Well, it's official the boy Campbell has completed his move to Sunderland.
Fraizer is a Black Cat, not a Tiger.
It's disappointing, not just in so far as we've missed out on the signing but the manner in which it happened. A fee was agreed with Manchester United, personal terms with the player were apparently sorted, and Campbell Snr declared the signing would be completed once he returned from the Under-21 European Championships. Then it transpired he was straight off on a family holiday directly from Sweden, and would only be able to sort out things once he came back from there, on the 16th I believe. However, it would seem that Sunderland appeared a better option, apparently for footballing and financial reasons, so Campbell has cut short his holiday and raced to the North East for his medical and to put pen to paper on his contract.
If he didn't want to come here in the first place then I've no issue with that whatsoever, it's his choice entirely after all. However, what disappoints is the rather shabby way he and his father have behaved, essentially stringing us along as a 'Plan B' in the off chance they couldn't engineer the contract they wanted elsewhere. Campbell Snr and Jnr have emerged from this with little credit and it's unfortunate that the player's reputation has been tarnished, he's idolised by some here due to his exploits in our promotion season. But what will be will be.
We've offered the asking price to the club, a lucrative deal (by our standards, at least) to the player, and have been incredibly indulgent to the delays forced upon us over the last few weeks. But we're going to have to look elsewhere it seems.
Fizzoid time to dig those boots out, the number 9 shirt is vacant as it happens.
