'They hate me' – Lee Camp delivers brutally honest Sunderland fan verdict after disastrous 12-game stint
Lee Camp gives a brutally honest account of his Sunderland spell after suffering relegation to League One under Chris Coleman
Former Sunderland goalkeeper Lee Camp has spoken openly about his short and difficult spell on Wearside, admitting the move “still doesn’t really sit well” with him and describing the club as “rotten to the core” during its slide towards relegation from the Championship.
Speaking on the Second Tier Podcast, former Derby and Black Cats man Camp recalled the moment he got the call to join Sunderland in early 2018, a period defined by instability and a sense of inevitable decline. “I got a call saying, do you want to go to Sunderland and you'll play Saturday against Ipswich? And you sit there and you think, I'm not ready for this, but your ego kicks in and your pride kicks in. I sat with Bryce, and Bryce was like, well, why not?
He continued: “What's the worst that can happen? Unfortunately, the worst did. I'm standing in the tunnel at the Stadium of Light. And you're like thinking, wow, Jesus, what am I doing here? Yeah. And it went downhill pretty quick from there.”
Camp made 12 appearances after arriving on loan from Cardiff City, but his time at the Stadium of Light coincided with one of the bleakest periods in the club’s modern history. “It's one that still doesn't really sit well with me because you go in and fail,” he said. “I always like to think, although some clubs I've left with baggage, I've always contributed and left a positive effect. That was just one place that it just didn't work, just couldn't get going. It was nowhere near what was needed.”
He went further, saying the issues ran far deeper than individual performances. “That club was beyond saving, like Superman couldn't have saved that. Everything about the place was just rotten to the core. It was just hangover from the Premier League, hangover that they didn't want to be in. They thought they were too good to be in the Championship.”
The Echo has launched a new WhatsApp SAFC Channel to bring the latest news, analysis and team & injury updates direct to your phone. Simply click this link to join our SAFC WhatsApp channel.
Camp said the entire operation felt stuck between eras, weighed down by the fallout of repeated failures. “It needed to hit rock bottom, which it did, to bounce back. But it felt like everything should be streamlined, be there to do a job, to win a game of football and get out. And it just seems as if the football was almost like the second priority there.”
Despite that, he offered praise for Sunderland supporters. “It’s a shame because the fans deserve better, deserve better because they're great fans. I know like they hate me and they think I'm crap, which the evidence is there to suggest (that i was).”
Your next Sunderland read: Sunderland 'linked' with outrageous Barcelona transfer move – but £438m reality makes it inconceivable