Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp admits: "I would have taken Sol Campbell back"

Harry Redknapp admits he would have re-signed Sol Campbell for Spurs, but fan power stopped him.

Campbell, 34, penned a six-year deal with Sven Goran Eriksson's  Notts County on Tuesday.

Redknapp still rates Campbell as one of the top six defenders in the  country  and said: “I’ll be honest with you, if I wasn’t at Tottenham, if I was at any other Premier League cub, I would have signed Sol Campbell."

Redknapp recently urged Aston Villa boss Martin O’Neill to sign him as he is desperately looking to sign a central defender.

“I think he’s still a fantastic player. Anybody looking for a centre-half would want him. I’d have taken him without any problem at all because he’s still that good.

“He’s still  one of the top six central defenders in the Premier League so, for Notts County to get him in that division, is incredible."

Campbell, 34, infuriated the Spurs fans when he saw out his contract at White Hart Lane and  signed for Arsenal - joining their arch rivals for free back in 2001.

Tottenham supporters have never forgiven Campbell and he has faced chants of "Judas' whenever he has played against them since.

And the defender admitted:  “I am not going to go into Spurs’ interest as there were other situations involved with the chairman.”

Redknapp said: “It wasn’t possible to bring him back to Tottenham. But I’m surprised no-one’s taken him in the Premier.

"I spoke to Martin O’Neill about four weeks ago and he was talking about looking for a central defender and I said: 'I’d take Sol Campbell’.

“That’s how highly I rate him still. I saw him last year when I left him behind at Portsmouth and he was still outstanding, in my opinion. I don’t know why people don’t go for him.

“You look at him and you think: 'My God, what a job he could do for me at the back this year'. You would have taken him all day long.

“I signed him and David James (at Portsmouth) and I knew we wouldn’t be a struggling team. They really took us on to another level.

“It was players like that  - like Kanu - I took him when West Brom released him, he came in and he’s still playing now.

"Nobody else fancied Sol, obviously, in the Premier League, but for him to go down and play at Notts County? He’s way above that level.”