And now captain of Nottingham Forest!
Nottingham Evening Post
Camp happy to remain opinionated as he takes on skippers' role
Saturday, March 13, 2010,
WHEN it comes to football, Lee Camp is never a man who is shy to offer an opinion.
Thoughtful, but also blunt speaking and forthright, the keeper is never overly concerned about saying exactly what he thinks.
It always makes for an interesting, absorbing conversation when he is chosen to face the Press in the build up to games.
And it is also exactly why Billy Davies has selected him to take the captain's armband.
In the absence of the injured Paul McKenna, the Nottingham Forest stopper will have some significant shoes to fill.
But, while he recognises that as well as anyone, he pledges that he will continue to be opinionated, if it helps spur the Reds' push towards the Premiership.
"It is my duty now, to be captain," he said. "But it is a major disappointment for Kenna.
"Hopefully it will not be the whole season on the sidelines for him. But, if it is, it will be such a sad ending.
"He has been absolutely brilliant on and off the field.
"Hopefully he can still have an influence off the field, because of the kind of professional he is.
"I am sure he will do everything he can to get himself fit."
Camp, credited by manager Davies as being a strong leader in his own right, believes men like McKenna are a rarity in the modern game.
"They don't come around very often, professionals like Kenna," he said.
"He is an old fashioned type of midfielder and an old fashioned sort of pro.
"He is a dying breed in football.
"I know people like Darren Moore and Michael Johnson from my time at Derby and Gavin Mahon from QPR.
"They are all tremendous leaders – and so is Kenna.
"I wish him a full and speedy recovery. Hopefully he will be back sooner, rather than later.
"He will be missed as a player firstly, because he does the ugly side of the game very well.
"He is a great example to young players who are learning the game.
"He has great quality on the ball.
"When you look at the amount of games he has played, a lot of our success has come through his work rate.
"He will be missed as a player and a captain, because of the way he leads by example."
Camp does not believe he will be alone in filling the leadership void left by McKenna, who is fighting to play again this season after damaging the medial ligament in his knee.
"We have a couple of players in the side who can help," he said.
"But we will see, I have only captained the side once, away at Birmingham – and we did okay that night.
"I am pretty vocal and opinionated and I am not afraid to say what I think.
"I will continue to be like that."
Forest travel to Preston today before journeying to Barnsley on Tuesday.
And, following four consecutive defeats on the road in the Championship, Camp sees it as a chance to bounce back to their previous form, which saw them unbeaten in ten months away from the City Ground.
"We do need to get back to that," he said. "But, bar the Leicester game, we lost the majority of our games 1-0.
"And I don't think the Leicester game was a 3-0 defeat.
"I don't agree with the assessment of a few people in the Leicester side.
"The scoreline was flattering and, bar that game, defensively we have been okay.
"The manager came out and said that he expected us to perhaps go eight or nine games unbeaten at some stage.
"So, to go 19 unbeaten probably blew our expectations out of the water. It was a great achievement.
"Now we have to get back to doing what we do best away from home, which is working hard and creating chances.
"We have to prove we have just had a little blip.
"Even the best sides in the world get beaten away from home.
"Look at AC Milan at Manchester United. They got taken to the cleaners.
"It happens at every level of the game.
"There is a little disappointment that we have let ourselves down in the odd away game.
"But there are still a lot of positives to be taken from where we are.
"We will put in the hard work and see where it takes us."
Camp, in fact, believes it will take some serious hard work to secure promotion – fearing that it could take as many as nine wins in their remaining 11 games to claim second place.
But he says he has not allowed himself to study the run-ins that West Brom and Newcastle have between now and the end of the season.
"You can sit down and look at everyone's run in. But, if you did that, you could spend six weeks looking at things, considering all the possibilities," he said.
"We just have to worry about ourselves, we can't influence anything else. What we do will get us to where we want to be.
"If we keep playing well, keep winning games and see where it takes us."
And, in the meantime, though McKenna will certainly be missed, in Camp, Forest still have one man who will not be shy about being vocal.
www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/homesport/Camp-happy-remain-opinionated-takes-skippers-role/article-1908983-detail/article.html
