Craig Bellamy was, shall we say, a combustible character in his playing days. Off the field, there was the brawl at Newcastle International Airport with John Carver in 2004 and an assault on John Arne Riise with a golf club when they were Liverpool teammates.
I would have paid good money to be a fly on the wall at either of those incidents, as would a lot of football supporters, I suspect.
Bellamy says the first row started when he nicked Carver’s parking space at the training ground; the second when he accused Riise of cheating on a golf course. Boys will be boys, eh, especially in the dog-eat-dog world of elite sport.
Far less amusing were Bellamy’s two red cards in United’s Champions League campaign of 2002-03, each of which earned a three-match ban. The first red was for head-butting a Dynamo Kiev defender in stoppage time; the next for throwing a punch in the opening minutes of a match against Inter Milan. The intended victim was Marco Materazzi, a notorious wind-up merchant who knew Bellamy was always likely to take the bait.
Never having visited Ukraine, I didn’t witness the Glasgow kiss he administered to Tiberiu Ghioane, though I was at St James’ Park the night he undermined the team’s prospects of advancing to the knockout stages. Like nearly all of the Toon Army, I was deeply disappointed but not that surprised by Bellamy’s behaviour against Inter.
He did have a bit of credit in the bank. Only months earlier, the Welshman had scored the vital goals against Feyenoord in Rotterdam to ensure United progressed to the second group phase of the Champions League.
One thing that can distinguish a great sportsman from merely good ones is the ability to retain control, whatever the circumstances. Lose your temper and you are liable to lose the battle.
My favourite example of one player outwitting another in the provocation game is the Shearer vs Keane incident in 2001, when the one true United were leading the Salfords 4-3. Late in the second half, the sheet-metal worker’s son from Gosforth prevented Keano from taking a quick throw-in. Words were exchanged, there was a bit of handbags and the Irish midfielder was shown a yellow card. That’s when he lost it, trying to punch our No9. The yellow was upgraded and Keane had to embark on the walk of shame. “Shearer! Shearer!” Happy days.
Fast forward (excuse the pun) and Bellamy is the manager of the Wales national team while Shearer earns his money as a pundit for any broadcaster prepared to hire him.
That’s not something I expected either man to do once they stopped playing: Shearer was less than articulate in his twenties, while Bellamy was always ready to explode. Unlikely management material, one would say.
Memories of the volatile and vertically challenged speedster were jogged this week as he stood on the touchline for the Wales v Norway encounter in the Uefa Nations League. The fourth official listened patiently as Bellamy disputed one decision after another. Honestly, I still reckon he could start an argument in a telephone kiosk if he was the only occupant and the line was dead.
The match was far more entertaining and exciting than anything England have mustered in this interminable international break. Wales adopted the novel idea of passing the ball forwards quickly, to swift teammates running into space. I’m sure it will never catch on . . .
After the 2-1 victory, the manager had some interesting comments. Wales had been winless for six games, a run that began with defeat by Bosnia-Herzegovina in a World Cup play-off in March. He had been under pressure.
Some Wales fans were unimpressed when Craig Bellamy held talks with Burnley in the summer. He eventually decided to stick with the national team, though the hostility had clearly touched a nerve.
He said in the post-match press conference he felt people “could be kinder to each other” after revealing the negativity aimed at him had also affected his family.
“It’s not me but I have kids and a wife; it’s for them; they see it,” he said.
“I’ve lived in this environment and I had it as a player, but I think there’s ways we can speak to people and just because it’s the game we love, it doesn’t give us the right to think we can say whatever we want to.
“Why can’t we have each other’s backs? Why don’t we look after each other more? Maybe that’s me.
“I’m not saying everyone’s above criticism, far from it. But I think it’s too easy, and we’re too quick.”
A thought for today from a former firebrand. It’s a funny old game, as Greavesie liked to say.