England legend admits he wanted to sign for Nottingham Forest but they never approached him
England legend admits he wanted to sign for Nottingham Forest but they never approached him
Nottingham Forest currently have a number of players away on international duty and some years ago the club almost signed one of the best centre-backs ever produced in England.
The Reds have been a force to be reckoned with in years gone by and with the team eyeing Champions League football this season, perhaps those days are on their way back.
Forest won a couple of European Cups under the legendary Brian Clough. His assistant Peter Taylor had an eye for a player and thought he’d landed the next Bobby Moore for Forest back in the seventies.
In the Premier League era, Forest have probably had more drab seasons than successful ones. There was the team that finished third under Frank Clark in the nineties but largely it’s been a case of staving off relegation.
As the Class of 2025 aims to right a few wrongs on that front, a former England defender has confirmed today that he was considering signing for Forest back in the nineties when he was coming through the ranks at Tottenham.
Sol Campbell makes Nottingham Forest claim
It’s quite remarkable to think that Forest almost managed to tempt Campbell into swapping North London for the City Ground back in the nineties when he was coming through the ranks with Spurs.
During the 1992/92 campaign, Campbell made just one appearance, scored on his debut but then watched on as the management team at the time chose other options ahead of him.
He told The Overlap: “I was giving myself a couple of years to be a first-team regular. I was going to England and then coming back and watching players who weren’t internationals getting in before me at Tottenham. It was kind of a jealousy thing but I was thinking why aren’t I getting a chance, I came in, scored on my debut and then I wasn’t getting a chance. But, it changed.
“I was giving it two years, I was actually thinking about going to Forest. I was thinking about it. I wasn’t approached as such, I was looking at that for whatever reason and I wanted to play, there was some interest.”
Campbell did eventually get into the Tottenham team on a regular basis and became one of the best central defenders that England has ever produced, playing 73 times for the Three Lions.
The beef Sol Campbell had with Derby County
Later in his career, Campbell didn’t have fond memories of the other team across the A52 in the East Midlands and he ended up – incorrectly – in court after a game at Pride Park in 1999.
A steward made some false allegations against Campbell following a game that Tottenham played against Derby and after a long drawn out process he got cleared of any wrongdoing.
Ultimately, the way in which Spurs treated him ended up with him leaving one side of the North London for the other with Campbell citing the incident at Derby and how Spurs dealt with it as one of the main reasons he chose Arsenal.
Forest would have seriously hit the jackpot had they signed Campbell. He became one of the best defenders ever to play for England and was largely considered world-class across the majority of his career.
Leave a Reply