Sol Campbell explains why Sylvain Wiltord was a nightmare to manage

Sol Campbell

The former Arsenal and Tottenham centre-back took his first step into management when he was appointed by the League Two outfit in November and has since lifted them off the bottom of the table with four wins in 11 matches.

The 44-year-old, who was part of the Gunners’ ‘Invincibles’ side, appeared on talkSPORT on Wednesday and was quizzed about which of his former team-mates he’d like to coach today.

“David Seaman, Patrick Vieira, Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Robert Pires – they’re amazing guys,” he said.

“Even from my Tottenham days, people like Jurgen Klinsmann, like Gary Mabbutt – he was a proper professional, you know he’s not going to muck around, he’s going to do everything in his power to do a proper job.

“When you start getting to know the mentality of the players, that’s when you can truly trust them.”

Campbell was also asked who would have been the “ultimate nightmare” as a manager – and one name came to mind.

He said: “It’s interesting for me, because you’ve got someone like Sylvain Wiltord who was incredible for France, but sometimes you could pull your hair out with him [at Arsenal].

“But he just scored so many important goals.

“It’s those kind of guys, who make your blood pressure go up and down all the time, but then they turn up and score really important goals.”

Alasdair Mackenzie is a freelance journalist based in Rome, and a FourFourTwo contributor since 2015. When not pulling on the FFT shirt, he can be found at Reuters, The Times and the i. An Italophile since growing up on a diet of Football Italia on Channel 4, he now counts himself among thousands of fans sharing a passion for Ross County and Lazio.