Sunday 18 March 2018 14:08, UK
Former Arsenal and England defender Sol Campbell told Goals on Sunday he was turned down by Grimsby to be the club's new manager due to a lack of experience.
The 43-year-old, who called himself one of football's greatest minds earlier this year, has been linked with a number of managerial roles but is yet to take on his first job since he retired from football in 2011.
Campbell was in talks to take over at Oxford in February before he was invited for an interview with the Mariners, who eventually plumped for Michael Jolley - who himself has never played professionally, nor managed in England.
"I went to Grimsby for an interview," said Campbell. "I didn't have much time to prepare. It could be experience, knowing that division, I totally understand and I think it's fair. But you can get people around you who do.
"I understand there's always a plus and minus in everything you do, but there's experience in knowing the league.
"I'm prepared. If I need to get my hands dirty, I'll get my hands dirty. If I need to get someone around me who knows the league, I'll do that. That's all part of building a team together. You need your mini-team around you to help you."
Campbell is now looking at what he can do to improve his prospects in management and hasn't ruled out the prospect of working overseas to aid his chances.
He said: "I'm looking at scenarios, if that doesn't happen I'm looking at courses, there's a course with the LMA which would be good, I'm watching football in different leagues across Europe as well.
"I'd look at going abroad, I just want to get going and get my hands dirty, use my experience and build - but the trouble is you don't get much time to build. If I can get enough information and training, from maybe training kids of whatever, that'll be better for me than hanging around, not training, being able to say I'm doing X, Y, Z.
"When you look at it, when I retired, I wanted a bit of a break but within 18 months I started doing my courses. That took three and a half years, and that's dedication in itself. I wanted to work with England eight years ago, but that didn't happen for whatever reason."
