Kamara: City are there to be beaten
Sky pundit says Liverpool have shown the way
CHRIS KAMARA reckons that although Manchester City are favourites to retain their Premier League title, they could easily fail.
‘They’re not invincible,’ he insists. ‘Liverpool proved that with their attacking prowess. Teams that play with attacking intensity can beat them, plus Liverpool have done the best business [in the transfer market] and strengthened their weaknesses.
However, in a whistlestop event to launch Sky Sports’ football coverage for the forthcoming season, former Stoke City and Leeds United star Kamara saved his best for Stan Collymore, the former striker turned pundit who came out with some controversial remarks on football coverage recently.
‘To be a black pundit you either need to be a comedian like Chris Kamara or Ian Wright — guys who have big pearly-white smiles and everyone loves laughing at — or Jermaine Jenas and Alex Scott, who are completely inoffensive,’ said Collymore.
‘What you’re not allowed to do is call out the status quo, which is what I do, ’ added the former Notts Forest, Liverpool and England striker. He also referred to Ian Wright on Twitter as an ‘Uncle Tom’.
Kamara, was having none of it, though.
‘Make your arguments but don’t denigrate the black people working in the sport.’
Asked if the Premier League should adopt a Rooney Rule (after the NFL rule which requires ethnic minority candidates to be interviewed for coaching roles), Kamara was unequivocal.
‘People should get jobs on their merit. Darren Moore got his job [West Brom manager] on merit. Maybe he needed the previous manager to have bad luck, but there are lots of white managers who need the previous manager to have bad luck as well.’
Luck was in relatively short supply during his own spells as manager first at Bradford (for whom he signed Moore as a player) and briefly with Stoke, although he did guide Bradford to promotion from the old second division (League 1) in 1995/96.
‘You could say that in hindsight, but I don’t regret anything. Maybe I wouldn’t have ended where I am now. I’d be stupid now to give up what I’ve got. I don’t miss management.
‘I thought I might manage Middlesborough at some point because I’m good friends with Steve Gibson, the chairman. That was for a few years after the Stoke job, until about 2002,’ he added.
‘You become a student of the game as you get older. When I’m not working I’m watching. I lived and breathed football.
‘When you’re a player, you don’t think the manager is thinking about you when you go home. I was old school,’ added the popular Sky Sports presenter.
‘I would turn up, do my job and go home. When you’re a manager you think about all these things.’
Sky Sports will show 159 Premier League matches this season, including Saturday 3pm kick-offs exclusive to Irish viewers. The first round of 31 fixtures kicks off tomorrow night on Sky Sports Premier League and NOW TV.