Good Deal

I spend to much time these days chunterring to myself about ridiculous salaries being paid in banks, quangos and public services. Normally, I don't worry too much about footballers. As long as they can get Arab sheiks and Russian billionaires to finance their clubs, then I don't care how daft their salaries are. But occasionally there is something that stands out. The latest touch of madness is the deal done by Notts County with Sol Campbell. Mr Campbell - formerly of England, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth has signed a contract with Notts County that will pay him £40,000 per week for the next five years. Considering that the player is already 34 years old, guaranteeing him pay of £40,000 per week until he is almost 40 years old seems very generous. But Sol Campbell sees this as "a challenge". Notts County play in League 2 - which is really the old 4th Division. Sol Campbell now becomes far away the highest paid player outside the Premier League. I can understand the management of Notts County - who are already paying Sven Goran Eriksson buckets of money as director of football - wanting to raise the club into higher divisions but will paying Sol Campbell one hundred times as much money as some of the other players in the same team really make that much difference? A football team is just that, a team. Having one extremely expensive player will not change that.

Sol Campbell gives us much quotable stuff about moving to coaching and management later in his career. But in the meantime, for the next 5 years, he will try to get by on his £2m per year.

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