Sol Campbell damning on USA, as he throws his hat into ring

Sol Campbell has been damning on USA’s failure to reach the World Cup, and said he would be willing to speak to officials about taking over.

Campbell, 43, is the assistant manager of Trinidad & Tobago, the team USA lost to in their final World Cup qualifier earlier this month.

“I think they thought they had won the game before they actually turned up. I’m not saying every single player thought that,” Campbell told ESPN FC.

“There was a lot of rain the day before, and there was a lot of commotion. Different changing rooms as well, [but] the next day the sun was out, and it was a perfect pitch [and] everything around the track had dried up.

“The trouble is I feel like there were far too many excuses. Also, Trinidad, we played extremely well. Really well. It could have been 4-1.”

The former Tottenham, Arsenal and England defender says the USA have a lot of work to do now to get themselves back on track and he did throw his hat into the ring over replacing Bruce Arena.

“I think there is a lot of soul-searching [for the US to do]. I think the main thing you’ve got to look at [with] America is where do they go now? They’ve invested a lot of money, and I think sometimes you’ve got to look in different areas. You can’t always look in the same places,” added Campbell.

“Yes, they want to keep it local, and they want to keep as much in USA with the players and the staff, but sometimes you’ve got to open up. I think there’s guys around the world who could contribute.

“Maybe not [people] on their hit list, maybe not on the paper list, maybe not on the agent’s list, but guys who probably could help them in different ways on the field: attack-wise, defence-wise.

“Who knows? If they came to me, maybe I could help them out. Who knows? But I think they have got to start looking in different directions.”

Campbell, who took up an invitation from Trinidad boss Dennis Lawrence in February,  has spoken of the difficulty of getting on to the coaching ladder.

“It’s proving difficult and if I have to start at the bottom, I will,” he told The Guardian in July. “People may think that I just want to manage in the Premier League but I’m prepared to go to a non-league club, and if they can’t pay me a salary just pay me a win bonus.”