Former Arsenal and Tottenham defender Sol Campbell has claimed clubs are scared of hiring him as a manager.

The 43-year-old was overlooked for the vacant Oxford United job, which eventually went to Craig Bellamy. His only experience in management has come from a stint as an assistant to Trinidad and Tobago manager Dennis Lawrence.

But Campbell believes clubs are missing out one of "football's greatest minds".

Campbell told Highbury & Heels: "I did go (for the Oxford job) and they didn't accept me.

"Maybe it was a lack of experience, things like that, but it's a full circle. Experience? How do I get experience? Well I need a job to get experience.

"I don't want to go too low that it's a struggle, and I don't want to go too low that I'm under someone and thinking, 'What am I doing here?' I would rather be managing a club myself.

"I'm confident and it's not like it's rocket science to run a football club, especially when you get to that level. If you're intelligent enough and a quick learner you will learn pretty soon, within two or three games, what the team needs, training-wise, to survive in that league, get better in that league, to get in the play-offs or even win the league.

"I'm intelligent enough, it's not like I played on a fox and dog pitch all my life. I can't believe some people. I'm one of the greatest minds in football and I'm being wasted because of a lack of experience or 'maybe he talks his mind too much'.

"Go to Germany — they love people who speak their minds. They got the jobs. I'm sorry that I've got a mind, but don't be scared of that. That should be something you want at your club, but obviously not."