Alious
Lee Camp has opened up about his short and troubled spell at Sunderland, admitting he never felt prepared for the move and that the situation around the club was already spiralling long before he arrived.
He recalled how suddenly the opportunity came up: he received a call telling him Sunderland wanted him to start immediately in the upcoming match against Ipswich. Camp said the news left him stunned — he knew deep down he wasn’t ready. But pride, instinct, and the competitive mentality pushed him toward accepting.
He discussed the decision with Bryce, who encouraged him to go for it, with the thinking that nothing catastrophic could happen. But Camp says the opposite happened. Standing in the tunnel at the Stadium of Light for his debut, he realised just how overwhelming the moment was. From there, he says, things deteriorated fast.
“It still doesn’t sit right with me”
Camp admits that his time at Sunderland remains a disappointment he’s never fully shaken off. While he acknowledges he has left clubs before with mixed memories, he believes he always made a positive contribution wherever he went — except at Sunderland.
He says it was the one place where he simply couldn’t build momentum or deliver the level required. “It never got going,” he admitted. “I was nowhere near what the club needed.”
“Even Superman couldn’t have saved that club”
Camp didn’t hold back when describing the wider problems at Sunderland during that period. He believes the club was already broken at its foundations — weighed down by the aftermath of relegation from the Premier League and a belief within the organisation that they shouldn’t have been in the Championship at all.
According to him, the environment was damaged, the culture was wrong, and the entire structure was in denial about its situation. In his words, the club was “rotten at the core.”
“It needed to hit rock bottom”
Camp argued that Sunderland needed to collapse completely before it could rebuild. He described the club at the time as disorganised, unfocused, and treating the football itself as a secondary concern. Instead of streamlined planning and clarity of purpose, he felt everything was drifting.
“The fans think I’m rubbish — and honestly, they’re probably right”
Despite the negativity surrounding his time at the club, Camp praised Sunderland supporters, calling them loyal and deserving of far better. He admitted they have every right to criticise him for his performances.
He joked that fans think he was “crap” — and that the evidence doesn’t do much to defend him.
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Alious
