palace, with Arsenal acting as go-betweens.

Former managers Arsene Wenger and Harry Redknapp both expressed surprise when he announced he was signing for County last month with the big man himself telling the BBC “this club have got great ambition and I want to be a part of it.” His decision to leave will certainly have raised a few more eyebrows.

Reports in the Daily Mail suggest the reason for his departure was a lack of fitness, but they write a lot of nonsense anyway and surely that could be worked on, unless of course he was terminally unfit.

His availability on a free-transfer will I’m sure alert a few clubs across Europe with a greater reputation and league standing than County, but they may be put off if Sol once again requests a release clause in his contract.

Posted By Dan Mobbs - Wednesday September 23, 2009.
Tags: Sol Campbell, Notts County