Cardiff City are miles bigger than Swansea - more like Barcelona

Great article - I'm not sure the Swansea part is the biggest bit of the article. Some interesting insight to his feelings about both terms with the bluebirds. First term was a 'mistake'' within the first week.

It appears Malky was very honouring to Bellamy maintaining/lied to the press that he was injured whilst the whole time he was actually of considering his future in the sport.


http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/craig-bellamy-cardiff-city-miles-4040306

Rhys wrote:
Great article - I'm not sure the Swansea part is the biggest bit of the article. Some interesting insight to his feelings about both terms with the bluebirds. First term was a 'mistake'' within the first week.

It appears Malky was very honouring to Bellamy maintaining/lied to the press that he was injured whilst the whole time he was actually of considering his future in the sport.


http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/craig-bellamy-cardiff-city-miles-4040306

Very good article and interesting to see what he says about the loan spell at City. The Swansea thing is dealt with exactly as it should be....a two sentence throw away....

I think it was pretty obvious at the time that there was also something amiss in the way that he joined us last season and his subsequence absence. All that is in the past, thankfully and, without such distractions, he may well be even more influential for us next season.

By Paul Abbandonato

Craig Bellamy: " Cardiff City are miles bigger than Swansea - more like Barcelona "
3rd Jun 2013

In exclusive extracts from his autobiography, GoodFella, Bellamy talks about the 2012-13 campaign and how he believes the Bluebirds can ‘do a Barcelona’ by becoming a huge football force... with a unique Welsh identity


Craig Bellamy could not have scripted a better finish to his book as Cardiff City won promotion

My mind was in turmoil at the start of the 2012-13 season. I was beginning to wonder whether I even wanted to play football any more. I asked Malky Mackay if I could have some time off.

I told him I needed to adjust to everything that was going on. I couldn’t lead the team when I wasn’t leading myself.

I didn’t know when I was going to come back. I didn’t know if I wanted to come back. The club was brilliant. Vincent Tan, the owner, and the chairman, Dato Chan Tien Ghee, told me to take the time I needed.

I took a couple of weeks off. I played a lot of golf. I got bored. Rumours started to spread that I had retired. Then I thought ‘Stuff this, I’m a footballer’. And I went back to work.



There was a huge change from when I had been at Cardiff under Dave Jones. I knew I had made a mistake within a week of signing the last time. But this time, things were different.

Discipline was better. Malky was hard line. We each worked. There were no exceptions, no prima donnas, no one excused when it came to tracking back.

We were a team. We were in it together and after they had been so understanding about what I was going through, I thought I owed it to the group of players to become a valuable member of the team.

The players at Cardiff pulled me through it. There was no resentment from them. There was no thought I was shirking my responsibilities, which there easily could have been.

The manager was open with the rest of the players about what I was going through and they were brilliant with me about it. I was invited out to dinner with them. I was given the encouragement and the space I needed.

This was a group I wanted to be a part of. I liked their attitude. No one slagged each other off. There was no bitchiness. The manager was brilliant I began to realise I’d never been involved in more of a team than I was here.

Even those on the bench were willing the team on … and that’s not always the case in football, believe me.

The Championship is the hardest league in football. The pitches, the referees, the unpredictability; it is difficult for every single team. In that situation, you have to work and work and work. Our Prozone stats showed we worked harder than anyone.

When people looked at Cardiff and the players we had, they were surprised that we were in the mix for promotion. Because you look at us and you don’t see stars. You see grafters.

Malky Mackay was given the option to spend money. In fact, when the January transfer window came around, the club was urging him to spend.

He didn’t want to. He had spent the best part of two years building a team that had got where it was because of hard work and he was very wary of upsetting the team spirit by bringing in someone who might not share the same mindset.

Before every single game, the manager had a number of team talks and the preparation was fantastic. The last thing he did before we walked out onto the pitch was put up a sign on the board. ‘Individuals win games, team-work and intelligence wins Championships’, it said. It was similar to something Michael Jordan once said and the manager left it on the board every time we went out.

And that was us. That was Cardiff City. I never thought of myself as an individual during last season. I thought of myself as someone who was giving everything for the team.

We got where we got through sheer hard work and doggedness. If we weren’t going to win, the opposition was going to have to play damn well to beat us.

Even if I hadn’t been involved, even if I’d been playing for Liverpool or Newcastle or Man City, I would have been delighted for Cardiff. But to be a part of it, to be a player in the team that made history, to be a player in the side that got promoted to the Premier League, to be a player that brought so much joy to the people of my city, well, I was just incredibly grateful that I was involved.

I only scored four goals. But I had played well and enjoyed myself. I learned a lot from that and from the players around me. That’s part of the reason why I regard being promoted with Cardiff as my proudest moment in the game.

I’ve never had a buzz like it. When you win something at Liverpool, it is great for you personally but you are always conscious that the club has won about 50 trophies. It is another trophy for the club, another trophy for the fans. Everyone’s happy but, let’s be honest, they have seen bigger days.

To be able to share that promotion with everyone was different because it tapped into my background and my history.

Sometimes, it’s hard to believe it’s been more than 50 years since Cardiff were in the top flight. Where’s this club been? To clear that final hurdle filled me with a huge sense of achievement.

I intend to stick around, too. I hope this is just the beginning for Cardiff. I hope that we can do something different with what we’ve achieved.

I hope we can capitalise on the fact that our Welshness can give us an advantage.

We are a city of 350,000 people but it isn’t just the city. It’s the valleys as well. You tot that up and we are a club of a million people round this region who are connected with the club and adore Cardiff.

A lot of those people probably followed other clubs like I followed Liverpool. It was a lot more fashionable for a youngster to do that 20 or 30 years ago.

But today, that can change. we can build on our regional identity in the way Athletic Bilbao have placed themselves at the centre of Basque culture and Barcelona have become a focus for Catalunya.

This is our identity. It’s strong. It’s separate. This is who we are. Playing for this club is first and foremost. So many who have come from this region have never played for Cardiff.





Gareth Bale’s never played for Cardiff. Ryan Giggs has never played for Cardiff. We have had players like Aaron Ramsey who have left too young.

I have only played for the club towards the end of my career. I am the only person from Cardiff who played for the team last season. We have to change that. We have to make the most of our area and our identity.

We can produce the players but we have to be ‘more than a club’, as Barcelona say. We have to be about a region and an idea. You have to have the idea that playing for Cardiff is everything.

We could control Merthyr, Rhondda, Caerphilly. We could have them in lockdown. That’s what makes us unique. The main core of the valleys is with us.

We have to get to the point quickly where players won’t want to go anywhere else if they’re from round here and we won’t permit them to go. That is how we want to breed the football club.

We want the top young players and preferably we want them to be Welsh. They don’t go elsewhere and they are the future of the club.

I know that more and more clubs want to follow this route but we have got the kind of separateness that gives us an advantage.

We have got the fan-base, too. When you go and play for Wales, most of the fans are Cardiff fans. Swansea have done brilliantly and I have always been vocal about how much respect I have for them, but we are a bigger club by miles.

What we have achieved will hit home when we are building towards the first game of the 2013-14 season. The fixture list comes out, you look to see when the big clubs are coming to town. You go into the changing room and you see those shirts hanging on your pegs with the Premier League logo on them, the Nike balls instead of the Mitre ones we have in the Championship.

If we do it right, we have the manager to take us forward to the next level, a manager who believes in the vast potential of this club. There is no limit to where we can go.

I want to see Cardiff become a power in the game. I don’t know when my career is going to end. It could end me. But I am not looking to move on. Far from it.

well worth a read this extract. particularly where it talks about the comparison with athletic bilbao and the loyal local fanbase and what they have built with it. top end finishes, success in the europa league, some fantastic players and they are about to move into a lovely brand new stadium.

i love the way craig talks about our huge potential fanbase and a unique welsh valleys aspect of what we can achieve. so is that a realistic aim for our fine club? and can the emulation of a team like bilbao be a step in the right direction or should we cast our nets wider?

The potential is certainly there, more so than anywhere else in Wales and the South West. But it will take time and a lot of money - in particular an owner who has the necessary vision and is prepared to put both time and money into the club.

yes if we can tap into the chinese market with their fan base would be great, even nicer to have chinese red shorts.

do you think tan is that owner?

DrewBlue wrote:do you think tan is that owner?

He could be, if the fans don't piss him off too much, and get behind the club.

in many ways the majority of the fans are okay with red, whatever the shade. the problem is the hysteria that gets whipped up by elements in wales on line, some of the messageboards and social networking sites.

The Tonker wrote:

DrewBlue wrote:do you think tan is that owner?

He could be, if the fans don't piss him off too much, and get behind the club.

that's a big ask though isn't it. unfortunately there will always a section of fans who want him out due to the rebranding which could be an ultimate downfall.

that's right dave and sometimes those voices are too loud and given too much of a stage. don't get me wrong football is my life, my one true love but sometimes i just want to get on with supporting my club and enjoying doing so

davewebber65 wrote:in many ways the majority of the fans are okay with red, whatever the shade. the problem is the hysteria that gets whipped up by elements in wales on line, some of the messageboards and social networking sites.

I agree Dave - the worry is more about the publicity that such rogue elephants (no, elements) can generate.

TDA wrote:The Swansea thing is dealt with exactly as it should be....a two sentence throw away....

well they are a disposable club :bounce:

More importantly, he confirms what we all expected - the team chemistry during the Dave Jones' era was abysmal.

It took him only a week to realise how crap Jones was - I was surprised when we initially went for Mackay, but it doesn't take a genius to see that he has improved our professionalism ten fold since taking charge.

Rhys wrote:
It took him only a week to realise how crap Jones was - I was surprised when we initially went for Mackay, but it doesn't take a genius to see that he has improved our professionalism ten fold since taking charge.

Also very interesting to read that the club were urging him to spend money but he didn't want to for the sake of it and risk disrupting the harmony of the squad. Now, THAT is good club, team and player management and bodes well for a frugal, yet hopefully successful, future. You have to say, bar Velcro (where the Jury are still deliberating) and as yet unseen and unknown youth acquisitions (Cyncoed would know more on that score than me), all of Malky's signings have proved their worth in some way or another. I know it's inevitable, but I will be sad to see any of them leave, and yes, that includes Conway...