S0l Campbe11 is missing

So she's beard?

"Ah 'av' told 'eeem eeet iz noh problem beeein' ah 'omosezual, but eeee weeeeel not lizzen."

seems like a good guy, a total hero for england in the past too, hope he is alright.

I hopes he's OK. This is all a bit too Footballers Wives.

"Missing" = He won't speak to tabloid fuckwads btw. Several of his team mates have already said they've spoke to him on the phone this week. He isn't "missing".

Gary Linekar did on MOTD.

Dido's gay too.

i never wished him hurt but he made his own bed.

http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/470/sol2fa.jpg

http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,2006051368,00.jpg

the situation wasn't simply a matter of switching clubs. campbell cynically ran his contract down, repeatedly promising he will sign a new one, which he had no intention of doing. he lied to the fans and the club who supported him and helped him become the player he was. by kidding everyone along and leaving on a free transfer sol lined his and his agent's own pockets with the potential transfer fees tottenham deserved. its not even about the money; it was his lies and dishonesty.

incidently, many of his problems stem from this betrayal, all these rumours included.

many of his problems stem from this betrayal

i dont care about sol. lets think about peven everett today, instead

God you're a cynical, miserable, bitter bastard. Firstly and primarily, this has absolutely nothing to do with how Sol left Spurs or the very fact that he did. This isn't even about him as a footballer but as a human being. Even if this story has absolutely no substance to it, I'd still rather be on record as having wished him the best - whatever happens, if he quits England, Arsenal football, whatever - than having said "fuck you, you left Spurs, deal with it".

Secondly Sol Campbell left Spurs what 4/5 years ago? He swapped a second rate club who were, at that time, doing fuck all and going nowhere and which had won sod all, for one with promise and potential who then proceded to go 49 league games unbeaten, win several FA Cups and have a few decent stabs in Europe. He had fulfilled his contract, unlike numerous players we could mention who have failed to do so, and stuck it out far longer than he needed to. The fact that he earned a few quid out of it doesn't make him a traitor and certainly doesn't mean he deserves all this shit.

Have a heart you cunt.

on the spurs thing; final time i'll mention this but, to clarify, what sol did wrong was not that he left spurs, not that he made money, but that he repeatedly lied to people that supported him in order to satisy his own greed. while this is a key feature of a capitalist society that doesn't stop it being an utter shit state of affairs. football, as entertainment, as escape, should strive higher than that.

also, i think it disquieting that people here, you included nickeleven, suggest his temporary hiatus from public life may result in campbell 'doing a fashanu'. this is a base, exploitative fantasy of events.

It was also revealed that Campbell, 31, was tormented by a failed relationship with an 18-year-old Essex girl at the time he vanished.

The England defender became besotted with the teenager after meeting her in a nightclub three months ago. But she has repeatedly turned down his advances.

Campbell - who is said to be "prone to depression" - was already tortured over his on-off relationship with designer Kelly Hoppen, 46.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16665248&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=lost-sol--name_page.html

It seems that no-one really knows anything about what's going on but look upon him as a human being who's going through some tough times rather than simply a footballer. Who are you helping by saying, indeed on an internet message board, that he's getting what he deserves/reaping what he's sown?

really my key point is that sol doesn't need any sentimental whimsy of being 'wished the best' and exaltations that he's a 'good guy' from the incumbents of an internet message board.

As a human being, I hate seeing people suffering. Therefore I hope Sol Campbell is OK. Depression is a fucker to deal with at the best of times, and having the NotW and their ilk, not to mention a bunch of disgruntled Spurs fans still living in 2001, can't be making it any easier for him. I doubt he's ever going to read this, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it.

That is all.

Well I for one hope he *does* turn up to present the revival of Gladiators :)

Look, if he is seriously depressed or, God forbid, terminally ill, then people have a right to be concerned. I refuse to believe that his employers and colleagues aren't showing more concern and support than they are telling the papers though.

Fuck, I said "DNFTT" and I'm doing it myself. Gah.

Fuck you you fucking useless cunt.

Sol is a national treasure and a hero. He has been solid as a goddamn wall at Euro championships and World Cups, and who can forget the passion he had against Argentina in 98, nearly single handedly beating them, and that header!

I'm not a spurs fan, nor arsenal, but i've enjoyed watching him play for many years and I would be sad not to see him run out again. I'm wishing him the best, and saying he is a good guy, because of the footballing joy he has given to the nation.

Go back to your pot noodle, wank + match of the day you loser.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk

I wonder if he'll make the World Cup squad after all this.

But the News of the World can reveal that the England and Arsenal defender— who vanished halfway through the Gunners' Wednesday defeat—has been seeing a FAITH HEALER.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news2.shtml

...translates as "his lawyers called us".

"his relationship with three different women" (what, like different from each other and not three times the same woman in different dresses? we're being paid by the word, aren't we?)

Why would that make him go missing? I've got literally thousands of women on the go, and I haven't gone missing.

Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy

also, you sensible not at all melodramatic, not at all tabloidy, trisha watching smarties, with your big sensitive hearts - how about calling me a cunt a few more times?

i also feel a bit sorry for you, papal.

Campbell is meant to return to training with the Gunners this week after going AWOL following his disastrous performance against West Ham on Wednesday.

And Real midfielder Beckham, 30, hopes the defender will be available for Arsenal's trip to the Bernabeu for the first leg of their last 16 clash on February 21.

"I'd love him to be playing against us because he is one of my closest friends, and because he is a great player," said the England skipper.

"I've sent him a message. I've known him since I was 14, he's a great player and an even better person.

(I rest my case. Gay as the ace of spades.)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/76/Saddam-AceOfSpades.jpg/180px-Saddam-AceOfSpades.jpg

mind you, managers, eh? venables, bruce, what bastards etc etc ;)

Hmmm.

Ambrose, I think we've established that our trolling friend is a bit of a cnut.

However, part and parcel of being a football fan is forming an attachment to the people paid good money to represent your club. You, sort of, pay their wages, and you get to be pissed off if they hoick off at the first opportunity. But in a "boo hiss" pantomime villain kind of way, not in a "hope you die" kind of way.

(Incidentally the size of the club doesn't alter the feelings people have for it, or the likelihood that players will remain there longer than five minutes. But that's a whole other argument)

but football fans waive all rights to being consumers who need protection when they consistently flaunt the principles of the market - if the product isnt good enough quality, competition will kick in. as football fans not only wont switch teams when they watch rubbish week in week out, they wont even stop going to games, or be swayed y price increases. the business apparatus of football chairmen, agents, shareholders etc) know that they have a useful crowd of mugs (myself included) who hand over cash whatever the circumstances, and despite not providing a significant enough revenue stream, are useful in terms of PR (heritage, community, passion etc etc).

footballs painful transition between enthusiastic "sportsmanship"*, values, latent amateurism, tradition etc and running the game as a business is what creates this gap between fans' expectations of how principle actors (eg players) should behave, and how they actually behave**, i think.

* remember that absurd episode some time ago when arsenal scored (just after wenger got there i think) from a situation where they should have kicked the ball into touch, as part of the "gentlemans agreement" or something when a player is injured? everyone went ballistic about the obscenity of a ruthless foreign coach capitalising on the goodwill of english football or whatever.

One was gracious in victory, one was a cunt in defeat.

Yes - that's a fair comparison. It took a lot of guts for Wenger to be gracious after scraping a thoroughly undeserved victory on penalties after sticking ten men behind the ball for 120 minutes. What a big man. He also displayed his gracious streak while throwing pizza at Ferguson when his 50-match unbeaten run failed to materialise, and failing to notice any fouls ever by any of his players.

but surely he could have boasted about each of the glorious shots on target that Arsenal had in that match!

i suppose i just feel too tired to get worked up about "judas" and "betrayed!" etc etc. is it not valid to compare it to any other industry? if the consumers feel that what the are spending their money doesnt meet their expectations, be it quality of football, loyalty of playing staff etc., should they be allowed to carry on spending their money on that same product and yet complain?

like someone who goes to the shop where they have a heap of rotten apples week in week out, and just carries on buying them and moaning about it?

Football has a specificity based on the normal mechanisms for accountability, feedback and improvement to be realised through consumer behaviour. Football's key feature is that its consumers are not price or quality sensitive, which means that they only have sledgehammers to crack nuts - their only means to seek redress, or to achieve change is to withdraw their custom, but since being a football supporter is a most cases a performed act, to not consume is to cease to be a supporter.

Hence trying to introduce democratic accountability to close the feedback loop, and give fans a real input on a meaningful level. That and, since fans aren't consumers, stop clubs being businesses.

In a nutshell, fans are like abused and bullied partners. They want their partner to be nice to them again, but their partner's bullying is making them have to evaluate walking out. The issue them is to stop the partner acting like a twat, and give the abused partner the tools to better articulate and demand better treatment.

He threw some because Sol Campbell was missing.

i dont feel that supporters are abused partners, in that i think that they are more complicit in the abuse that a victim of domestic violence. to extend your analogy, is the advice given to such partners to get out of abusive relationships as soon as possible?

The reason I used the domestic violence analogy precisely because the dynamic of despair, disgust, complicity and desire to escape but feeling that you can't / shouldn't are very very similar. The advice given by many is 'get out' which both a) the best solution and b) unhelpful as it doesn't get to grips with the psychological dynamic at wpork here. Of course someone should leave a relationship with violence. That they haven't shows we're not dealing with rationality and logic here, and so an appeal to simple rational responses, such as 'leave him' are not helpful on their own.

Ditto fans - yes, we should say 'fuck this' and should make the bastards pay using the only language we understand, but many of us don't want to do that. Those of us who want to break the cycle have to convince those who haven't yet reached the place we're at, whilst also finding ways to stop the partner in this relationship being violent - thus stopping the short-term manifestation, whilst working on the abused party to really get to grips with the problem.

i dont know why im being all devils advocate. i agree that clubs would benefit long term by adopting a more attentive stance towards their fans, but despair at this ever happening in a wide spread basis, despite encouraging examples of supporters trusts' success etc. i think the clubs bear most of the burden for the exploitation of fans. But at the same time the all too frequent over emotional connection to a club, which frankly is often not reciprocated by any levels of its apparatus, be it board, playing staff or marketing department, means that unrealistic expectations are forged which lead to really rather irritating self righteous anger, or a persecution complex. This is understandble when directed towards certain levels of the hierarchy, but i think it is all too often needless and ugly when directed at players in particular.

it is ironic because i support a club whose star striker against all the odds, was lauded for his loyalty by the fans to near hysterical lengths, for staying at the club instead of moving to stay in the premiership following relegation, when many other players would have moved. i cant fully explain why he did it, and there might be an element of feeling of wanting to stay at the club as an emotional choice, but overall i feel it to be a (possibly quite enlightened) pragmatic choice, to avoid the trap of wallowing in a struggling premiership side with fierce competition for places. Further to this, i was sad to see Routledge go to Portsmouth in the transfer window, for this reason.

honestly though, football can't have much drama if this is all there is to it, compared to the jelena dokic saga it's nothing.

I think the players may be a little afraid of the chairman. Seriously.

Or perhaps, Dowie threatened to come round and kiss the kids goodnight.

I think, perhaps the reason clubs can get away with their pricing policies is because of the buoyancy of the economy. When the next recession comes around, football spending may reprioritise itself. I don't know.

Arsenal are asking about £1300 for season tickets next year for the Emrites stadium. Good god!

alex, you are skirting near self-parody now...

Didn't House of Fraser went on to claim their best Christmas ever, or something daft? And HMV blamed it on downloading and other cheapo options.

We need Football Fopp. Back catalogue matches at bargain basement prices.

I beleive there is some football on the television this evening. Hurrah!

On me bed, Sony! The News of the World today reveals how two bisexual Premiership stars made some VERY dirty phone calls—using a mobile as a gay sex toy.

The players—one capped several times for England— were caught on camera cavorting with a pal well known in the music industry in a homosexual orgy that will shock soccer.

The three men—who cannot be identified for legal reasons—are pictured wearing just vests and boxer shorts as they tackle each other in ways fans never expected.

In the astonishing pictures—seen by our showbiz columnist Rav Singh, Player A—a household name who has a reputation as a rebel on and off the pitch—shoves his mobile down his boxers.

He performs a sex act with it which is too obscene to be described here. Then Player B calls his number to make the phone vibrate. Player A is also pictured on the bed while Player B—a multi-million pound goal-scoring mid-fielder—kneels to perform oral sex on him.

Meanwhile the music man can also be seen leaning over the pair, kissing and caressing the footballers, who play for different sides.

The source who handed us the graphic images said: "Fans would be stunned if they knew who the players were.

"Both have had girlfriends and one is still in a relationship. If anything they are known as ladies' men—lads who like chasing skirt at nightclubs. They're always in the papers with some glamorous girl or another. Never in a million years would you think they'd be involved in anything like this."

The sordid sex session took place in the flat of one of the players.

The source added: "They all stripped down to their vests and boxers—not exactly the sort of gear you'd just sit around in for a chat. And then they're in the bedroom and it all kicks off.

"Soon it was like something out of a hard core porn film.

"One (Player A) lay on the bed while his mate (Player B) knelt down beside him and gave him a **** ***. Soon his (Player A's) face was contorted with pleasure.

"When all this was going on, the music bloke was leaning all over them both, kissing and stroking every bit of flesh he could get to.

"Then (Player B) got up and went over to the other side of the room to change the music they were listening to.

"While he was doing it (Player A) got his mobile phone out and you can see him pushing it down his shorts.

"You can see he's urging (Player B) to ring him. He must have had the vibrate alert on. (Player B) then gets out his phone and rings him again and again while (Player A) closes his eyes."

In the set of images Player A seems to be the leader in the hardcore sex games while the music man is mainly content to watch.

"They were so relaxed with each other it looked like this wasn't the first time," said our source.

"It wouldn't surprise me if they'd had each other's numbers before."

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news3.shtml

This is my favourite bit.

From what I've heard, yes.

Luke Young - Charlton Athletic (7 caps, 0 goals)
Michael Carrick - Tottenham Hotspur (4 caps, 0 goals)
Shaun Wright-Phillips - Chelsea (7 caps, 1 goal)
Kieran Richardson - Manchester United (4 caps, 2 goals)
Peter Crouch - Liverpool (4 caps, 0 goals)

Both have had girlfriends and one is still in a relationship. If anything they are known as ladies' men—lads who like chasing skirt at nightclubs. They're always in the papers with some glamorous girl or another.

If I post my guesses, is it libel?

";-)"

My original guess was A = Lee Bowyer (bad boy who has played for England) and B = Freddie Ljunberg (goal-scoring midfielder), but then I remembered Freddie has more class.

I dunno. A = Kieron Dyer? Actually...

Kieron Dyer and Joe Cole.

Suffice to say, I think someone on this thread has 2 out of three, one of which is the music star.

http://www.tunc.biz/Freddie%20Ljungberg1.JPG
http://www.joe-cole.co.uk/images/285454.jpg
http://www.englandfootballonline.com/images/Plyrs/Jenas,%20Jermaine.jpg
http://img.mtv3.fi/mn_kuvat/mtv3/urheilu/futis/englannin_liiga/20042005/326015.jpg
ihttp://www.therockalltimes.co.uk/2004/09/13/kieron-dyer.jpg
i

http://www.herege.jor.br/images/nacopa/meio-campo/ingl-kieron_dyer.jpg

I refuse to believe you didn't intentionally search for that one.

http://smh.com.au/ffximage/2005/04/20/bowyerdyer_wideweb__430x328.jpg

http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/misc/mirror/bowyer.jpeg

Will this do...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39945000/jpg/_39945553_jenas_gi245x300.jpg

Steven Gerrard
Morten Gamst Pederson
Xabi Alonso
Joey Barton
Stelios Greekbloke
Cristiano Ronaldo
Damien Duff

HARDCORE SEX GAMES

get it right, please.

No, but you can get dropped if the 'stress' of the revelations affects the players performance*.

*i.e affects the shareholders/managers/chairmans view of the player and the perceived 'family friendly' nature of the club.

ilxors exhibit a very skewed moral code.

Players have done far, far worse than this without being dropped.

Leo Sayer is back at number one.

"All we are getting at the moment is 'Curb Watch', 'Pearce Watch' and 'Sam Watch', plus a fictional horse race with our heads on little horses seeing who is in front."

Robbie Keane on Boys.

Oops, done it again.

Just for the record - yes, sometimes gay men put their big throbbing muscled veiny cocks up other men's arses. There. I said it. Bum bum bum cock cock cock.

I did my bit for gay liberation last night by yelling 'come on you irons'.

"Keegan fills Schmeichel's gap with Seaman"

(They also used to refer to 'Arsenal London', as in Bayern Munich or Real Madrid, and 'Everton Liverpool' even more amusingly.)

xp stevem, that was my job until last year ! And I'm working on the Winter Olympics tonight, so do any of you want any terrible puns on Ceefax ?

Nigel Spink

Jimmy Rimmer

Sorry lads but I think Good Ol' Sol is a poof. actually make that well bent

xpost

the unidentified music poof is no other than the poofy will young

I like how he spotted it on a gay website, according to the Guardian version of the story. Presumably because somebody told him it was on there, because he couldn't have just been looking at it what with him not being gay and it being a gay website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7151584.stm

Just half-heard this on the radio and assumed he meant racist abuse, but apparently not, the big jesse.

Banning chants about bags of sweets and cheesey smiles = terrorists have won

Who can be arsed to chant at Sol Campbell in 2007?

is football the only sport with this problem on this scale?

I believe Rugby Union fans shout "bad show".

Evil Communists receive similar abuse in pro-wrestling

Also Chris Benoit

I bet if somebody moved from Wigan to St Helens in RL he'd get an earful of pie.

i think Sol is right but the players need to behave better in the first place. Ashley Cole was terrible on Sunday.

"I am an international player who has given his whole career to club and country."

er...how can any footballer not give their career to club (and/or country)? Is there a freelance approach I am not aware of? You know Liverpool for one match, Hamilton Academicals for the next two matches and Dagenham the week after?

And there was I thinking Sol just went to the highest bidder each time, rather than sticking loyally to the club that made him an international in the first place.

there needs to be more chants of "BORRRRRRRRINGGG" and "YOU CAN'T FOOTBALL" during crap matches.

"HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT" when someone gets in a tasty tackle.

Do you think at any point before he said this he thought "hang on I am going to sound like a total wanker and get zinged by fans for the rest of the season"?

and blueski OTM. football players get away with rape and we can't even call them gay?

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/story_pages/news/news2.shtml
ashleycole.ytmnd.com

-- Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, February 19, 2006 10:56 PM

That NOTW link now goes to "TWINS ASK SANTA TO BRING MADDIE BACK"

Oh for happier days when we just speculated about footballing pooves and our children were safe.

And Peter Shilton nobbing somebody's wife.

Sol Campbell has probably never done a real days work in his life, he gets paid more in one week than most of us can ever hope to earn in a lifetime.

This guy's on less than £1,500 a year?

I hope Maddie's parents continue to keep us informed on everything the kids they haven't offed say.

MADDIE TWINS: "SOL IS A BIG WOOFTER"

Gareth I think one of them is a well-liked popstar known for his tweed blazer/designer jeans combo.
-- suzy (suzy), Sunday, 12 February 2006 17:13 (1 year ago) Bookmark Link

Suzy bang on the money with her knowledge of what goes on in showbiz yet again.

When I read the "TWINS" headline I assumed it was going to be Samanda Big Bruv.

ha, me too.

You know Liverpool for one match, Hamilton Academicals for the next two matches and Dagenham the week after?

:)

that strike through on the S doesnt really show does it.

I would definitely watch a show where Sam and Amanda were amateur sleuths who tracked down kids who had been accidentally killed by their feckless parents kidnapped by crack rings of international kiddy-fiddlers.

YEAH WE SAW A MEXICAN GUY LOOKING SUSPICIOUS JUST BEFORE THEY DISAPPEARED

"Liverpool for one match, Hamilton Academical for the next two matches" is kind of the Neuname mode of support, no?

maybe missing "two weeks complaining about refereeing decision" as step three

O shi that's a zing right there, son.

LOL :-)

xpost

It's all love

Step 4 would be getting butthurt over Kerrang?

5 will be an angry text to ferg

HUHT

"Butthurt Over Kerrang" should be a HMHB song

Who will do a song about The Guardian?

"People I Don't Know Are Trying to Kill Me"

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/5441/lastscancv8.jpg

Is that from the man utd party?

looks more like Chelsea's

nah, definitely man city

that's the name of the nightclub