Coming up to four months in the job, Sol Campbell has lasted considerably longer than Paul Scholes.
The Macclesfield Town manager bursts into laughter when asked if he, like his former England teammate, couldn’t cope with Saturday afternoons devoid of football.
“Obviously he doesn’t share that (view), does he?” roars Campbell, doubled over. “Scholesy wouldn’t mind me saying that.”
Scholes’ first foray into management lasted just 31 days at Oldham and ended with an abrupt text to owner Abdallah Lemsagam.
There have subsequently been claims of interference from above, bailiffs switching off the gas, the team bus not turning up and players having to wash their own kit.
To those who know the famously no-nonsense Scholes, his short-lived Boundary Park reign came as little surprise.
And there were those who predicted Campbell would crash and burn in a similar fashion when the former Arsenal defender rocked up at Macclesfield, at the foot of League Two in November, declaring the arrival of ‘one of the best footballers in the world’ at his very first press conference.
It was typical Campbell – forthright and uncompromising – but also pointed to the potential of the rudest of awakenings after a career the exalted heights of Tottenham, Arsenal and England.
Independently wealthy, like so many of his generation of players, the 44-year-old could do like Scholes – wash his hands of it because, frankly, he doesn’t need it.
“I do need this!” he quickly retorts. “This is a job for me that I feel comfortable with. It is something I can get my teeth into. I need this job - I want to be in this environment.
“It’s not a culture shock, it is what it is. You have to kind of accept it.
“It’s reality. We can’t all have gleaming grass, cut to the millimetre, perfectly manicured and watered when needed and looked after by 10 groundsmen. Not everyone can be at these clubs. You’ve got to get on with it and hope it will improve and people get better on the field and off the field.
“That’s me and that doesn’t take money. That’s just attitude. You can bring that to the table. That’s me as a human being. The other stuff is all money related.
“I’ve got to step out and forget where I was. I’ve got to forget I played at the highest level. I have to be real and say ‘Where are you Sol?’
“Once you start realising where you are, then you can start realising what you have to do to get the best results. You can’t bring Premiership and World Cups down to this level, but you can water it down.
“Let’s see how I can make it better.”
Campbell is in his ‘office’ at a youth club in Knutsford that doubles up as Macclesfield’s training ground.
His office also appears to double up as a storage room for unused chairs.
He uses the term ‘safety nets’ both figuratively and literally at regular points during the interview.
He seems to be in his element – pointing to a tough upbringing in Plaistow as evidence of his ability to “muck in and roll your sleeves up.”
At the time of talking he is beaming about a goal scored by James Pearson against Yeovil the previous week: “Such a sweet move, beautiful timing and everything.”
Arsene Wenger-esque even?
“You can say Arsene Wenger, Barcelona, Real Madrid, is it like Liverpool?” Campbell responds. “It’s football. Is it Dutch? Brazilian? It’s football. It was a beautiful goal.”
In short – having waited seven years to get his first shot at management, Campbell’s not about to follow Scholes’ route out of it so soon.
“What I know of Paul is he’s an upstanding guy, a proper footballer, he’s got passion, he’s uncompromising on a few things - maybe one or two things weren’t to his liking,” he says.
“There are things that are not in your control and you will never be able to control them. You’ve got to accept that very quickly.
“What I am in control of is the players and preparing them. The other stuff, which is happening above me is happening above me. Someone else is dealing with that, or hopefully someone else is dealing with that.
“I can’t be chairman, CEO, football manager. You can’t do that. Those days are gone, thankfully.
“I dig deep into my reservoir of how I was brought up in a tough east London background – Plaistow, Stratford. You dig back into that. That helps you through.
“Of course I’d like to have nice training pitches and things like that so I don’t have a problem with half the team not training. That’s rose-tinted glasses. I’ve just got to get on with it.
“(I remember) Walking around with holes in my shoes for at least a month and putting cardboard into the bottom of my trainers. That’s where I’ve come from.”
If Campbell isn’t about to do a Scholes – he’s not going to follow Jose Mourinho’s lead either.
Currently living in a hotel in Knutsford, he is soon to get his own place – even if the precarious nature of football management means he’s not about to lay permanent roots in Cheshire.
“There’s so long you can stay in a hotel for,” he says. “A hotel is so restrictive. You haven’t got your own space. Yes you get the food, yes you get everything all clean and blah, blah - but sometimes it’s nice to have your own space with the your family.”
As for success, Campbell’s immediate ambitions are purely to keep Macclesfield – currently second from bottom of League Two - in the Football League.
Which is why he has little time for talk of one day returning to Arsenal or why there was no place for him back at the Emirates when he was seeking his chance in coaching.
“Sometimes clubs need to move on to go back and realise what’s happening,” he says. “Sometimes clubs go too far and say we almost lost ourselves let’s rethink things.
“Sometimes that has to happen in all clubs, in business as well. Sometimes they need to find their core again, their inner selves. I wouldn’t say Arsenal is in that scenario, but you can’t bring everyone back.
“It would be a wonderful world, fantastic for everyone to be back from the good old days. It doesn’t always work like that.
“My situation is maybe they weren’t looking for someone like me. Who knows in the future? I’ve chosen this path and I’m enjoying where I am and the whole experience.”
The conversation can’t end without discussing another of Campbell’s contemporaries, who has become the unlikeliest story of the season – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
“For me the good thing about it is you’re never gone,” he adds. “You’ve always got a chance in football. And as long as you can breathe, have still got the passion in the sport and got the drive, you’ve always got a second chance.
“There are so many clubs around the world and you’ve got to keep the faith and make sure you stay in there because the next move could be fantastic. And that move for him has been incredible coming back. It’s worked out fantastic for him.
“Everyone says he’s done enough to say at least give me a year, maybe two.
“I’m not asking for a five-year contract here, but I’m sure he’s done enough to say let’s see what you’ve got next year at least.
“Football can be so incredibly, painfully slow, but then also it can be lightning quick.
“If something needs to move, it moves lightning quick. That’s the beauty of football, within six months you can go boom, boom, boom and be there.”
In the space of nearly four months in management Campbell’s enthusiasm for the game is undeniable. He’s done the hard yards and talks like a man who is living his dream.
“The passion, the ‘up for it,’ the butterflies in your belly, the anxiety sometimes, the anger, the excitement about it, you can’t replicate that,” he says. “I could do other things, but it just seems to come back to football and that’s where I’m comfortable at.”
