Campbell - I am proud of my comeback

By Chris Harris

Coming to a cinema near you: the story of Sol Campbell's incredible season.

Not quite, but the man himself admits that the tale of his 2009/10 campaign is so outlandish it would not look out of place in Hollywood. After all it was only last July when Campbell left Portsmouth and wound up at Notts County, a move which ended after just 90 minutes of League Two action.

That seemed to herald the end of his top-flight career but the centre back's resurrection began in the winter when Arsène Wenger granted him permission to train with Arsenal. Campbell not only stayed fit, he earned a short-term contract at Emirates Stadium and roared back to life in the Premier League.

The 35-year-old - Arsenal's Player of the Month in April, no less - is now in talks over a new deal. And although his dramatic return to the elite was not crowned by a trophy, the 2009/10 season will be reserved a special place if he ever pens his memoirs.

"Yes, there's a lot for me personally to be proud of really, especially because it was not a straight-forward season!" Campbell told Arsenal.com.

"I have got to hand it to myself and realise that there was a lot of digging deep and starting all over again and ups and downs. There have been a lot of different characters, especially in the early part of the season; there were a lot of different characters wanting different things. You probably could have made a movie out of it."

Pretty much every article referencing Campbell's comeback included the words 'shock' or 'surprise'. But in the end it all came down to hunger. And despite making his Premier League debut way back in December 1992, Campbell had plenty of that in reserve.

"You go through ups and downs in football, just like anybody in life," he said. "You go through seasons when you feel unbelievable and other seasons when it just doesn’t work out whatever you do. But I always knew I had the desire, the hunger - that's never going to go away.

"When you’ve been playing for a long time the hunger does wane a little bit but there is always something in life to light up that spark to start you off again. So that's kind of embedded in me, it is not going away. It might be dormant every now and again but something will happen that will reignite it and I'm off again.

"There were a few factors. There's me not playing football for six months, that gave me the time to think about football, train at the same time, get angry, get that aggression you need, also to realise where you are in life and also how much you love football and how it is very dear to your heart.

"Being away from the game also gave me time to spend time with my family, also it just made me kind of relax a little bit, my stamina went back up again, my physical batteries definitely recharged. I can feel it now, I am not as tired - OK I have played a few games, but the stamina is there and it keeps me going.

"A lot of things came together to get me here. I came back to Arsenal to train but I never would have dreamt that I would be playing back here. I didn’t have that in my mind, I just wanted to keep fit."

Campbell achieved that, and a whole lot more.

[Wednesday, May 19, 2010]

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