Sven Goran Eriksson says he can understand Arsenal defender Sol Campbell's decision to quit Notts County earlier this season.

Eriksson has just left his job at Meadow Lane after the beleaguered club changed hands this week.

The former Manchester City boss told the Guardian: "He played that game away [at Morecambe] and asked the manager if he could go to stay for two days in Newcastle.

"He got permission and left on Saturday evening. Then he called [the chairman] Peter Trembling. Peter called me the next morning and said Sol wants to leave. I called Sol and said could we meet when he came back. We had an agreement to meet after training on Tuesday.

"He started training and in the middle of training he went. I don't know if he told the manager he had some small problems. I thought that after training we would have a meeting but when I came back he was gone. He knew the conditions at the club, I'd shown him the ground and the training ground. Of course there were promises from Willett and King that we would fix it, that they would make the stadium and dressing rooms better and everything. But nothing ­happened and Sol was concerned about that. We have never spoken since but I guess he felt cheated by them too."