Craig Bellamy has revealed he preferred his time at Newcastle United to Coventry City, claiming "everything was rubbish" at the Sky Blues after leaving them in 2001. The former striker, now Wales manager, made the admission despite facing disciplinary action at St James' Park shortly after his arrival.
Bellamy began his professional career at Norwich City before earning a then-club-record £6.5million move to Coventry in August 2000. However, in his only season with the club, he suffered relegation. He left a year later for Newcastle, where he scored 42 goals in 128 appearances.
Bellamy's Coventry criticism
Speaking in December 2001, Bellamy said: "I never once said I enjoyed it at Coventry because the truth is I didn't. I didn't like the club and it was quite difficult to play there."
He added: "The players were a great bunch of lads, apart from that, the ground was rubbish - everything was rubbish. It was quite demoralising because I'd really enjoyed playing for Norwich. When I went to Coventry, I found I had taken a backward step. The facilities weren't as good and the way the club was run and organised was a massive step down for me."
Newcastle discipline incident
Bellamy made these comments despite being fined two weeks' wages at Newcastle and given a severe dressing-down following an incident on a mid-season training trip to Malaga. Just under five months after arriving, Bellamy and three team-mates - Carl Cort, Kieron Dyer and Andy Griffin - skipped an official club dinner held in honour of Newcastle's life president, Sir John Hall.
The players, dubbed 'The Newcastle Four', instead went to a local bar, where they charged drinks and cigars to then-chairman Freddy Shepherd's hotel room. All four insisted they did not realise the event's importance, but the club's hierarchy was furious. Manager Sir Bobby Robson sent all four home, and they were made to take commercial flights back to Heathrow while facing heavy scrutiny.
Bellamy's later career
Despite the media storm and hefty fines, Bellamy still hinted his time at Coventry was less enjoyable. "The chairman and the manager were great to us," he said after the incident. "They called us in and insisted there was no bitterness. They treated us like grown men even though we acted like boys. We were very childish."
Bellamy went on to play for Liverpool, West Ham and Manchester City, finishing his career in 2014 having scored 167 goals in 543 competitive matches. Two of his former sides are now set to face each other in the Premier League, with Newcastle travelling to face newly promoted Coventry on Monday evening.
