Defence Is The New Form Of Attack - A Sol Campbell Story

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Sol Campbell - A Football Manager Story

At the age of 40, Sol Campbell has decided to give football management a shot. In an interview with Sky Sports News he mentioned that now is the time for him to step forward with his career and take on any challenge that comes his way. He also mentioned that he is looking to emulate his playing career by winning trophies with the clubs he manages.

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Fulham Awaits

As of July 2015 instantly a job was offered to Sol Campbell as Fulham immediately approached the former Arsenal defender.

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From the interview Sol Campbell landed the job and was offered a contract with Fulham with him expected to finish in the top half of the Championship. Having such a small transfer budget Campbell is expected to work wonder to be able to achieve this but as soon as players return from injury he can expect a much better team.
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To which Campbell accepted immediately with no hesitation. He made instant changes to the backroom team as Mike Rigg left his role of Director Of Football and other changes were made to coaching staff. He bought in former England International team mate Paul Scholes to add to the coaching team.

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Changes came to the team with Sol Campbell in charge with Moussa Dembélé leaving to go back to Paris Saint-Germain the club he left to join Fulham.

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Changes that came in were Jason McCarthy from Southampton and Liam Polworth from Inverness CT. Matt Macey was bought in to challenge Marcus Bettinelli and Andy Lonergan for the first team goalkeeping role. Jordan Gaspar, Chevi, Pelayo & Borja Iglesias were bought in to add to the future of the squad.

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The pre season friendlies went well with only one loss coming unfortunately against Tarbes Pyrénées Football and not the bigger club in Toulouse FC. Having such a good pre season however gives hope for the season ahead.

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August Agony?

August Agony?
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After beating Barnet 2-0 in the Capital One Cup 1st Round, Fulham were drawn at home to AFC Bournemouth. Campbell knew it would be a challenge going up against Premier League opposition and would hope for the best of his team to be able to make it into the 3rd round.

​Results

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Unfortunately things just didn't go to plan in the Capital One Cup, but Campbell hopes that come the FA Cup the team will be different and playing to a much better standard. Overall results weren't too bad in the league kicking off with 2 draws and also gaining 2 wins along the way. However a heavy 4-0 defeat to Hull puts question marks over the teams capability to finish in the top half when it comes to facing bigger teams.

League Table

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As the table stands at the end of August with 5 games played, Fulham are 9th so are in the top half of the table having picked up 2 wins, 2 draws and a loss going level on points with Cardiff and finishing above Bolton Wanderers who are also level on points. Hull and Bristol City look the leaders of the pack and will be a challenge to chase.

Transfer Centre

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With nobody else having come into the club due to the tight financial restrictions the transfers that happened during August were mainly loans out. The key loans were Stephen Arhurworrey going on loan to Hearts a defender who needs to play at a higher standard else where for re-evaluation on his return. Jordan Gaspar who came into the club while the window was open went out on loan to Luton Town to be able to give him a chance to play in the English leagues.

Top Goalscorer & Player Of The Month

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Without doubt Ross McCormack is the top scorer for Fulham at the minute having scored 5 goals for the team with Alexander Kacaniklic being in 2nd place with 2 goals scored. The player of the month for August is Alexander Kacaniklic who has the highest average rating at 7.98 for the team.

Forthcoming Fixtures

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The forthcoming fixtures for September see Fulham at home on 3 occasions first up against Blackburn Rovers before coming straight up against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Then its a trip up north to take on Sheffield Wednesday before coming home for a local derby against Queens Park Rangers.
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September Update​

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As you can see the results didn't go too well in September with 1 Win, 1 Draw and 2 Losses. The losses were quite heavy results too with a 5-0 defeat at home to Wolves and a 4-1 loss to QPR in a local derby at home too. Thankfully points were picked up against Blackburn and Sheffield Wednesday.​

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As the table stands Fulham are 14 in the League after just 9 games dropping 5 places from 9th at the end of August.

Top Goalscorer & Player Of The Month

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No change with the top goalscorer and the player of the month as Ross McCormack went out injured adding to the injury crisis at Fulham. Alexander Kacaniklic dropped some form but is still the player of the month at 7.71 highest average rating.

Upcoming Fixtures
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Its a hard amount of games coming up next as we travel to Charlton and Middlesborough. Before coming home to face Leeds and Reading and then ending October at Ashton Gate as we face Bristol City.

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October, November & December Updates

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As you can see from those results 15 games and only 4 wins, with 4 draws also and the rest were all losses. This is not a good picture for Fulham and as such during December I was summoned to a meeting by the board to discuss improvements, to which I said give me a month and i'll change the teams fortunes. During that time I beat Bolton, lost heavily to Derby and drew with Rotherham.

I also made a big staff change too during December as I sacked Alan Curbishley as the assistant manager and replaced him with Terry McDermott. View attachment 101444
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However this didn't make any difference at all as immediately after losing to Sheffield Wednesday at the start of January that was the straw in the camels back forcing this to happen.

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Luckily I wasn't short of offers immediately following my sacking as a Premier League club, a Scottish Premiership club and a Championship club were soon to be wanting to hire me as a manager.

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However i'm giving it until the end of the season to weigh up my options before stepping back into the reigns of managing another club so I can afford myself some time to think about my next challenge as well as be given time to shape the team to how I want them to be.​

 

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A New Challenge Awaits

So after waiting until the end of the season new opportunities arose and the same league was chosen. After seeing that Aston Villa were looking for a new manager following their relegation to The Championship, Sol Campbell decided to apply for the job of getting them back to the Premier League immediately. He was also offered two jobs that he was previous offered.

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Having previously been unsuccessful in the chance to manage Sunderland, Campbell declined the offer of the also recently relegated club. He was also then again offered the job at Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership but refused the challenge in hope of landing the Aston Villa job.

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After a quick interview with Massimo Cellino, Sol Campbell was offered the job of managing the Villains a chance to get them immediately back to the Premier League. Wide-scale changes immediately came at the club following the relegation. With many transfers out, but only key ones in.

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The key notes of who left Aston Villa are Brad Guzan and Micah Richards both going back up the leagues as they both went to Hull, Adama Traoré left to local rivals West Brom, Scott Sinclair and Ashley Westwood joined Leicester City, Joleon Lescott left for Italy as he joined Torino and Jordan Amavi joined Norwich City.

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Transfers in saw 4 loans from Arsenal as Gedion Zelalem, Alex Iwobi, Chuba Akpom and Yaya Sanogo joined the Villains. N'Golo Kanté and Danny Simpson both joined from Leicester City. Carl Ikeme and David Raya joined as two first choice keepers and the biggest signings came in Virgil van Dijk from Southampton and Mauricio Isla from Juventus.

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If pre season results are anything to go by a win against Rangers and two smaller clubs, with a draw against Ingolstadt from Germany and a loss to Hamburg too it was not the best to look at for the club going forward. However onwards and upwards with the league.
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