‘Shut up and do what you’re told’ – Man City training ground row led to Liverpool transfer

Former Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy was notoriously something of a hothead during his playing days.

Caught up in a number of bitter disputes and controversies during his 18-year playing career, his most famous altercation saw him infamously drunkenly swing for Reds team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club in the early hours during a training trip in the Algarve, after the pair had fallen out earlier in the day.

That exchange contributed to the end of the Wales international’s first stint at Anfield after just one season, as he was sold to West Ham United in a £7.5m deal in the summer of 2007. Manager Rafa Benitez would ultimately tell the striker he was free to leave the club on the flight back after their 2007 Champions League final defeat to AC Milan, informing Bellamy that he was going to sign a new striker with Liverpool’s own club-record signing of Fernando Torres pushing him further down the pecking order.

However, Bellamy was back at Anfield just four years later, as he was re-signed by Kenny Dalglish on a free transfer from Man City. Another falling out, this time with manager Roberto Mancini, led to the Welshman being frozen out at the Etihad and opened the door to his Reds return.

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Exiled by the Italian after a training ground argument saw him sent home, Bellamy would spend the 2010//11 season on loan at boyhood club Cardiff City, before belatedly being granted a free transfer to Liverpool on transfer deadline day in August 2011.

Yet such a switch came after City had spent the summer declining to cancel his contract, and was excluded from the first team throughout pre-season as he was placed with the reserves.

“At present I expect to go back there and stay the whole year,” Bellamy told the Telegraph in July 2011, eight weeks before his eventual exit. “And if Mancini is still there I’ll probably do very little. Obviously I won’t be involved with him and the first team.

“It was tough (when former manager Mark Hughes left) – it was like losing someone. It was probably as bad as losing a family member in some ways. I even struggled to eat for a few days.

“It was a totally different structure which affected me completely. Mancini told me to stay with the team all the time. We had longer training sessions, but with no intensity whatsoever.

“He seemed to know my knee better than I knew it myself. He tried to explain why I had problems with it and what I should do about it. When I told him my knee was hurting, he tried to tell me it wasn’t.

“Mancini wanted me to come in another day and do some work – but I told him I’d finished my work that day, that I was keeping to my own schedule. That was when he started about my programme, that I couldn’t follow my own schedule while he was the manager – and that I had to do what he was telling me.

“He said ‘If you don’t you can go back home now. And don’t come in again’. I replied ‘Okay, no problem, I’m going home then’. That was a week after he’d arrived – and then he never spoke to me again.

“If they pay me the final year of my wages, then I’m sure I can go wherever I want. In that case my first option would be Cardiff.”

But while Bellamy’s record might paint a picture of a character difficult to deal, with a falling out with his manager perhaps to be expected as a result, former team-mate Wayne Bridge’s own recollection of events pinpoints the initial breakdown in the pair’s relationship down to an innocent question in training.

“I just don’t get how when you’re in training and you’re coming up against mannequins, we’re going to do this, this and this,” Bridge said when speaking exclusively to the Daily Star at the launch of Clubhouse 5.

“I remember one time Bellamy asked him a question and Bellamy was our best player at the time – and he sent him home. And that was Bellamy done!

“He basically said something like ‘What happens if the centre-back goes this way?’ Something like that. And he just told him to, ‘shut up and do what you’re told!’

“He just asked about what would happen if something happened and he wouldn’t answer it. He thought Bellamy was disrespecting him, but he wasn’t.

“He was one of the best trainers, he was great with the kids and I think he got a bit misunderstood sometimes. He would work his arse off for you and I think Mancini saw it as disrespect but it wasn’t at all. Bellamy loves the game and would put his heart and soul into it.”

Bridge continued: “Bellamy lives in the moment, he says what he’s got to say. I like Bellamy, he gives you everything. I’ve seen fans give him s**t and he would say something back.

“Don’t get me wrong, he can give people a hard time but if you are doing your job right, he probably isn’t going to give you a hard time.

“He was great with the kids at City. He would take 10 minutes with the right-back at the end of a training session and tell him ‘If I’m doing this, you need to do this’. He was really, really good. He gets more stick than he deserves.”

Man City’s loss would ultimately be Liverpool’s gain, with Bellamy enjoying a successful second stint at Anfield. Despite Cardiff making a late offer to re-sign him, he couldn’t resist the lure of playing for Reds legend Dalglish.

“I’ve grown up with Kenny Dalglish, now to be signed by him is a massive honour,” he said at the time. “This is an exciting time. When Kenny took over, watching as a fan last season I got the buzz as well and it was great to see Liverpool end the season well.

“I’m very happy. It’s been a long couple of months, I had to be patient and believe something like this could happen.”

Bellamy would ultimately get the last laugh over his old manager, Mancini, at one point too following his return to Anfield. Registering nine goals from 36 appearances, the forward would score the goal that booked the Reds’ place in the League Cup final at Man City’s expense, slotting home in front of the Kop to earn a 2-2 draw and 3-2 aggregate win.

Dalglish’s side would go on to win the League Cup, which would prove to be the only major prize of Bellamy’s career in English football. Meanwhile, the Wales international also started in the FA Cup final at Wembley against Chelsea, having set up Andy Carroll’s late semi-final winner over Everton.

Bellamy would then re-join Cardiff City that summer for personal reasons, despite new manager Brendan Rodgers wanting him to stay at Liverpool. He’d spend two seasons with the South Wales club, helping them win promotion to the Premier League in 2013 before retiring in 2014.

Now a successful coach, the 43-year-old will return to Anfield again this year. Bellamy joined Burnley last summer as assistant manager to Vincent Kompany, and helped the Clarets win promotion back to the Premier League last season by winning the Championship.

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