WOW:
Craig Bellamy in this interview only saying what I have said the last few years that no real money had been put in to our Academy etc etc.
For me it’s thanks to Bellamy working for two years for FREE & then Steve Morison then helping get some of these players play better and believe etc etc
But to many thrown in to the first team squad this season.
Craig Bellamy: "If you haven’t made it at 19, 20, 21, something is wrong.”
“At Cardiff, we had no money, with very limited resources.”
“With no money Cardiff have been forced to put all these players in to the first team squad.”
By Scott Johnson
Thursday 24th December 2021
Interviewed by Scott Johnson
CRAIG BELLAMY:
“I’ve been wrestling recently with whether the current crop of players are breaking through because they’re so much better than what has gone before, or is it just a culmination of circumstances and they’re finally giving them a chance? “
“In 2017, when I was at the Cardiff academy, we had very limited resources. From day to day, we didn’t even know where we were going to train or what time because we didn’t have a pitch. We had about five different home grounds, scattered around Cardiff. We even had to go to Newport or Treforest sometimes, but it was never an excuse because we used to tell them that when they do make it, they’ll appreciate everything. Now go and show them how hard you work. We turned it in to a positive. We’ve always had good players, but if you don’t give them the opportunity, you’ll never know. If Sion Spence had played at 16 or 17, which he should have and I tried so hard for him, you’ll lose him.”
“Under-23 football is one of the biggest sins in the game. It’s a waste of time and every coach at that level would tell you the same. The opposition is poor and the games not that competitive. If you haven’t made it at 19, 20, 21, something is wrong.”
“ Some managers will keep them because they want to win games, but he doesn’t care about the players. Category Two academies are not good enough.”
“ I was lucky because in pre-season, we would play Liverpool, West Ham and all my ex-clubs, but you don’t normally get that standard of games. Covid has changed things for young players because clubs haven’t got any money. Now you have no choice but to play young players.”
“Would Cardiff have still done it had they not been affected? I don’t know, but they’ve been forced to.”
“I got my start because Norwich were debt ridden after relegation. They had to play me and I wasn’t good enough to be playing regularly. My first year in the Championship at 18, I scored 13 goals and learned so much about the game. There were a lot of games where I didn’t play well, but when they sold me two years later for £6.5m, it was all due to those circumstances. Was I still not playing at 19 or 20, you might not have ever heard of me. Sion is a prime example. He was playing youth football at 14. He was incredible, one of the best players I’ve ever coached and that’s including Anderlecht, which is another level. He would have thrived in that environment. If you don’t put them in, they get stale and go backwards.“
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.