Being a professional footballer cannot be easy – especially if you read the gossip press – because quite honestly there’s a lot of made-up stuff in them.
Sol Campbell – which paunch?
And it was a little over the top to call Sol Campbell fat – we couldn’t see any signs of any paunch or anything – at least not in the pictures we saw – but there again the old eye-sight isn’t what it used to be.
And footballers shouldn’t be pencil thin if they are to have any strength in them, but Sol came out blasting yesterday with all guns blazing, and said the following about the many jibes of him being over-weight:
“It’s pathetic.””I had been training for three days – just three days! I am three weeks behind everyone else in pre-season. Don’t they know I have just got married and been on honeymoon?” (shouldn’t he be fitter?)
“I accept that the picture wasn’t flattering, and I do need to catch up on my level of fitness, but the training kit was not very flattering, and showed up all sorts of things.”
“The truth is that I am now in better shape than when I started off back at Arsenal after a long lay-off. I got myself back into shape at Arsenal, and I think I had a reasonably good end-half of the season.”
We think Sol is a little angry because he’s such a professional and hey, if this is motivation for him to get fit that little bit faster – then all the better.
Campbell turned down a one-year deal at Arsenal and rejected another offer from Glasgow Celtic and at least one German club last week, to make his switch to St James’ Park.
It was a great signing by Newcastle, make no mistake about that.
We have no worries at all that in a week or so Sol will be getting fit fast, and we would hope he can at least be ready for the bench against Manchester United – but the aim has to be to play against Glasgow Rangers – at least for some minutes this coming Saturday.
Sol continued:
“I am a naturally big guy, but I cannot rush my conditioning, otherwise trying too much too quickly could result in injuries.“Of course I can understand the manager wants me to be in the side, but the season starts in just two weeks and I really need three to four weeks to get back to peak fitness.
“I’ve seen it all before, done it all before, heard it all before, but that means I also know exactly what to do.” “It’s a long season and I cannot listen to idiots. I know these things cannot be rushed.”
“What I do know is that I will achieve peak fitness given the time I need to do it. It might be that I will need to play and then put in extra training in between games.”
“My message is simple to all the knockers: I am knuckling down and want to play my football with a great club and a great manager. Then you can judge me.”
Good words from Sol, and there’s our answer – he cannot rush things – which is fine by us.
We all have our jobs to do and just like I’m up at 5:00 am in Newcastle this morning writing these articles before our trip to York today – we have to assume Sol is already at the Benton training grounds running his laps.
OK – I’m only kidding – I think. 😀
Comments welcome.
18 comments so far
baro
Aug 3, 2010 at 6:10 AM
Comment #1We will see if he really is fit or not. But, dont blame the fans because u sure are one fat guy. Or should I say Buff! guy like Sol is trying to say about hisself.
🙂
Bao Zheng
Aug 3, 2010 at 6:17 AM
Comment #2It would be a brave man, or more likely in the case of NUFC a complete idiot, who called Sol fat to his face.
WesJameson
Aug 3, 2010 at 7:36 AM
Comment #3@ Bao Zheng // Aug 3, 2010 at 6:17 AM
HAHAHAHA, classic mate, couldnt agree more
Doha Mag
Aug 3, 2010 at 8:06 AM
Comment #4Ed, no one is knocking Sol…..
He’s put on a few pounds which the photo substantiates and he needs to lose these.
He will, and he’ll be an asset to Newcastle United this season
Mags
Aug 3, 2010 at 8:21 AM
Comment #5Het guys – did any of you see the photo of young Shane Ferguson on nufc.com last week?
Well if not, he is a skinny kid and he was wearing this same top, the sleeves hung on him like someone from Belson, but around the middle, even he looked like he had a pot belly!!!
Instead of getting at Sol for a few pounds excess weight which he will shed, try directing your fury at Puma for such a appalling piece of merchandise; whoever designed it needs sacking.
As a girl, you would not get me anywhere near that unflattering top for love nor money.
GeordieDan
Aug 3, 2010 at 9:11 AM
Comment #6Congratulations to the usual fake-NUFC fan muppets stirring up crap for no reason whatsoever!
Now the papers have taken the comments of the tiny minority of you so called supporters and blew it up into a pathetic advert of negative Newcastle support. Well done for your parts in helping Sol quickly feel settled into the club he’s been signed for no more than a couple of days!
Just what we need to help kick-start an already incredibly difficult season that we have ahead of us.
We already have enough w***kers around the country waiting to knock us at any given opportunity so don’t give them the ammunition they need to publish this crap!
Rotonda heights
Aug 3, 2010 at 9:16 AM
Comment #7I think Sol is being a tad over sensitive here. On 35k a week, I’m sure he can live with a few weight watcher jibes.
No need to call fans ” idiots ” as we can all see he’s chubbed up a bit.
I’m sure he will do something about it and he just needs to chill out a bit.
Glenn
Aug 3, 2010 at 9:48 AM
Comment #8This is all nonsense, the only people I’ve had taking the mick out of Sol are mackems sending me texts. Cutting and pasting is what passes for journalism now, newspapers and websites only mention us so much because they know it will sell more papers and increase hits on their websites, hence the Daily fail using headlines like “Sol Campbell hits back at ‘idiot’ Newcastle fans”. If you really want to annoy newspapers and radio stations like talksport, ignore them, don’t leave comments on their websites, never ring them up (especially adrian durham, mind you he is good at his job, which is to goad morons into ringing a premium rate phoneline and then to be kept on hold for 20 minutes). Don’t take the bait.
slazberger
Aug 3, 2010 at 9:59 AM
Comment #9just a newspaper trying to make a mountain out of a molehill because they are banned from all things newcastle
dont take the bate
i also think sol used these words to try and brush it off as nothing, rather than to upset the fans which is how the paper are trying to make it seem
howay man
Aug 3, 2010 at 10:38 AM
Comment #10relax fat boy;)
Robby Bobson
Aug 3, 2010 at 11:17 AM
Comment #11The press are saying that he calling fans idioits…but he never mentions the fans, im pretty sure hes on about the press.
So yes Daily Mail, hes calling you an idioit not us. Ashley is so right to ban that piece of crap.
stuart no9
Aug 3, 2010 at 12:01 PM
Comment #12ok sol you said, when you knuckle down and start playing your football, then we will judge you, and a lot of us may have to apologise, however, untill then , cmon man, look at yourself, First of all IF he was serious about playing again, WHY did he let himself get in that mess, 2…..just got married? come off it getting married is a natural thing to do, looking like that erm…is nt, 3…….. whoever designed that training kit wants sacked, making players look like that,but after taking a closer look , he s the only one who looks fat, so you cant blame the designer , so that only leave s the photographer, maybe he had a bad day or his camera was on the blink, but everybody else looked ok in it , but you just take your time getting back to fitness, 30k aweek you cant be rushed , so he turned down arsenal , celtic and a german club to sign fof us , now theres loyalty for you, or was it we offered him a better deal, i hope he takes more responsibility on the pitch , than he does for his shape, imo
ToonTex
Aug 3, 2010 at 2:07 PM
Comment #13CHEERS, Mags, for pointing that out. I was thinking the same thing. That training top is ugly and poorly designed as are our current kits IMO and gave skinny Shane an impossible pot belly.
Get in, Sol!
freddie
Aug 3, 2010 at 2:39 PM
Comment #14Whats he moaning about? The skin tight top is just highlighting how fat the bloke is. To be that fat when you are a proffessional footballer is a disgrace. Even Micky Quinn wasnt that fat. For me it just highlights that the fat bastard is here for one last pay day.
JerseyGeordie
Aug 3, 2010 at 2:51 PM
Comment #15ya well in you idiots. He’s here for one last pay day at half the wages he was offered at arse… I bet you lot ave a nice pot belly as well with your heads being so far up your ASSet…
freddie
Aug 3, 2010 at 2:56 PM
Comment #16JerseyGeordie- Who says the arse offered him more? Dont take sols word for it. He always goes where the money is. He is the most unloyal player in the country. He ditched spurs for there great rivals on a free for a big signing on bonus then wound down his contract for a big signing on fee with pompey. Then dropped down two divisions for another big pay packet while sueing pompey whilst they were in administration for image rights. The bloke is pure scum. Scumball.
JerseyGeordie
Aug 3, 2010 at 4:13 PM
Comment #17i’m not taking his word. All reports say the the arse were offering him 70k a week. And unless your a bloody spuds fan who gives that he went to arse. It’s not a “payday”. When your a quality player you get paid accordingly. And administration or not if your owed money for a job done, you will fight for it. You telling me that if your job went into “administration” and you were owed wages you’d let it go? Fact is you know nowt but still talk like what you say is gospel.
Kein
Aug 3, 2010 at 8:49 PM
Comment #18I think there is a little extra around his hips…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1028776/Footballer-Sol-Campbell-shows-love-handles-Caribbean.html