Bellamy transfer fiasco to Cov in 2000 (6 Viewers)

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shy_tall_knight

Well-Known Member
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I was listening to the Socially Distant Sports Bar podcast and it was discussing Craig Bellamy's autobiography - Goodfella. I haven't read (nor ever will ) read the book but it sounds like it was chaos,
Newcastle had been in contact and Bellamy wanted to join them. Newcastle said not to sign for Coventry until they had tabled their bid to Norwich. Bellamy met Strachan, but Bellamy didn't have an agent but had a mate who was a financial advisor. This financial advisor didn't know anything about football but was mates with John Fashnu, Fash, the financial advisor, Bellamy were all at the meeting with Strachan, Bellamy had never met Fash previously.

Bellamy signed for Cov but really wanted to join the Toon. This may explain why he was so poor for us and also those disrespectful comments he made about the club after relegation.
 
NortonSkyBlue

NortonSkyBlue

Well-Known Member
I carry no affection for Bellamy in the slightest, however....
As bad as Bellamy was for Coventry City do you really think he would down tools because HE signed for Coventry City? There was no gun pointed at his head and until Hartson arrived it was just the wrong fit, it happens.
Do you really think a player with a 10-15 year career says I am going to be shit this season to get a move to a bigger and better club?
Comments he made about Coventry City? You should read this forum sometimes, I am convinced some of them are Craig Bellamy.
Finally it was a good read and whatever your feelings for Bellamy he has done some very positive things with his African charity.
 
fatso

fatso

Well-Known Member
riyadhskyblue said:
I carry no affection for Bellamy in the slightest, however....
As bad as Bellamy was for Coventry City do you really think he would down tools because HE signed for Coventry City? There was no gun pointed at his head and until Hartson arrived it was just the wrong fit, it happens.
Do you really think a player with a 10-15 year career says I am going to be shit this season to get a move to a bigger and better club?
Comments he made about Coventry City? You should read this forum sometimes, I am convinced some of them are Craig Bellamy.
Finally it was a good read and whatever your feelings for Bellamy he has done some very positive things with his African charity.
Click to expand...
He's still a c**t!
 
fernandopartridge

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
Bellamy was 19 wasn't he? He wasn't by any stretch the reason for us going down.

The club had lost its two highest scoring players which included a very influential captain, there were some major week spots in the side that Strachan just did not address (a centre half to partner Breen, both full backs) which were hugely exposed. Remember Strachan started the season with Colin Hendry at centre back.
 
Terry Gibson's perm

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
fatso said:
tbf, Paul Culpin is right up there with the likes of Bouwe Bosma and Mick Harford
#fuckinlegends
Click to expand...

You can tell Mick Harford he isn’t though I’m not brave enough.

My favourite would be Peter Hormantshuk
 
Terry Gibson's perm

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
fernandopartridge said:
Bellamy was 19 wasn't he? He wasn't by any stretch the reason for us going down.

The club had lost its two highest scoring players which included a very influential captain, there were some major week spots in the side that Strachan just did not address (a centre half to partner Breen, both full backs) which were hugely exposed. Remember Strachan started the season with Colin Hendry at centre back.
Click to expand...

We had a lot of problems at that time and Strachan was a major cause he should have sacked the cone carrier Pendry? Who was a buffoon and tried to stop his chairman playing football manager when signing foreign players
 
P

play_in_skyblue_stripes

Well-Known Member
fernandopartridge said:
Bellamy was 19 wasn't he? He wasn't by any stretch the reason for us going down.

The club had lost its two highest scoring players which included a very influential captain, there were some major week spots in the side that Strachan just did not address (a centre half to partner Breen, both full backs) which were hugely exposed. Remember Strachan started the season with Colin Hendry at centre back.
Click to expand...

I disagree.

The two main reasons for getting relegated was Gordon Strachen and his arrogance and buying a replacement for Keano that just flopped. Preferable if Gary Mac would have stayed obviously but not a key factor in my view. Gary M best season by far was 99/00 and wasn't an outstanding success apart from that season. If Strachen had gone after Bradford away, I think survival was very likely the same true if John Hartson coming a couple of months earlier .

I agree Colin Hendry purchase also flopped badly. Much as many hold Paul Williams and Richard Shaw with great affection they were both realistically lower level premier defenders which we should have improved upon. No angst personally against either player.
 
Grendel

Grendel

Well-Known Member
fernandopartridge said:
Bellamy was 19 wasn't he? He wasn't by any stretch the reason for us going down.

The club had lost its two highest scoring players which included a very influential captain, there were some major week spots in the side that Strachan just did not address (a centre half to partner Breen, both full backs) which were hugely exposed. Remember Strachan started the season with Colin Hendry at centre back.
Click to expand...

Yeah he was a kid. We spent months trying to get Hartson and couldn’t get him until it was too late. We were signing nonsense like Zuniga there was a lot of strange signings which strachan had no say in. One season we signed one player who he’d never heard of and whose wife had a miscarriage the week they arrived he couldn’t speak English played the day after signing as he was told to play him. That wasn’t I think the relegation season but it was a very strange time
 
speedie87

speedie87

Well-Known Member
riyadhskyblue said:
I carry no affection for Bellamy in the slightest, however....
As bad as Bellamy was for Coventry City do you really think he would down tools because HE signed for Coventry City? There was no gun pointed at his head and until Hartson arrived it was just the wrong fit, it happens.
Do you really think a player with a 10-15 year career says I am going to be shit this season to get a move to a bigger and better club?
Comments he made about Coventry City? You should read this forum sometimes, I am convinced some of them are Craig Bellamy.
Finally it was a good read and whatever your feelings for Bellamy he has done some very positive things with his African charity.
Click to expand...

His charity closed down after allegeded financial irregularities and an enquiry from charities commission...
 
S

steve cooper

Well-Known Member
I only remember Bellamy having one decent game for us, can't remember who we were playing but we won 1-0 and Bellamy got the goal. Newcastle scouts were in the stands and had come to watch him IIRC.
 
S

shy_tall_knight

Well-Known Member
Bellamy was a huge gamble although he was older than Robbie Keane and like Keane unproven at PL level, he missed nearly all the previous season with a serious injury and he joined a team that had lost its most influential players from the previous season. although he went on to be a high performing player at Newcastle, it was not as an out and out goals corer that was not his best attribute. Buying McCallister for £3m and then him leaving on a free is the economics of the madhouse, we could not afford to take such a financial hit. also the team that played against Bradford away - which was mentioned earlier in the post, Williams, Mo ,Quinn & Telfer not PL quality IMO

Kirkland, Breen, Williams, Konjic, Quinn, Thompson, Telfer, Palmer, Eustace, Hadji, Aloisi.
Subs: Hedman, Edworthy, Bellamy, Chippo, Roussei
 
L

Legia Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
steve cooper said:
I only remember Bellamy having one decent game for us, can't remember who we were playing but we won 1-0 and Bellamy got the goal. Newcastle scouts were in the stands and had come to watch him IIRC.
Click to expand...

Think that might have been Leicester. His best games were away from home, Man City and Southampton early in the season and Leicester late on after Hartson had signed.

We sold Keane right before the season and Bellamy seemed something of a panic signing. Selling Keane was good for his investors but bad for the club. Even if the £6m profit had gone into the club's coffers our relegation meant we lost much more. Bellamy's subsequent career shows he was a good enough player, but the timing was all wrong for us. He was just getting over a really bad knee injury & as pointed out probably didn't really want to come to us. His 'big time' atttude and arrogance should have been picked up by someone at the club considering the investment being made into him. He was polar opposite to Keane in terms of embracing his surroundings and putting his heart and soul into the club, for the unfortunately short time we had him.

Before Keane left us we had also let Whelan go, probably because the Keane/ Roussel partnership had worked so well the previous season. Without Keane however Roussel became ineffectual, while despite his excellent scoring record Strachan could never trust himself to give Aloisi (or even Zuniga) an extended run in the team. Not signing Hartson until it was too late was just a culmination of errors and bad decisions which helped cement our relegation, which could so easily have been avoided.
 
Sky_Blue_Daz

Sky_Blue_Daz

Well-Known Member
shy_tall_knight said:
Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere but I was listening to the Socially Distant Sports Bar podcast and it was discussing Craig Bellamy's autobiography - Goodfella. I haven't read (nor ever will ) read the book but it sounds like it was chaos,
Newcastle had been in contact and Bellamy wanted to join them. Newcastle said not to sign for Coventry until they had tabled their bid to Norwich. Bellamy met Strachan, but Bellamy didn't have an agent but had a mate who was a financial advisor. This financial advisor didn't know anything about football but was mates with John Fashnu, Fash, the financial advisor, Bellamy were all at the meeting with Strachan, Bellamy had never met Fash previously.

Bellamy signed for Cov but really wanted to join the Toon. This may explain why he was so poor for us and also those disrespectful comments he made about the club after relegation.
Click to expand...
Bloody great podcast , Mike bubbins is hilarious. The jonny marr segment from a couple of weeks ago was brilliant
 
Terry Gibson's perm

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
shy_tall_knight said:
Bellamy was a huge gamble although he was older than Robbie Keane and like Keane unproven at PL level, he missed nearly all the previous season with a serious injury and he joined a team that had lost its most influential players from the previous season. although he went on to be a high performing player at Newcastle, it was not as an out and out goals corer that was not his best attribute. Buying McCallister for £3m and then him leaving on a free is the economics of the madhouse, we could not afford to take such a financial hit. also the team that played against Bradford away - which was mentioned earlier in the post, Williams, Mo ,Quinn & Telfer not PL quality IMO

Kirkland, Breen, Williams, Konjic, Quinn, Thompson, Telfer, Palmer, Eustace, Hadji, Aloisi.
Subs: Hedman, Edworthy, Bellamy, Chippo, Roussei
Click to expand...

The squad looks unbalanced when you see two top level goalkeepers and then players like Quinn Telfer and Mo who were not nearly good enough
 
S

steve cooper

Well-Known Member
Legia Sky Blue said:
Think that might have been Leicester. His best games were away from home, Man City and Southampton early in the season and Leicester late on after Hartson had signed.

We sold Keane right before the season and Bellamy seemed something of a panic signing. Selling Keane was good for his investors but bad for the club. Even if the £6m profit had gone into the club's coffers our relegation meant we lost much more. Bellamy's subsequent career shows he was a good enough player, but the timing was all wrong for us. He was just getting over a really bad knee injury & as pointed out probably didn't really want to come to us. His 'big time' atttude and arrogance should have been picked up by someone at the club considering the investment being made into him. He was polar opposite to Keane in terms of embracing his surroundings and putting his heart and soul into the club, for the unfortunately short time we had him.

Before Keane left us we had also let Whelan go, probably because the Keane/ Roussel partnership had worked so well the previous season. Without Keane however Roussel became ineffectual, while despite his excellent scoring record Strachan could never trust himself to give Aloisi (or even Zuniga) an extended run in the team. Not signing Hartson until it was too late was just a culmination of errors and bad decisions which helped cement our relegation, which could so easily have been avoided.
Click to expand...
Yes, could have been Leicester, i thought it was a home game but Leicester was one of the grounds I always went to when we played them, being nearer to me than our home ground.
 
H

Happy_Martian

Well-Known Member
fatso said:
tbf, Paul Culpin is right up there with the likes of Bouwe Bosma and Mick Harford
#fuckinlegends
Click to expand...

Don't diss the Harford. He has the best goals/minutes played ratio ever at the City. He deserves to be a legend on that alone :)
 
Alan Dugdales Moustache

Alan Dugdales Moustache

Well-Known Member
riyadhskyblue said:
I carry no affection for Bellamy in the slightest, however....
As bad as Bellamy was for Coventry City do you really think he would down tools because HE signed for Coventry City? There was no gun pointed at his head and until Hartson arrived it was just the wrong fit, it happens.
Do you really think a player with a 10-15 year career says I am going to be shit this season to get a move to a bigger and better club?
Comments he made about Coventry City? You should read this forum sometimes, I am convinced some of them are Craig Bellamy.
Finally it was a good read and whatever your feelings for Bellamy he has done some very positive things with his African charity.
Click to expand...
He cried off with injury once we headed down. Didn't like the cold weather. Didn't want to roll up his sleeves, get a bit muddy , get stuck in.
Yes he was a good player but he was also a spineless coward quite frankly and showed no respect to his team mates with his AWOL act and those childish comments about how awful our club was he made to the cameras. As for his charity work that has nothing to do with how he behaved when he was with us.
 
Covkid1968#

Covkid1968#

Well-Known Member
Think I said this before... but I was sorting out some financial stuff for him and had to take some papers to get signed. He was at the hotel in Walsgrave as he had just signed and moved up. His Mrs and baby were there. After spending time with him I really wasn’t keen on him at all. He confirmed that he thought Norwich were a bigger club....which now may be true... but it wasn’t back then!!!! Given he knew I was Cov and this was the start of his career with us tells you everything you need to know.
 
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