With the best part of 15 years in the media and a successful playing career behind him, Chris Kamara has established himself as one of the most popular faces in football. We had a chat with the man himself about Frank Lampard, Romelu Lukaku and who he would choose between the sticks next season.
Frank Lampard scored 211 goals for Chelsea and 250 in the Premier League altogether. He announced this month that he will leave west London this summer – how do you replace someone of that importance?
“Let’s pay tribute to Lampard first and foremost – to do that at any level of football is a great achievement, to do that at Chelsea it’s, to coin the phrase, unbelievable. He’s a Premier League legend.
“That’s what he wanted to be and he is one now, no matter what happens. That record won’t be beaten, in my opinion.
“It’s not going to be easy to replace him. He has to be grateful for that one last season, though. He has to be thankful towards Jose Mourinho to let him play as much as he did.”
There has been a lot of talk of strikers at Chelsea recently, with the likes of Diego Costa being linked with a move. However the club have Romelu Lukaku coming back this summer – what would you do with him ahead of next season?
“I would always keep him. If he was at Chelsea last season, with Mourinho swapping the three strikers – Demba Ba, Samuel Eto’o and Fernando Torres, and finding no consistency, he might look at that and think maybe I should have kept him. Things could have been much different.
“This time around you would expect Mourinho to go to him and say it’s a long season, we are going to end up playing 50 games of football, I guarantee you 20 games and it’s up to you if you want to stay or play more games at a smaller club. That’s something that only Lukaku can answer.
“If I was his agent I would be telling him to have a go. He’s done his trials now – he did brilliantly at West Brom and Everton and I’d like to see if he could go and make it impossible for Mourinho not to pick him.”
With Courtois having such a successful time at Atletico Madrid over the last three seasons, who would you choose between the sticks at Stamford Bridge next season?
“He had an exceptional season and he’s been a big reason why Atletico won La Liga. He covered himself in glory in the Champions League final as well. It’s great competition this time round.
“Courtois will want to play so it’ll be hard to keep him as a number two, but Petr Cech is by no means finished yet – no way.
“It’ll be interesting to see how he handles it.”