O’Neill On ‘Brilliant’ Bellamy

Well, the papers have linked us to Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy several times and now Martin O’Neill, who had him on loan at Celtic a few seasons ago, has said he was ‘brilliant’.

Doesn’t take a stretch of the imagination to see Bellamy incoming this summer does it? To be fair when fit and firing, he is a top striker, plenty of pace, aggression and the ability to score – which in a striker is nice! – however there is the other part of Bellamy. We do need a nasty snarling player in the team, our lot are all pretty much to the man far too nice, we need a bit of aggro within the team, but would he upset the dressing room?

Luckily the decision isn’t with me!!!! Reports suggest Raffa Benitez will let the striker go after his last indiscretion taking a golf club to John Arne Riise. Before that incident I’d have said he’d be a great signing as he seemed to have settled down, but that – if memory serves me right, is the second time he has been sent home from a foreign training camp – surely if he hasn’t grown up by now? Not only that but he is also injury prone. Hmmm.

Martin O’Neill has said of the strikers reputation:

‘To me, he was so, so good to work with in the couple of months that we had. In fact, he was nothing short of brilliant for us. A ‘pest’ suggests that he was running around charging after people when they’ve got the ball- but he was excellent for us. We never had a problem with him. Perhaps that is because we only had him for three months – and I said to him that he might be harder to manage if we had him for four years!’

‘But he was on his best behaviour both on and off the field at Celtic – and he gave us a massive lift when we took him in the January from Newcastle. He gave his all. We were two minutes away from winning the Championship, which we should have done. In fact, I should give him a bit of stick because he had a wonderful opportunity to make it 2-0 that day at Motherwell, and as he opened up his body to sidefoot it to the goalkeepers left, the keeper read it and made the save. So, I should change my mind about him! But no, he was brilliant. Really brilliant.’

‘He has since gone on to Liverpool and I suppose he knew what he was taking on at Liverpool – the expectation was going to be very high and he might not play every single week- which would be something that Craig wouldn’t be overly happy with. But you have to take that comment in the right manner- I think he has done very, very well indeed for Liverpool. I don’t know enough about what is happening off the pitch. There was enough publicity over that incident in Portugal – but I can only say how well he did for us.’

Right, so that is one striker incoming this summer then, who else?!!