5 transfers that shocked the football world

#3 Sol Campbell to Arsenal, 2001

To Tottenham fans, Sol Campbell will always be 'Judas' after his move to Arsenal

The fact that Sol Campbell – a bonafide world-class player at his peak and one of the best defenders to ever play for Tottenham Hotspur – wasn’t invited back to the club last summer when White Hart Lane was closed down goes to show that the scars from this controversial transfer still run deep in North London. Even now, the best part of two decades on, Campbell is still known as ‘Judas’ amongst hardcore Tottenham supporters.

Few Spurs fans at the time – with the club largely sitting in mid-table mediocrity – could’ve begrudged Campbell wanting to leave when his contract ended in 2001, even if it was another Premier League side. But to move to Arsenal – Tottenham’s most bitter local rivals – was simply unthinkable. But Campbell did just that despite being club captain, becoming the first man to make the move since goalkeeper Pat Jennings in 1977.

For his part, Campbell couldn’t see what he’d done wrong. He claimed Spurs simply weren’t in a position to match his ambitions of winning trophies, while Arsenal was – and indeed, he won two Premier League titles and three FA Cups with the Gunners. But what he lost was the respect of the Spurs fans, who subjected him to some of the worst abuse ever seen in football history. Campbell forgot a simple rule – that football is tribal, and some borders are simply not meant to be crossed.