Former Tottenham Hotspur defender Sol Campbell has branded the continued abuse that he receives from Spurs fans as “ridiculous” two decades since his controversial move away from the club.
The ex-England centre-back left White Hart Lane on a free transfer in 2001, then penning a surprise deal with fearsome North London rivals Arsenal.
The switch was certainly a controversial one at the time, with Cambell then being labelled as ‘Judas’ and being courted by boos when lining up against his former employers.
Some of that abuse continues to this day, over 20 years since the transfer, something that Campbell remains baffled by.
In talkSPORT documentary Being Sol Campbell, he said: “It’s ridiculous because it happened such a long time ago. Are you going to keep worrying about me when I’m 80 years old?
“I was 25 and now I’m 46. You’ve probably done things when you’re 25 or 15 or whatever. It doesn’t even make any sense now, move on.
“New team, new stadium, new type of lifestyle going forward, and still passing it around like a campfire story. It’s ridiculous.
“For me, it is what it is. We all made our decisions, you accept it and you move on.”
The subject of abuse within football is even more prevalent in recent times with the English game taking part in a social media boycott in order to send a message to supporters that hate will not be tolerated.
Campbell admits that there is still some way to go despite progress having been made in recent years.
“It’s football. It’s a game. People go way beyond it and they touched on surfaces like race,” he continued.
“People go way beyond football and forgot they went way beyond football and started encroaching on who you are, your personality, your family and things like that, which was bang out of order. That was not right.
“You couldn’t get away with it now. You’d get put inside or you’d get a criminal record. It’s different now, but back then people got away with it.”
