Craig Bellamy on the move again?

Manchester City’s Craig Bellamy is certainly a very strange character. He seems to have fallen out with just about everyone he has ever met yet he is captain of his country, has fifty-eight international caps and has been transferred for a combined total of around £40 million.

Poppins

He once made Alan Shearer, nicknamed Mary Poppins because of his squeaky clean image, say that he wanted to “Knock Bellamy’s block off!”

He had a public argument with first team coach at Newcastle, John Carver, that led to him throwing a chair at him. He then had a very public argument with manager Graeme Souness when he went on television to say that Souness was a liar.

Attacked

When at Liverpool it was alleged that Bellamy attacked his team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club. At West Ham, Bellamy did the seemingly impossible by apparently falling out with everybody’s favourite man, Gianfranco Zola.

At his current club Manchester City, it is clear that relations between him and his manager Roberto Mancini are somewhat frosty.

Moved

Despite all of this, Bellamy visited the war-torn West African country of Sierra Leone back in 2008 and was moved to set up the Craig Bellamy Foundation for the disadvantaged children of the country. It is reported that he put £650,000 of his own money towards building the football academy. This, together with other charity work he has done suggests that he isn’t all bad.

One thing that has never been in doubt is his ability with a football, but now it seems the thirty-one year old striker is at something of a crossroads in his career. He has serious doubts as to whether he will be named in Roberto Mancini’s squad of twenty-five players required by the new Premier League rules.

Favourite

Bellamy knows that he wasn’t Mancini’s favourite last season and he can see Emmanuel Adebayor, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz and Jo alongside him at the training ground and like everyone else, can read that his boss is looking to bring in Mario Balotelli from Italy as well.

Bellamy has now said that if he isn’t named in the City squad he might stop playing altogether,

“If I don’t get in the squad I don’t know what I will do. I might finish, full stop. Or look at every option. This game is ruthless.”

Offers

Bellamy has also revealed that he has turned down some offers from other clubs including Steve McClaren’s Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga,

“I’ve had a few options. I’ve turned down Wolfsburg. I don’t fancy Germany, it’s not somewhere I see myself playing football.”

Stay

Bellamy insists that he wants to stay at City and believes that he still has a lot to offer the club,

“I feel strongly that I can offer something at the club, but I sort of feel I am not going to be part of it. I can see it from a distance. I find that very difficult to take because I really enjoy playing for Manchester City. I think I have shown that with my commitment this year. With this twenty-five man ruling, it doesn’t matter how well I train or how good my attitude is, I might not be registered to play. So do I go without playing football until January, or do I find myself a club where I can play football? I am committed to stay where I am. I feel I deserve to be part of it, but I don’t pick the twenty-five or the team. I have to wait on their decision.”

Despite his off-field problems and his seemingly difficult personality, I would be very surprised if Craig Bellamy is not playing for someone at the top level when the season gets underway.