Former Spur names Sol Campbell as the worst trainer he has come across

Former Tottenham striker Peter Crouch has revealed that Sol Campbell was the worst trainer he ever came across in his career.

There is no love lost between Campbell and Spurs fans following the cardinal sin the defender committed in 2001 of allowing his contract with the Lilywhites to run out and join North London rivals Arsenal.

Crouch crossed paths with Campbell at Tottenham, with the centre half being the club captain while the striker was coming through the club’s youth ranks.

The striker was reunited with Campbell at Portsmouth later on his career and he revealed that the England defender had a much more laid-back approach to training than he did at North London.

When asked who was the worst trainer he has witnessed during his career, the striker told the Daily Mail: “The worst has to be Sol Campbell at Portsmouth.

“He had reached the end of his career by then and he’d probably lost some of his enthusiasm.

“You’d see him in the masseurs’ room on a morning, getting his legs rubbed, and Harry Redknapp would shout to him: ‘You out today, Sol?’ ‘Not today,’ would come the reply.

“He’d get plenty of stick for it but he felt he’d earned the right to do that and his performances at the weekend were never below par.

“I should add that I was a kid at Spurs with Sol and he was a brilliant trainer then.”

Crouch also picked out former Spurs star Gareth Bale as the hardest trainer he had come across with former Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard.

He added: “I’d find it hard to separate Gareth Bale at Tottenham and Frank Lampard at England for being the best.

“They did everything to squeeze every last drop out of themselves and you could guarantee they were always first out and last in from a session.”

Spurs Web Opinion

With so many people questioning Gareth Bale’s professionalism in his last few years at Real Madrid, it is good to see Crouchy set the record straight about how hard he worked in training. Bale was extremely driven and motivated during his time at Spurs and his first few seasons at Real Madrid. I just think he’s fallen out of love with football in the last two years due to the way he has been treated by the Madrid fans and scapegoated by the press in Spain.

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