Reports coming out of Turkey are saying that Arsenal defender Sol Campbell has told reporters that he is very close to agreeing a move to Istanbul to play for Fenerbahce next season.

The England centre back, currently on World Cup duty with the national side encamped at Baden Baden in Germany, has had a torrid season in the Premiership with rumours of mental breakdowns and loss of form being exacerbated by his increasingly strange behaviour on the pitch. His half-time substitution and disappearance from Highbury during the game against West Ham where he was badly caught out twice in a few minutes has been the main talking point of the season for a player more accustomed to plaudits for his on field conduct and if the reports are true it maye be understandable if he has decided to leave England for foreign climes.

“The probability of me joining Fenerbahce is very high,” Campbell told the Vatan newspaper. “Not because they’ve offered me a lot of money, but because they have challenged me. Everything will be clearer after the World Cup.”

“It is obvious that they are considering me seriously,” Campbell said. “They made me a good and full offer. We are progressing step-by-step. I will give my decision after the World Cup.

“But, the probability of me joining Fenerbahce is bigger than that of refusing the offer.”

It’s looking increasingly likely that his goal in the European Cup final defeat to Barcelona could well have marked the end of a controversial Arsenal career.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Arsenal. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.