Are Sol Campbell's playing days coming to an end?

There comes a time in life when you just have to hold your hands up and admit that you just can't do what you used to do.

I'm at that stage now when it comes to alcohol. Once upon a time I'd go out on Friday night and rock up back at home sometime on a Sunday evening, and I'd still be fresh for work on the Monday morning. These days a few hours on the beer and I'm falling asleep on the bathroom floor - It's called getting older. Mind you, the wisdom thing is yet to kick in yet as I still try and keep up with the bairns!

Now the same kind of principle can be said for Sol Campbell, who has looked ropey ever since he arrived at NUFC during the summer.

It's hard to be critical of a player who has spent so much time playing at the top of the game. All but one of his 644 appearances have come by representing a team in the top flight, 503 Premier League appearances, 73 England caps including World Cup appearances - these are staggering figures and show just how good Sol Campbell used to be.

'Used to be' are the key words in that last sentence.....

In a way it's painful to watch Sol Campbell these days, purely because of how good he was once upon a time. It's like watching a shadow of the player that racked up all of those England appearances and played in Champions League finals and so on. Put simply, age has caught up with him.

I had harboured some small hope that Campbell would have retained some of the form that had made Arsene Wenger want to resign him last summer. He was good for Arsenal last season, but then again it's hard to say whether he was good or whether he looked better due to the team he had in front of him.

Now sorry to burst the bubble, but we are not Arsenal and Campbell has shown that it was more to do with the team that was in front of him rather than his ability that made him look so good last season.

Slow, heavy and cumbersome would be three words that could be used to describe Sol these days, which isn't ideal for a Premier League defender. He had been recalled against Stoke to deal with their aerial threat, but he struggled with that task and cost us the opening goal due to his lack of concentration and speed allowing Jonathan Walters to nip in and nod home. Jonathan Walters FFS!

Granted his contract is up in the summer, and to be fair I very much doubt that Sol needs the cash, but I just can't see him getting his deal renewed. However, despite all that I have said, I actually fell that if we let Sol go it would be a massive shame.

Which is why I'm going to suggest a new role for Campbell. How about a bit of coaching? Campbell's legs may have gone, or he may not have top flight ability anymore (in my opinion of course), but he does have a wealth of experience that would be very useful in a coaching role.

That experience would be invaluable for the next generation of defenders. Defending is an art which I could never get my head around when I used to play, even at the relatively low level I used to represent, so to have someone with Sol's undoubted pedigree passing on his knowledge and tips would only be a good thing in my opinion. You can't put a price on experience!

So in conclusion, I'm not Sol's biggest fan based on what I've see of him whilst playing in the black and white stripes, but I do still think that he could play an important part of the future at Newcastle.

Just not as a player.....