Unsung hero Kevin Campbell scored crucial goals in Arsenal’s amazing 90s success and saved Everton from relegation

KEVIN CAMPBELL has at times, unfairly, been overlooked when Arsenal fans recall their team of the early nineties.

The striker often found himself playing second fiddle to club legends like Alan Smith and Ian Wright, who, at the time, were at the peak of their powers.

But his contributions to the club’s success during the George Graham era deserve recognition.

They should have been highlighted and lauded long before his untimely passing.

After all, he scored some truly crucial goals for the club – in particular during their Cup double-winning campaign in the 1992/93 season.

There would have been no League and FA Cup double had it not been for his vital equalisers against Millwall and Derby County respectively.

Those goals wouldn’t be his only pivotal contributions, with Campbell scoring in the semi-final of the club’s victorious European Cup Winners Cup campaign the following season.

Campbell’s love affair with the Gunners would come to an end after the 1994/95 season, in which he fell further down the pecking order at Highbury after his form waned.

He was sold to Nottingham Forest for an initial fee of £2.5million and spent three seasons at the City Ground.

He suffered the pain of relegation in the 1996/97 season but stuck around to fire the club back to the top flight the following season, in which he scored 23 goals.

Campbell, however, didn’t stick around as he controversially upped sticks to join Turkish outfit Trabzonspor the following summer.

His move to Turkey was seemingly the catalyst for Forest’s then-star striker Pierre van Hooijdonk to go on strike for THREE MONTHS.

Campbell would spend a mere seven months in Trabzon before joining Everton, where he has legendary status.

He almost singlehandedly saved the Toffees from relegation in the 1998/99 season with nine goals in eight appearances.

His incredible relegation-saving haul is still, to this day, talked about by the Goodison Park faithful.

He further wrote his name into Everton folklore the following season with a winning goal in the Merseyside Derby at Anfield.

Campbell scored a total of 39 goals in 150 appearances for the Toffees, whom he captained in the 2001-02 campaign.

As well as being Everton’s first-ever black captain, he’s the club’s fifth-highest Premier League goalscorer.

Campbell would leave Goodison in January 2005 following the expiration of his contract, which paved the way for a move to West Brom.

And he was at his relegation-saving best with three goals in 18 appearances that helped the Baggies become the first team to beat the drop after being bottom at Christmas.

He replicated the haul the following season but the Baggies ended up dropping into the Championship.

Campbell would bring the curtain down on his career after the 2006-07 season, in which he made 20 appearances for Stoke City.

Campbell never got the opportunity to represent his country in his near 20-year professional career.

He likely would have had England not been blessed with so many top strikers in the 90s.

The closest he got to a cap was a standby spot for a friendly with Spain in 1992.

Like many former footballers, Campbell would eventually transition into a life of punditry – lending his expertise to the likes of Sky Sports and the Premier League when his former sides played.

But he also – even though he didn’t have to – made several appearances on up-and-coming fan channels.

That alone is a testament to the character of the man, who was a titan off the pitch as he was on it.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk