For Whom The Bell Tolls

Stories abound today of Craig Bellamy not only being instructed to train with the second string at Manchester City but to now stay away from the Club for being a disruptive influence.

Rumours suggest that he is back home in Cardiff with his family and will train with the Bluebirds today.

We all know that Craig at best is a complex character and judging by the number of Clubs he's played for, he cannot be easy to manage. But somewhere in amongst this is a professional footballer, who always gives his best to his employers and clearly other Managers in the past have selected the same route that Roberto Mancini is heading now right now. And I wonder how many have seen the season he's just had with City and thought 'I wish we still had Craig'.

I looked at the match on Saturday and thought exactly that because he is a player who alters the mind set of an opposing Manager - you just cannot ignore it when Craig is on the field. If the Wright-Phillips chance had fallen to Bellamy, maybe there would have been a different outcome to the match.

In all successful teams there is someone who steps outside of the cosy circle. There have been enough of them in Stretford over the years and just as quickly as Ferguson jettisoned them a new one emerged. Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have had players who have spoken out of turn, just as have lesser performers such as Wigan (Charles N'Zogbia) have now. I still subscribe to the view that Craig Bellamy was airing his personal concerns about his future but that maybe his mouth engaged before his brain. He has been accused of that in the past.

We have to respect the fact that decisions taken by Mancini are the correct ones at least for him, but in recent times we have had Robinho wanting to go and play for Santos, Toure Yaya saying he didn't really want to leave Barcelona and that he would return one day, Adebayor giving out a mixed message of wanting to play for City but stating that Juventus would be a good place to go to and Balotelli telling us he really wanted to carry on playing in Serie A.

Bellamy has never said he wanted to play for any of his suitors, perhaps other than Cardiff City. He just wants to play for City. In amidst all of the big-spending, perhaps there's something to be learned there.

Bellers In A Bad Mood

A slight tongue-in-check vid and well worth a look.

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