Love him or hate him, you can never ignore Craig Bellamy | OneFootball

Craig Bellamy is one of the most fiesty and fiery players to ever pull on the famous black and white stripes.

He is right up there with the likes of Terry Hibbitt in the 1970s and even the great Hughie Gallacher almost a century ago.

Craig Bellamy arrived at Newcastle United in 2001 in a £6.5m deal after a solitary season in the Premier League with Coventry City.

He had hardly pulled any trees up either, so quite a few pundits and supporters raised eyebrows at the sizable outlay spent on Sir Bobby Robson’s latest purchase.

Any doubts were quickly dispelled as Bellamy hit the ground running… literally.

He was one of the fastest players Newcastle fans had ever seen in years.

In pre-season, the Toon had competed in the UEFA Intertoto Cup, reaching the final, fitness levels were seemingly at a premium.

Newcastle started the 2001/02 season well and began playing some fine football.

Another summer capture, £9.5m Laurent Robert, also settled in straight away, and with the likes of Nobby Solano, Gary Speed, Kieron Dyer and Big Al also in our ranks, things began to look good and take shape.

Craig Bellamy quickly developed a telepathic understanding with Shearer and I believe ‘Bellers’ was Al’s finest ever partner up front.

Bellamy’s anticipation, positional awareness and unselfish and relentless workrate, was lapped up by the Gallowgate faithful.

He was a canny little goalscorer too and within months this ‘Marmite’ like character became a favourite of the fans.

He never went missing or shirked anything when Newcastle played in the big games.

Manchester United, Arsenal and Leeds United were all put to the sword in the first half of the campaign, and Newcastle United proudly sat on top of the Premier League on Christmas Day 2001.

Shearer and Bellamy ended up sharing a combined total of 41 goals (in all competitions that 2001/02 season) even though Bellamy was injured for the last three months of the campaign.

Newcastle eventually finished fourth in the EPL and Bellamy received the PFA Young Player of Year award for 2001/02

Craig Bellamy also knew what the Tyne/Wear derby represented to the Geordies, and saved some of his best games and goals for the mackems.

Players like Bellamy though wear their hearts on their sleeves. This often leads to their emotions overriding their natural ability.

Issue 190 – 5 February 2005

I have no doubt that Shearer and Bellamy didn’t get on. There was an age gap and both were headstrong characters, so an inevitable clash of personalities was always on the cards.

After three and a half great seasons at Newcastle Craig Bellamy finally started upsetting the applecart big time.

He and Sir Bobby’s successor Graeme Souness had a difference of opinion after an away game against Charlton Athletic at the Valley.

This led to an altercation in front of the rest of the players back home on the training ground.

The feud we were all told was sorted but resurfaced again in January 2005.

Craig Bellamy allegedly feigned an injury because he wasn’t prepared to play out of position and Souness then had all the ammunition he needed to jettison Bellamy out of Newcastle.

He was loaned out to Celtic where he then decided to get embroiled in a verbal spat with his old partner in crime Big Al after Newcastle United lost to Man U in the FA Cup semi-final in Cardiff.

There was now no way back and in the summer of 2005 Craig Bellamy joined Blackburn Rovers in a permanent deal.

Craig scored 43 goals in 128 appearances for the Toon. He also had a boatload of assists. Plus of course, Craig was also the ‘Hero of Rotterdam’ against Feyenoord in the Champions League.

His time at Newcastle was blighted by injury, incidents and controversy, but there was no doubting that he was one hell of a player.

He later went on to represent Liverpool, West Ham, Manchester City and his home town club Cardiff City.

He is currently Vincent Kompany’s assistant at Burnley and rumour has it that the duo are being considered for the prestigious managerial positions at Bayern Munich.