“I NEVER GOT PAID/I WORKED 3-4 DAYS A WEEK CARDIFF”
Tue Dec 21, 2021 11:05 am
I had posted many many times on here Craig Bellamy never got paid a penny for his two years in helping Cardiff City’s Accademy.
In 2017-18, Craig Bellamy got involved with the Academy kids at Cardiff from the age of 5 right up to the U23 Squad.
We never saw any players making it for nearly 10 years, for me Bellamy’s input for those two years and revamping the Academy is thankfully why we have finally 3-4 players finally on the verge of making it and Bells did it all for FREE
Tuesday 21st December 2021
Thanks to Scott Johnson’s interview
CRAIG BELLAMY:
“After I retired, I wanted to take a year out. I had a great summer and I was finally able to go on holiday while the kids were off school. It got to around October, start of November and Borley got in contact with me.”
“I know Steve very well and he asked if I would be interested in helping the academy as a sort of mentor.”
“I knew I wanted to go in to coaching eventually, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be doing, so I said I would have a look to see what it was like.”
“Then for a year or two, with my own free time, I was there three or four days a week. I never got paid.”
“There are good players in Cardiff and always have been. A lot of us had to move away because there was nothing in place at the time, but growing up in Trowbridge, there were so many good footballers. When I was there, Trowbridge Juniors won the cup and this is a school with about 200 kids, if that.”
“How is that possible?! It wasn’t just me, I had good players with me and I played against loads of talented, young players. I believe we haven’t ever made the most of that.
“There are some kids that haven’t got the support network to get them from A to B. That can’t be their fault, so what are we going to do about it? “
“I don’t like the thought of kids missing out because they can’t afford to play. Football should always be free and enjoyed by everyone.”
“Some parents can’t afford it and they’re getting penalised. Over the years, it’s got better, but we’re still nowhere near where we need to be and we’ve hugely let this area down.”
“There will always be one or two that gets through, if you’re exceptionally talented. I know Aaron Ramsey really well and he’s got good parents. Not every kid has, but we shouldn’t lose or penalise them because of that. They should get the same opportunities as everyone else, but we have to put more effort in. I’ve never seen anyone as talented as Leon Jeanne, but he didn’t have the right network around him.”
“We should know about everything. What are these kids like in school? If there’s a problem in school, ring me and we’ll take football away from them if we have to. Football is a privilege that you have to earn. If you’re going to misbehave and think you’ll get away with it, that is not going to happen.”
“People won’t like it and some parents think their kids are never wrong. We have to be on the ball and if we get it right, you have a massive pool of potentially brilliant players and not all clubs have that luxury.”
What roles did you fulfil at the academy while you were there?
“I was helping with all age groups. I would spend a day a week with the five, six and seven-year-olds. I learnt a lot from it, like the importance of your tone of voice.” I was quite attached to a lot of them and I really enjoyed it. That was my favourite day of the week, with the youngest age groups. It was fun and I learnt the most from them. On the other days, I would be with the Under-18’s, the Under-23’s, the Under-12 and 13’s, so dipping in and out of everything.”
“I wanted us to play a certain way. Not a certain formation because they can change and you need to be flexible. What is our identity and what do we stand for? Are we a long ball team because if we are, we’ll do it through all the age groups. I believe that if you’re going to coach young footballers, they need to be able to play with the ball at their feet because the more they have of the ball, the more decisions they’re going to make. The more decisions they make, the better players they’ll become. If we want to be lazy, we can man-mark everywhere, but what does that prove? Anyone can do that. Turn and hit it long is also easy to do. It’s beyond lazy coaching, but managers have had good careers off the back of that.”
Was there an identity already in place, or were you brought in to try and establish one?
“It’s not like I came in and created one, the academy wanted to change. What type of players can we produce? We decided we were going to build from the back, press high and be aggressive in duals. This is how I like the game, but we need to have the ball to have options. If you haven’t got the ball, how are you going to improve? I want to produce top players because they will be worth more and for the club to make a profit, but you’ve got to put the time in. I was taught the game this way at Norwich, who had one of the top academies in the UK. I had talent, but I was also coached well.”
In 2017-18, Craig Bellamy got involved with the Academy kids at Cardiff from the age of 5 right up to the U23 Squad.
We never saw any players making it for nearly 10 years, for me Bellamy’s input for those two years and revamping the Academy is thankfully why we have finally 3-4 players finally on the verge of making it and Bells did it all for FREE
Tuesday 21st December 2021
Thanks to Scott Johnson’s interview
CRAIG BELLAMY:
“After I retired, I wanted to take a year out. I had a great summer and I was finally able to go on holiday while the kids were off school. It got to around October, start of November and Borley got in contact with me.”
“I know Steve very well and he asked if I would be interested in helping the academy as a sort of mentor.”
“I knew I wanted to go in to coaching eventually, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be doing, so I said I would have a look to see what it was like.”
“Then for a year or two, with my own free time, I was there three or four days a week. I never got paid.”
“There are good players in Cardiff and always have been. A lot of us had to move away because there was nothing in place at the time, but growing up in Trowbridge, there were so many good footballers. When I was there, Trowbridge Juniors won the cup and this is a school with about 200 kids, if that.”
“How is that possible?! It wasn’t just me, I had good players with me and I played against loads of talented, young players. I believe we haven’t ever made the most of that.
“There are some kids that haven’t got the support network to get them from A to B. That can’t be their fault, so what are we going to do about it? “
“I don’t like the thought of kids missing out because they can’t afford to play. Football should always be free and enjoyed by everyone.”
“Some parents can’t afford it and they’re getting penalised. Over the years, it’s got better, but we’re still nowhere near where we need to be and we’ve hugely let this area down.”
“There will always be one or two that gets through, if you’re exceptionally talented. I know Aaron Ramsey really well and he’s got good parents. Not every kid has, but we shouldn’t lose or penalise them because of that. They should get the same opportunities as everyone else, but we have to put more effort in. I’ve never seen anyone as talented as Leon Jeanne, but he didn’t have the right network around him.”
“We should know about everything. What are these kids like in school? If there’s a problem in school, ring me and we’ll take football away from them if we have to. Football is a privilege that you have to earn. If you’re going to misbehave and think you’ll get away with it, that is not going to happen.”
“People won’t like it and some parents think their kids are never wrong. We have to be on the ball and if we get it right, you have a massive pool of potentially brilliant players and not all clubs have that luxury.”
What roles did you fulfil at the academy while you were there?
“I was helping with all age groups. I would spend a day a week with the five, six and seven-year-olds. I learnt a lot from it, like the importance of your tone of voice.” I was quite attached to a lot of them and I really enjoyed it. That was my favourite day of the week, with the youngest age groups. It was fun and I learnt the most from them. On the other days, I would be with the Under-18’s, the Under-23’s, the Under-12 and 13’s, so dipping in and out of everything.”
“I wanted us to play a certain way. Not a certain formation because they can change and you need to be flexible. What is our identity and what do we stand for? Are we a long ball team because if we are, we’ll do it through all the age groups. I believe that if you’re going to coach young footballers, they need to be able to play with the ball at their feet because the more they have of the ball, the more decisions they’re going to make. The more decisions they make, the better players they’ll become. If we want to be lazy, we can man-mark everywhere, but what does that prove? Anyone can do that. Turn and hit it long is also easy to do. It’s beyond lazy coaching, but managers have had good careers off the back of that.”
Was there an identity already in place, or were you brought in to try and establish one?
“It’s not like I came in and created one, the academy wanted to change. What type of players can we produce? We decided we were going to build from the back, press high and be aggressive in duals. This is how I like the game, but we need to have the ball to have options. If you haven’t got the ball, how are you going to improve? I want to produce top players because they will be worth more and for the club to make a profit, but you’ve got to put the time in. I was taught the game this way at Norwich, who had one of the top academies in the UK. I had talent, but I was also coached well.”
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Re: “I NEVER GOT PAID/I WORKED 3-4 DAYS A WEEK CARDIFF”
Tue Dec 21, 2021 12:53 pm
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Re: “I NEVER GOT PAID/I WORKED 3-4 DAYS A WEEK CARDIFF”
Wed Dec 22, 2021 10:02 am
I have read a few Craig Bellamy articles recently and once he is fully recovered from his time in Belgium and ready to work would really like to see him back at Cardiff.