Bellamy stands ground as Newcastle wait for offers
January 26, 2005
THE door was left ajar for Craig Bellamy to perform a remarkable volte-face and resurrect his career at Newcastle United, but both the player and his manager last night slammed it shut.
Boardroom sources maintained that an apology by the Wales forward would have been sufficient to keep him at St James’ Park, a suggestion that met with little favour.
“There’s no doubt about it — I am out of here,” Bellamy said.
Publicly and privately, Bellamy refused to back down from his controversial stance of the past few days. Alleged by Souness and Freddy Shepherd, the Newcastle chairman, to have feigned injury last week, the 25-year-old is adamant that the dispute has been engineered to facilitate his departure from the club.
“I won’t apologise because I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
Bellamy has admitted inventing a hamstring strain on Friday, but he rejects the allegation that he did so in order not to play on the right wing against Arsenal on Sunday.
He claims to have walked off the training pitch to arrange a meeting with Shepherd after reading newspaper reports that he would be sold to fund the acquisition of Yakubu Ayegbeni, the Portsmouth forward.
The row was exacerbated when Bellamy accused Souness of “lying” in a television interview, for which he has been fined two weeks’ wages.
Yesterday, he was also forced to train away from the first-team squad in the gymnasium at Newcastle’s training complex at Darsley Park and, while he has not officially been placed on the transfer list, his future on Tyneside can be measured in hours.
The concern for Shepherd is how to dispose of a combustible player with a history of knee problems whom he values at about £6 million — more than most Barclays Premiership clubs have at their fingertips — and who earns £40,000 a week.
As of last night, no bids had been forthcoming — “the silence has been deafening,” a source said — and the closure of the transfer window at the end of this month is looming.
The prospect of a swap deal would be entertained by Shepherd — Manchester City, with whom Newcastle have a £5 million offer for Sylvain Distin, the defender, outstanding, seem destined to lose Nicolas Anelka — while a loan arrangement, preferably to a European club, will be pursued as a last resort.
Bellamy has a high regard for Italian football, but time is against him.
He has more than two years left on his Newcastle contract.
While no eventuality can be ruled out, there seems no hope of a rapprochement at Newcastle. “Craig only need talk to his team-mate Kieron Dyer to realise Shepherd can forgive and give someone a second chance,” the source said. “The chairman was always hoping he’d see sense and apologise. If he had half a brain in his head, he’d be knocking on the manager’s door.”
The attitude of Souness — who has completed the £2.5 million signing of Amdy Faye from Portsmouth on a four-year contract — has also played a part. In regularly fielding Bellamy out of position, Souness has demonstrated a lack of faith in his ability as a striker and he remains determined Bellamy should leave.
“I would have no future here if I let any player decide when he was or was not going to train or play,” the manager said.
Opinion canvassed by the the city’s Evening Chronicle newspaper was split in support for Souness and Bellamy, but Shepherd has backed Sir Bobby Robson’s successor.
“This is not about money,” Shepherd said of Bellamy’s fine. “It is about a player thinking he is bigger than a football club. No individual, be it the chairman, manager or a player, is bigger than Newcastle United, even if that player is a multimillionaire.”
Nufcmismanagement view:
Mr Shepherd, you did a wonderful job of de-valuing a player who had grown as a player but left the club at a loss, it could only happen at Newcastle United.
Did it not cross your mind that maybe silence was the best option and that silence from you and the manager could have reaped £millions for the football club?
We doubt that it ever did.