DECISION TIME DRAWS NEAR FOR LIVERPOOL STRIKER BELLAMY
Fri Jul 06, 2012 11:30 pm
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/footballna ... -31340691/ 
CRAIG BELLAMY teams up with Stuart Pearce’s Olympic side today to get kitted out for his London 2012 gear and also begin preparations for the football tournament.
He does so with far more on his mind than any other member of Pearce’s Team GB squad ... and that has nothing to do with Bellamy concerns about defying FAW wishes not to participate in the Olympics.
As always seems to be the case around this time of year, Bellamy finds himself at the centre of frenzied media speculation surrounding who he will play for next season.
Will it be Liverpool? Could he have a reunion with his old Wales, Manchester City and Blackburn mentor Mark Hughes at Queens Park Rangers?
Or is he heading home to Wales? Presumably back to Cardiff City, although Bellamy has always spoken highly of Swansea who are, of course, a Premier League side.
Pearce won’t want the uncertainty about Bellamy’s future affecting his Welsh star as he prepares to line up next to Ryan Giggs and Aaron Ramsey in going for gold with Team GB in the coming weeks.
But Bellamy is facing decision time because it is fair to say he is approaching a crossroads in his career. The front man’s 33rd birthday is on Friday and, given his well-documented knee problems, Bellamy will know his days as a player for club and country are numbered.
With Wales, expect him to participate in the first three or four World Cup qualifiers this autumn. If Chris Coleman’s team look pretty much out of it by then, I anticipate Bellamy hanging up his international boots.
If so, who will he be plying his club football with by then? Can Malky Mackay’s Bluebirds pull off another audacious transfer coup and get Bellamy to sign on the dotted line?
The truth is no-one knows at this stage, It really does appear to be completely up in the air with lots of talking and negotiations to take place.
Bellamy is due to meet new Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers next week to see where he stands in his Anfield plans.
Playing wise, you would think he fits like a glove with how Rodgers is known to want to play the game.
Think of Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer, Rodgers’ two wide men at Swansea, and you have out-and-out speedsters who are direct, creative, score goals and work their socks off for the team by tracking back defensively.
Bellamy, of course, is exactly that type of footballer, too, only he is in a different league ability wise to the nonetheless talented Swans duo.
Bellamy’s biggest problem at Liverpool, one presumes, is not so much his undoubted footballing quality, more how many matches he would be able to play.
Sinclair and Dyer were each regulars on Rodgers’ team-sheet for the last couple of seasons. With Liverpool in 2011-12, Bellamy actually only made 12 Premier League starts, with a further 15 appearances as a substitute.
The previous year, where the demands and fitness levels in the Championship were much lower, he made almost three times that number of starts in trying to help Dave Jones’ Bluebirds reach the Premier League.
Interestingly, Liverpool put Bellamy forward as one of their Fab Four – the others being Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll – to promote their garish new purple and orange third kit this week.
The use of Bellamy for the photographs indicates the club believe he remains a fundamental part of their planning for the looming 2012-13 campaign.
Yet the talk of a Cardiff return gathers in momentum, rather than subsides, and to complicate matters further we also have Sparky and QPR suddenly in the mix.
Bellamy has the utmost admiration for Hughes and if anybody can tempt him to another Premier League club then it’s his ex-Wales boss.
Moneybags QPR could match Bellamy’s £90,000 per week wage and, under their own Malaysian owners, have real ambitions to make their Premier mark this season.
Hughes believes the cutting edge Bellamy could provide would be fundamental to the way forward.
Realistically, though, it does look like coming down to a straight choice for Bellamy – Liverpool or Cardiff.
On the face of it, there is no contest there. Liverpool remain one of the truly great brand names in world football, he is on huge money at Anfield, there is real hope that under Rodgers the good times will return.
Bellamy spoke glowingly of the work Rodgers did with Swansea last season and may fancy one last top-flight hurrah under his new manager.
However, Bellamy doesn’t need the money any more. He owns a palatial house on the outskirts of Cardiff, plus huge adjoining fields surrounding it, and for him the pull of returning home is a personal one.
Next year is a big one for Bellamy’s eldest Ellis, who will be taking his GCSEs. Bellamy may believe being at home and in the Championship outweighs the lure of Liverpool and the Premier League.
Which begs the question, of course, about how on earth the Bluebirds could afford to sign him.
Last time out, the Malaysian money-men paid a third of Bellamy’s wages, with the rest of the tab picked up by Manchester City.
Liverpool certainly won’t be so accommodating this time around. If Cardiff want Bellamy, they will have to buy him outright and come to a deal on his vast wages.
The talk is Vincent Tan would stump up around £30,000 a week, with huge bonuses on offer to Bellamy were he to take the Bluebirds into Premier League dreamland.
It would go against the grain for Bellamy to in effect lose two thirds of his salary, but he has never really been an individual driven by money.
For him, coming back would be a personal thing, while there is also the unfulfilled professional ambition of getting his home-town team into the elite.
Bellamy became a real talisman in trying to drive the Bluebirds over the line two years ago. In the end, Jones’ nerve-riddled Cardiff were so over-reliant upon him towards the closing weeks of the season that the Bellamy factor actually worked against them.
He was injured early in the first leg of the play-off semi-final clash at Reading. Without Bellamy Cardiff looked lost, their promotion hopes going up in smoke as they crashed 3-0 at home in the second leg.
Jones’ team was top heavy with front men and, as such, never really got the best out of Bellamy. Under Mackay, you sense there would be more of an organisation and Bellamy would fit seamlessly into that.
He would be the marquee signing the fans covet following the controversial rebranding of the club’s colours. The man, the Malasyians will reckon, who could get those red replica shirts up and running off the factory production line.
Bellamy, we are told, has made trips out to the far east in the last couple of years to talk football and you get the impression the Malaysians do think the world of him.
The talk has been of them wanting Bellamy to join the Bluebirds coaching staff.
If so, he could actually be the next manager in waiting as and when the Mackay era comes to an end a few years down the line.
Do well with Cardiff and, preposterous though this may sound at the moment, Bellamy could even end up as a future Wales manager.
As I say, he’s got lots of thinking to do at the moment. Team GB is probably the least pressing matter on his mind.
CRAIG BELLAMY teams up with Stuart Pearce’s Olympic side today to get kitted out for his London 2012 gear and also begin preparations for the football tournament.
He does so with far more on his mind than any other member of Pearce’s Team GB squad ... and that has nothing to do with Bellamy concerns about defying FAW wishes not to participate in the Olympics.
As always seems to be the case around this time of year, Bellamy finds himself at the centre of frenzied media speculation surrounding who he will play for next season.
Will it be Liverpool? Could he have a reunion with his old Wales, Manchester City and Blackburn mentor Mark Hughes at Queens Park Rangers?
Or is he heading home to Wales? Presumably back to Cardiff City, although Bellamy has always spoken highly of Swansea who are, of course, a Premier League side.
Pearce won’t want the uncertainty about Bellamy’s future affecting his Welsh star as he prepares to line up next to Ryan Giggs and Aaron Ramsey in going for gold with Team GB in the coming weeks.
But Bellamy is facing decision time because it is fair to say he is approaching a crossroads in his career. The front man’s 33rd birthday is on Friday and, given his well-documented knee problems, Bellamy will know his days as a player for club and country are numbered.
With Wales, expect him to participate in the first three or four World Cup qualifiers this autumn. If Chris Coleman’s team look pretty much out of it by then, I anticipate Bellamy hanging up his international boots.
If so, who will he be plying his club football with by then? Can Malky Mackay’s Bluebirds pull off another audacious transfer coup and get Bellamy to sign on the dotted line?
The truth is no-one knows at this stage, It really does appear to be completely up in the air with lots of talking and negotiations to take place.
Bellamy is due to meet new Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers next week to see where he stands in his Anfield plans.
Playing wise, you would think he fits like a glove with how Rodgers is known to want to play the game.
Think of Scott Sinclair and Nathan Dyer, Rodgers’ two wide men at Swansea, and you have out-and-out speedsters who are direct, creative, score goals and work their socks off for the team by tracking back defensively.
Bellamy, of course, is exactly that type of footballer, too, only he is in a different league ability wise to the nonetheless talented Swans duo.
Bellamy’s biggest problem at Liverpool, one presumes, is not so much his undoubted footballing quality, more how many matches he would be able to play.
Sinclair and Dyer were each regulars on Rodgers’ team-sheet for the last couple of seasons. With Liverpool in 2011-12, Bellamy actually only made 12 Premier League starts, with a further 15 appearances as a substitute.
The previous year, where the demands and fitness levels in the Championship were much lower, he made almost three times that number of starts in trying to help Dave Jones’ Bluebirds reach the Premier League.
Interestingly, Liverpool put Bellamy forward as one of their Fab Four – the others being Steven Gerrard, Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll – to promote their garish new purple and orange third kit this week.
The use of Bellamy for the photographs indicates the club believe he remains a fundamental part of their planning for the looming 2012-13 campaign.
Yet the talk of a Cardiff return gathers in momentum, rather than subsides, and to complicate matters further we also have Sparky and QPR suddenly in the mix.
Bellamy has the utmost admiration for Hughes and if anybody can tempt him to another Premier League club then it’s his ex-Wales boss.
Moneybags QPR could match Bellamy’s £90,000 per week wage and, under their own Malaysian owners, have real ambitions to make their Premier mark this season.
Hughes believes the cutting edge Bellamy could provide would be fundamental to the way forward.
Realistically, though, it does look like coming down to a straight choice for Bellamy – Liverpool or Cardiff.
On the face of it, there is no contest there. Liverpool remain one of the truly great brand names in world football, he is on huge money at Anfield, there is real hope that under Rodgers the good times will return.
Bellamy spoke glowingly of the work Rodgers did with Swansea last season and may fancy one last top-flight hurrah under his new manager.
However, Bellamy doesn’t need the money any more. He owns a palatial house on the outskirts of Cardiff, plus huge adjoining fields surrounding it, and for him the pull of returning home is a personal one.
Next year is a big one for Bellamy’s eldest Ellis, who will be taking his GCSEs. Bellamy may believe being at home and in the Championship outweighs the lure of Liverpool and the Premier League.
Which begs the question, of course, about how on earth the Bluebirds could afford to sign him.
Last time out, the Malaysian money-men paid a third of Bellamy’s wages, with the rest of the tab picked up by Manchester City.
Liverpool certainly won’t be so accommodating this time around. If Cardiff want Bellamy, they will have to buy him outright and come to a deal on his vast wages.
The talk is Vincent Tan would stump up around £30,000 a week, with huge bonuses on offer to Bellamy were he to take the Bluebirds into Premier League dreamland.
It would go against the grain for Bellamy to in effect lose two thirds of his salary, but he has never really been an individual driven by money.
For him, coming back would be a personal thing, while there is also the unfulfilled professional ambition of getting his home-town team into the elite.
Bellamy became a real talisman in trying to drive the Bluebirds over the line two years ago. In the end, Jones’ nerve-riddled Cardiff were so over-reliant upon him towards the closing weeks of the season that the Bellamy factor actually worked against them.
He was injured early in the first leg of the play-off semi-final clash at Reading. Without Bellamy Cardiff looked lost, their promotion hopes going up in smoke as they crashed 3-0 at home in the second leg.
Jones’ team was top heavy with front men and, as such, never really got the best out of Bellamy. Under Mackay, you sense there would be more of an organisation and Bellamy would fit seamlessly into that.
He would be the marquee signing the fans covet following the controversial rebranding of the club’s colours. The man, the Malasyians will reckon, who could get those red replica shirts up and running off the factory production line.
Bellamy, we are told, has made trips out to the far east in the last couple of years to talk football and you get the impression the Malaysians do think the world of him.
The talk has been of them wanting Bellamy to join the Bluebirds coaching staff.
If so, he could actually be the next manager in waiting as and when the Mackay era comes to an end a few years down the line.
Do well with Cardiff and, preposterous though this may sound at the moment, Bellamy could even end up as a future Wales manager.
As I say, he’s got lots of thinking to do at the moment. Team GB is probably the least pressing matter on his mind.
Re: DECISION TIME DRAWS NEAR FOR LIVERPOOL STRIKER BELLAMY
Sat Jul 07, 2012 10:30 am
I gave up reading when the reporter said he could even contemplate Swansea. 