Top 35 Craig Bellamy Quotes

I am reading the biography of Pep Guardiola. I find it really interesting.

If I ever wrote an autobiography – and I won’t – it would be called ‘Don’t Google Me.’

Manchester City is the richest club in the world. They work to a budget that no one else works to, so they can write their own rules.

I see myself as a different sort of Welsh. Because we are from Cardiff, we see Wales as Cardiff. This is Wales; outside Cardiff is beyond. It’s a strange one. You are really Welsh, but you’re not, if you know what I mean.

Football – a simple game really, yet generally, in the game, we make the simple things seem harder. But it’s those simple things that get you to the top.

I do have to pinch myself at times when I look back at some of the things I have achieved. I really do.

I have so much to look forward to after football.

Look, we all make mistakes. That is no problem. But you have to be willing to make up for your mistakes and to help yourself.

I surround myself with family. I have got the most incredible wife in the world and unbelievable kids.

In the past, before games, I would near enough make myself ill. Nerves and stuff.

I started to realise I am not as strong as others, and I can’t muscle someone off the ball who is twice the size of me. So I have altered my game, playing on the half-turn, for example, and it’s made me a much better player.

I was enjoying life at West Ham; I really was. I wanted to do the whole five years there, become a favourite with the fans, and end my career there.

I don’t like the Italian approach. I don’t want to be involved in that kind of football.

Before, I would spend all my hours at training, come home, sleep, eat, watch football, sleep, and go back to training the next day. Now I do the school run, train, pick up my daughter. I am living in the real world. I am a father now. That has given me more satisfaction than football.

Certain players need twice the recovery time of others because they run much more – not because they put in more effort but because they’re playing different positions.

So much of my career was affected by injuries. Not just the well documented surgery, but the hamstring pulls and other things. Injuries hit me hard, and they always seemed to come at key times.

John Hartson, he speaks fluent Welsh and has the tattoos all over him to prove his Welshness. But in my own world, no one is more Welsh than myself.

I knew I needed to move away when I was 15, but when I got to Norwich, I spent nights crying myself to sleep with homesickness. For any young kid moving away from home, that is the biggest thing you have to deal with.

Football is about so much more than talent.

I was a troubled young kid, and I would try to break every rule.

I had a very good upbringing, which I’m eternally grateful for.

David Brooks – every time I see him, I like him. He breaks lines, runs beyond, and I like him a lot.

My discipline in myself has got me where I am. I try to emphasise that to young players.

I’ve grown up with Kenny Dalglish; now, to be signed by him is a massive honour.

I don’t think I’ll ever get away from my reputation.

I felt bad for Newcastle when they lost their 2005 FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United. They had loaned me out to Celtic, but I still had a lot of affection for them.

Basically, we are all chimps. The human side is at the front of our forehead, but the chimp is the part that lashes out. When I play, I am completely chimp-orientated.

The lads I played football with on the street when I was a kid in Cardiff were as good as me, and in many ways, my career is due to them.

I’m aware of my value as a player, of course. But do I need to buy a holiday home that I’m only going to use two weeks every year? Course not. It’s a waste. Why not give the money to people who could do with it.

Teams do not make their debut in the first XI – individuals do – but it is the team that enables the individual to get the best out of himself. Football IQ, I call it, understanding roles and the team structure.

I can understand a bad pass or something like that; I don’t get irate. But the one thing I can never accept is a lack of work rate. You have to be able to give everything you have.

My brother is gay – he’s a couple of years older than me, and I could not be more proud of him. It was right for him. If a player was going through something similar at a younger age, I feel I would be understanding because I was there to watch it with my brother.

I believe I have a lot to offer when I finish football as well. I always said I didn’t want to become a manager, but I changed that view.

I can understand failure: I’ve failed loads of times in my life; it’s not a problem. I’ve never feared it, because it’s a part of life.

Of course I want to keep playing; that’s the best thing for any footballer. But I’m looking forward to not having to put my body through the pain, I have to say.