Q&A with Craig Bellamy -

Cymru Manager Craig Bellamy has been travelling around the country, speaking to fans and answering their many questions. This Q & A took place in Brynaman supporting Joseph’s Smile

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This event was chaired by the FAW’s Ian Gwyn Hughes, and it started with Craig talking about how important it is that kids are playing football, or any sport. Children need to be physically active not just to keep them fit but for their mental health as well.

He mentioned that one of the reasons he wants to get to the World Cup is money, whether that is prize money or sponsorships. With the FAW being not for profit, he wants to see that money invested into grassroots football, astroturf pitches and better facilities. When he was young (and it’s the same now) the local clubs didn’t go out in the communities, looking for players. This meant he had to go to Norwich, and other young players in his street when to Chelsea and other English clubs. He wants to see the FAW going out and giving these youngsters the opportunity to play football.

Bellamy’s Playing Career

Bellamy then talked about his career, signing for Norwich City at the age of 11. Saying it was a great experience, every half term going to play tournaments in Denmark and Sweden. He got to see how players from aboard played very early on, and was exposed to international travel and varied teams. He loved it at Norwich as they looked after the young players very well. He didn’t want to leave even when at 14 years old, Leeds United offered his parents £15,000 for him to sign for them. His parents asked if he wanted to go to Leeds, but he told them he was happy at Norwich. He liked that the First Team Manager and players knew his name and made the young players feel part of the team.

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It was at that age, he said, that football became serious. It was much more than playing every weekend … it was eating the right things, going to bed at the right time, not going out when your friends go out. But it was also at this time that he started feeling homesick and it became very difficult for him, wanting to go back home to Cardiff. Because of this he said that he lost a little interest in football and became a ‘rule breaker’. Laughingly saying that telling him to do something never works, ask him and explain why and he will do anything.

This all changed when he met one of the Cymru Under 21 coaches at Norwich City and having a fellow Welshman at the club changed things for him. He got the hunger back for the game. Then at 17, he and his partner had a baby and he knew then that he had to give football a go. If it worked out or not he said, he could look his child in the eye and say that he gave it his best shot.

The advice he gave to the young people in the audience that wanted to be footballers was to try their best at everything they do, don’t give up when you have disappointments, accept them and embrace them, stick at it. He described himself as someone who if there was a wrong turn to take he took it, but he learned from those mistakes and moved on. He encouraged everyone, despite their age, if they find something they really love doing, give it everything.

He went back to his playing time saying that he wishes he enjoyed his career more, wasted so much time being angry. Playing for Newcastle with Sir Bobby Robson was his favourite time of his career. Signing for Liverpool he thought that was where he should be, being a Liverpool supporter since 1986. It was all he dreamt of growing up.

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Playing for Cymru when he was 18 against Jamaica was a big moment for him. When asked if he would have been a different player if he wasn’t angry all the time he laughed and said ‘Yeah, I would have had more energy’.

Sometimes he would wind-up the opposition players because he needed them to bite, getting them more interested in kicking him than tackling him made it easier for him to get passed them. He got this style of play from watching Ian Wright play for Arsenal. Now that he’s a manager he takes his style from Sir Bobby Robson, the way Sir Bobby could man manage every player in the right way. He learnt from him to talk to every player and when he speaks to them not to be negative because he won’t get the best of them by being negative all the time. With the Welsh players he likes to know everything about them, backgrounds, families etc. He knows which players are the type who he needs to talk to a lot or to leave alone.

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He mentioned that family comes first and that a couple of times players have turned up for training camps when their partners are about to give birth and he sent them home, telling them their place is safe and being with family at these times is more important than football.

Managerial Style

He was then asked about Mark Hughes who had just taken a job with Carlisle. He said that he was great when he first took charge of Cymru and changed a lot of things. But football changes and you need to move with it.

Bellamy said that on the way to the Q & A he was watching Kazakhstan’s new manager’s former club side to pick up any habits he has in certain situations. Craig mentioned that he knows what the manager will do if they go one up or one down, or if they get a player sent off. He passes this along to our players, so they are prepared for the changes when they happen. This is the amount of detail you need to go into for each game. The game has changed completely since Hughes was in charge of Cymru.

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They moved on to the other Cymru managers he played under, saying something crazy always happened in every camp under Bobby Gould. Mark Hughes brought them on but under Toshack it went backwards, too many players retired, and Tosh was more than happy to let them go. Bellamy mentioned Simon Davies still had four or five years of international football in him. He thinks that it wasn’t just that training wasn’t great but that standards had dropped. There were times under Toshack when he thought he couldn’t go on playing for Wales. Often he didn’t touch the ball for long periods of time and in one game he heard German defenders laughing at the Welsh team.

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Then Gary Speed changed everything for the better. One of the main things was bringing in the coach’s’ license training. It made money for the FAW, but players also had access to the best young coaches when they were getting their licenses.

He told us that he used a picture of the mural of Gary Speed as the opening for his presentation to the FAW and he sees Gary’s short time in charge as the start of his own journey to managing Cymru.

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He said that when Coleman took over he didn’t like him because he wasn’t Gary. He stressed that Chris is a nice man but whoever took over from Gary, Bellamy wouldn’t like him. He couldn’t cope with going to the same hotels as he did with Gary, or to meetings that Speed should have taken, Bellamy admitted that his mental health was not good at that time. He just wanted to turn up and play but couldn’t cope with Gary not being there.

Asked if he wished that he had stayed on a couple more years with Cymru so he could have played in the Euros, he said that during the first game in Bordeaux he did. But he knew at the time he finished that it was time to give up, because his body couldn’t cope anymore, taking two days to recover after matches . He knew he couldn’t have lasted the two years and made the Euros.

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He spoke about missing out under Mark Hughes, saying that qualifying went on one year too long for the squad. Everyone was at their peak during the first part, but during the second half they were holding on and everyone was just that year too old. Of course, he missed out playing in the Playoffs due to an injury which could have made a difference.

Before we were invited to ask questions, he talked about how this was the right time for him to take over Cymru. He said that he looked at the team as the right team to play his style of football. He wasn’t expecting the FAW to come for him but when they did, and after speaking to his partner, he knew he had to do it. Gary Speed being his inspiration. He knows they can be successful in qualifying, but they can do better when they get there, not just be happy to be in the group at the World Cup and improve on last time they were there.

One thing he told the players straight away was that they could not swap shirts on the pitch. They worked too hard for the shirt to give it away, especially in front of the fans. During training, the players are not allowed to leave their shirts on the ground, they have to give them to the kit-man. The Cymru badge is not allowed to touch the ground, they need to show respect for everything the badge stands for. The players also clean the dressing rooms after themselves. ‘Not just beat you on the pitch, but we will show you how nice the Welsh people are.’ When playing away he wants only good things said about the Cymru players and coaching team.

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I asked Craig about the Under 21 players; playing well and scoring big goals in FA Cup ties. It’s exciting times?

He wants more from them and went on to tell me that it’s the Under 19’s that are strong. He would like to see the Under 19’s in the team for the next Euros as he sees them already fitting the profile of first team players. The problem with the Under 21’s is that Cymru don’t develop the players, the clubs do. He wants players to play with high intensity and the 19’s play with that style, but it all depends on how the clubs develop them from here. Clubs like Swansea play the same way as he wants. The 19’s are really strong. (Fair play he give a 4/5 minute answer to my question.)

Q&A with Craig Bellamy

Bellamy’s Playing Career

Managerial Style

Other questions people asked:

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