From golf club scandals to deep thinking tactics: why Craig Bellamy wants to change Wales

“If I ever write a book, which I won’t, the headline will be ‘Don’t Google Me,’” Craig Bellamy once said during his playing career, referring to his long and widely publicized litany of controversies and transgressions.

Bellamy eventually changed his mind about the book (“GoodFella: My Autobiography” came out in 2013), but his point about Google searches still stands. It doesn’t take much digging to find his seemingly endless list of misdeeds, arguments, accusations, and antics.

Such was Bellamy’s extraordinary volatility as a player that some of these tales have found their place in footballing legend. And for many outsiders, such incidents – notably his attack on his Liverpool team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club – are more memorable than his impressive career on the pitch.

Bellamy has a well-deserved reputation as one of football’s most passionate. “I admit I have a temper, but who doesn’t?” he said in 2004, somewhat understated.

But there is much more to him than his colourful past. Bellamy’s fiery behaviour has raised so much smoke that many have failed to recognise his character, and certainly not his thinking. Now, at 45, he and the Welsh national team hope it is the more measured side that will finally shine brightest.

Wales face Turkey in Cardiff on Friday night in the opening match of the Bellamy era, his first managerial role, something he has been striving for for more than a decade, having declared in 2013 that he intended to become “one of the greatest managers who ever lived”.

While Bellamy’s playing career has been marked by plenty of turbulence (he has represented nine clubs, including Newcastle United, Liverpool and Manchester City), his coaching career has been much more stable so far.

Unlike when he was a player, Bellamy has largely been working in the background during these early years of his coaching career. There was a role in the Cardiff academy, then a stint at Anderlecht alongside Vincent Kompany. He left Anderlecht in 2021 to deal with his mental health, then reunited with Kompany at Burnley in 2022.

As is typical for Bellamy, it wasn’t entirely restrained. He left Cardiff after the club investigated allegations of bullying, and later said he hadn’t realised the impact his words and language could have on young players. For example, he admitted to cheering for England in front of England players. “It’s not right, you can’t do that,” he said earlier this year. “I thought it was just my nature, to be honest. I didn’t understand what a young 18-year-old English lad might be feeling.”

Bellamy is about to introduce a tactical revolution

But if Bellamy, the coach, has sometimes lacked emotional tact off the pitch, he has had no shortage of tactical ideas on. He has been thinking deeply about the game for some time, studying players such as Pep Guardiola and Marcelo Bielsa when he was still playing. Those who know him say he is far more studious than his reputation suggests.

“I worked hard for this,” Bellamy said Thursday. “I’m going to enjoy it. It’s not going to make me old anytime soon. I’m going to sit back and enjoy it because I worked hard. If I looked back on my (playing) career, I wish I had enjoyed it more.”

Bellamy is set to impose a more progressive, bold style of football in Wales, having been appointed to replace Rob Page, who paid the price for failing to qualify for Euro 2024 but not before guiding Wales to their first World Cup in 64 years.

Bellamy will usually be passionate about his job and not afraid to change things quickly. Page’s approach has been based on defensive solidity and counter-attacking, but Bellamy wants to see more risks taken with the ball.

“It’s definitely different,” Wales midfielder Harry Wilson said earlier this week. “There’s an obsession with the way he wants to play. The detail he goes into is incredible. Even the little things like the shape of your body and the angles you take the ball.”

On Thursday, Bellamy spoke of wanting to see the right “habits” in his team. “Your habits have to be good, your body language has to be good,” he said. “When you look at pressing, is your chest above your knee? Are you ready to play? The way I’m trying to play might be a little different to what they’ve done before.”

Above all, Bellamy said, he wants to see “intensity.” Time will tell if his team can generate the required fire and competitive spirit on the pitch. What is certain, however, is that Bellamy will provide it on the touchline.

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