Mallorcabantam
11-22-2006, 08:50 PM
After serving with the British Royal Navy, Kamara joined Portsmouth in 1975, beginning a professional footballing career that saw him move between 9 clubs, scoring 71 goals in 641 league appearances.
After acquiring a reputation as a hard man as a player, this continued into his forays as a manager, resulting with him being censured for his conduct. Kamara spent short spells as manager of Stoke City and Bradford City, nearly relegating the former and the latter being the club he ended his playing career with. He steered the Bantams to promotion in the 1995-96 season through the play-offs, and is very highly thought of at Valley Parade.
Despite bad conduct on the football field, Kamara is now regarded as a friendly and generous man - often it has been reported of his approachability - he always seems to be able to spare time to chat and give autographs to fans.
History at Bradford city 27-11-1995 - 06-01-1998
The contribution that Chris Kamara made to Bradford City cannot and should not be underestimated. When Kamara took the role of City boss until the end of the 1995-1996 season the club were struggling in the middle of Division Two.
It took Kamara a month or two, time of many transfer dealings, before he formed a settled team but once he did he saw his team embark on a long string of results that culminated one sunny May afternoon at Wembley. Somehow Kamara never seemed able to handle the pressure of managing at a higher level. His judgement in the transfer market was scatter-gun, some brilliant signings; Schwartzer, Blake and of course Waddle combined with plenty of woeful players. Kamara's side inherited a spirit from their crazed manager and that alone kept them in Division one with a fine 3-0 victory over QPR on the last day of the season.
After topping the Division One table following a 2-1 win at Huddersfield Kamara was unable to settle his team, wins becoming draws and eventually losses before he was sacked after losing an FA cup tie at Manchester City. Without doubt Kamara laid the foundations for the success on the field enjoyed by Paul Jewell but his lack of transfer market sense, signing John McGinlay for £650,000 while only bidding £500,000 for Lee Mills, cost him dear.
Kamara's Worst: Losing new signing Gordon Watson to a vicious tackle six minutes into his third game. The crowd were used to Kamara's histrionics, but you really felt for the man that day.
Kamara's Finest: Leading his team out at Wembley, then taking them back in as winners.
After acquiring a reputation as a hard man as a player, this continued into his forays as a manager, resulting with him being censured for his conduct. Kamara spent short spells as manager of Stoke City and Bradford City, nearly relegating the former and the latter being the club he ended his playing career with. He steered the Bantams to promotion in the 1995-96 season through the play-offs, and is very highly thought of at Valley Parade.
Despite bad conduct on the football field, Kamara is now regarded as a friendly and generous man - often it has been reported of his approachability - he always seems to be able to spare time to chat and give autographs to fans.
History at Bradford city 27-11-1995 - 06-01-1998
The contribution that Chris Kamara made to Bradford City cannot and should not be underestimated. When Kamara took the role of City boss until the end of the 1995-1996 season the club were struggling in the middle of Division Two.
It took Kamara a month or two, time of many transfer dealings, before he formed a settled team but once he did he saw his team embark on a long string of results that culminated one sunny May afternoon at Wembley. Somehow Kamara never seemed able to handle the pressure of managing at a higher level. His judgement in the transfer market was scatter-gun, some brilliant signings; Schwartzer, Blake and of course Waddle combined with plenty of woeful players. Kamara's side inherited a spirit from their crazed manager and that alone kept them in Division one with a fine 3-0 victory over QPR on the last day of the season.
After topping the Division One table following a 2-1 win at Huddersfield Kamara was unable to settle his team, wins becoming draws and eventually losses before he was sacked after losing an FA cup tie at Manchester City. Without doubt Kamara laid the foundations for the success on the field enjoyed by Paul Jewell but his lack of transfer market sense, signing John McGinlay for £650,000 while only bidding £500,000 for Lee Mills, cost him dear.
Kamara's Worst: Losing new signing Gordon Watson to a vicious tackle six minutes into his third game. The crowd were used to Kamara's histrionics, but you really felt for the man that day.
Kamara's Finest: Leading his team out at Wembley, then taking them back in as winners.