The Mail Bag
Craig Bellamy
Comments (52)
No.
I'd be ashamed to have him play for my club. He's an ignorant, abrasive, divisive and wholly unpleasant guy on the pitch — I can only imagine how effective he'd be in our dressing room.
I'd be seriously disappointed if Moyes were to bring him to Goodison.
Chris Gallagher, Posted 13/05/2010 at 11:01:32
Comments
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
As Eugene says, we are only linked with him via paper talk... much in the same way Arteta is being Linked with Arsenal. I personally don't think we could afford him but if he does come to Goodison then it mightn't be a bad thing.
To buy someone of his age and old injuries to provide pace would be idiotic.
It beggers belief that after the last 2 or 3 summers we've endured, people still come on to this site to criticise the club/manager for being linked with a player deemed unfit.
I would absolutely love it if I had the mental strength to avoid all things Everton during the summer because constantly checking rumours etc is like taking a very large step towards insanity.
Actually coming on here to criticise non-events, however – that might actually be insanity itself.
As for "wholly unpleasant on the pitch," that's patently untrue. He was thoroughly pleasant after Fellaini made a mug of him this season!
Nor do I think he'd be divisive. He's the type of nomadic outlaw whose personality would fit. He'd thrive at our club, and probably finish his career at Goodison.
Fuck Victor & Vaughan off, and get someone in whose heart actually beats...
Now, what's next?
Bellamy is a long way from ignorant. He has a difficult personality, but so does Roy Keane and he did OK. Bellamy does quite amazing things for charity, we're talking millions from his own pocket to an African project. He's switched on more than most players.
He would give Everton a completely new dimension. He has blistering pace and is an excellent finisher.
But, as Eugene explained, "linked" means sod all.
And one of our biggest heroes in big Dunc was all sweetness and light?
I am sure Joey Gudjonsson would have something to say about that!
Can you quantify for me the benefits of retaining Vic & Vaughan? Also explain what's so unpleasant about wishing to offload these two?
Steven Reid, Jermaine Beckford, Scharner, Ledley etc. free transfers that are more likely targets than big money signings given our financial circumstances.
There is a mis-conception about him... yes, he moans and is stroppy but off the pitch he is entirely decent. One need only consider the millions (of his own money) he has donated to fund a soccer academy in under priveleged areas in Senegal.
The fact of the matter is he works hard for his team and can add pace and goals... his stroppy attitude derives from an intense desire to win... and that is no bad thing.
I don't think he will end up at Everton but some of the comments slagging him off are just ill-informed and stupid. Especially when there has been various posts on this site suggesting we sign his idiot of a team mate Ireland. Now there is a player with a bad character!
No thanks.
Mind you, he was a redshite, so sign him up!
Eugene did get it spot on though, "linked" means fuck all but paper talk.
Also, seeing as though he will be 31 before the start of next season and, as mentioned before, has already stated that he does not expect to be playing at the top level for much longer, I can't see Moyes using the limited money he has available on Bellamy.
Furthermore, Everton appear to have a great team spirit and, if past incidents are anything to go by, there is a good chance that Bellamy could be very detrimental to this spirit.
Secondly, Spurs are said to be interested. They also want Peanuts. Let's say Pienaar decides he wants to go to Spurs & there is fuck all we can do. Them backing off Bellamy as part of the deal, leaving us as his best option, would definitely soften the blow of losing peanut. Rumour it is... but, the way things are going with Pienaar, I wouldn't totally write this one off.
I saw a newspaper ranking system recently reguarding teams and rumours, apparently we have the most incorrect rumours in the Prem, not shocked.
They've not written anything accurate about EFC for the last three years until after it's happened!!
My view on Bellamy (for what little it's worth)... is that he's undoubtedly a decent player with good pace, but — and it's a big but — he doesn't channel his aggression and attitude solely at the opposition.
If ever there was a player who could disrupt harmony, and upset some of the more easily affected players (foreign imports, youngsters), then he's him! I dare say a lot of his "attitude" is down to a will to win, but unfortunately "team" games require a certain amount of "team spirit" and, in my view, he'd be a big threat to that.
I can see where you're coming from but I imagine Gray was a player who the others in the dressing room would look to and probably greatly admired.
Bellamy's the sort who most of the team can't stand, in my opinion that is.
We've all had team mates or work mates like him, the one who gets up people's noses, the one who has the close calls, or scuffles, with his own players...
He's a disgrace at so many other levels and I would be embarrassed if he played for us.
How many times has every one of you looked at him, watched him or read about him and thought: 'what a cunt'.
We surely still have standards and expectations that automatically exclude people like him from pulling on our blue shirt, don't we?
Just use the statistics from previous seasons. We are linked with a lot of players, and we don't get any of them. The ones we have gotten have been mentioned maybe a day before the deal was done. Most of them weren't even a rumor prior to them signing for the club.
Secondly, I don't think Bellamy fits in Moyes's pocket, even if he is squezzed into some kind of meat sauce. He's been in way too many fights. He's not a stayer. He's not the right age. He's not cheap when you look at his age. And as his main asset is speed, and he's 30... Well. Look what happened to Andy Johnson. He lost his speed. M Owen? Lost his speed.
Clearly David Moyes is a clever man, and stays away from this lunatic. He still scores goals, yes, but for how long?
I don't want this egosentric bully, with no manners to his name, coming to Goodison Park. If not playing for the opponents, that is.
Please, Mr Moyes... Stay away from this guy. He'll do you (us) no good.
Thank you!
I am actually more excited about the prospect of someone like Beckford proving he's a born goalscorer — much like Darren Bent has ever since he stepped up to PL level. It could happen.
Just cannot see this happening.
As for the player... not sure... He winds opponents up and does weigh in with 10 - 15 goals a season. he is one of them "marmite" players.... either a big yes or a big no.
I would like to think with a good few months R & R Bily can step up and play in Bellamy's positions. I feel we already have our player that the teams above us will be courting this time next season.
Hopefully this time next season there are not many teams above us as this year. I think with hardly any players of ours going to WC 2010 and NO EUROPA CRAP to distract us we will be holding silverware next year. Convinced that with a season of no unlucky injuries we can be a match for ANYONE.
I only want 2 players this close season. A right midfielder with PACE. I think a call to SAF to see about Obertan on a season loan would be a good start.
A 20 goal striker: Beckford, if he comes, can only be a back-up, meaning Vaughan for a season loan. We must have had money ringfenced for Kirkby. Cardozo from Benfica. Break the bank (literally!!) No other targets just this one.
Just read this back and gone slightly off topic. I have a habit of doing that!!
Should post more often and cover more subjects!!
He's damn good, and his pace is blinding. But I'd prefer to win with players you want to root for, not the ones you have to root for.
I wouldn't worry too much about Bellamy, as has been mentioned, the key word is "linked"; however, I seem to recall there was another former Red that we had a tendency to "love to hate"... a bloke called Don Hutchinson. He didn't do too badly for us and I am sure that many Evertonians were rather worried about signing him.
The main issue as regards the signing of strikers that we have to consider is whether or not top strikers/shirkers such as Beckford hoping to establish themselves in the Premier League are going to want to spend a lot of time "warming the bench". Moyes (virtually) always plays 4-5-1 so that means we have at least one striker who cost millions/is worth millions who is on the bench.
To put it another way — we don't have 4/5 international class goalkeepers in the squad as we can only play one. So should we expect to have 4/5 top class strikers?
The answer to that should of course be YES. But unfortunately not whilst DM continues his infatuation with the 4-5-1 system. And before all of you "In Moyes We Trust" brigade start moaning — I am NOT anti-Moyes — I am just absolutely pissed off at seeing our bench match after match with Yakubu/Saha/etc whilst we play a lone striker.
We have to move forward from being difficult to beat to showing more ambition. We lost only a couple of matches more than Arsenal — but if you want to challenge for trophies you have to win football matches and to do that you have to show some ambition and take the odd risk.
Whilst Moyes continues with 4-5-1, I am afraid I can't get excited about us being linked with any striker. And regarding the "he only plays 4-5-1 to accommodate Cahill" ... Cahill CAN play in a 4-4-2 system — he does so for Australia.
He may be a bit of a gobshite but I do think he has settled down — you don't hear about him being trouble off the pitch. Pienaar is not saint off the pitch yet we still laud him so. I think Bellamy wants to win; the only bad press about him at the moment is his relationship with Mancini and by the sounds of it there are plenty of players who feel the same.
As someone above mentioned, he would be a crowd favourite very quickly – especially if he slots the winner against the shite, and then makes Lescott look a prick by skiining him and putting him on his arse like a sack of shit.
On one of Michael's (#42) points: we have the ideal personnel in midfield to play 5 across the middle, not sure about a 4. What we don't have is a mobile, pacy, hungry young striker who can play up front on his own.
Neither the Yak nor Louis have the legs or attitude to play the lone role. Victor has the tools but not sure if he has the desire. Maybe Beckford will have a point to prove if he comes??
Anyway let's not get too hung up on the usual press rumour nonsense. I didn't see any of our eventual buys linked with us last May.
I sat in the away end at Villa Park a few weeks ago with a friend of mine. All through the game I heard abuse aimed at Tim Cahill; "He is a complete cunt" — I heard on many occasions, they hated him.
But we love him... why? Because he is ours, he gives everything, hassles the opposition for 90 mins, and is a nuisance.
More players like this and I would be happy, and I am confident the Moyes work ethic would be all Bellamy is looking for. That said... we have no chance of getting him. Shame really.
I saw Charlie play when I visited my Grandson for his 1st birthday in Paisley 15 October 2006. The guy was playing for St Mirren in a 2-0 win v Ross County that took them top. He stood head and shoulders above the other players. I wrote to the Toffeeweb then about him - as if I was a scout who had found a gem - Rangers signed him, and I remember thinking then I wish Celtic had got him.
Since then I've been following what he got up to occasionally banging on about him in work etc. Anyway, last Tuesday he was brilliant for Blackpool, proper midfield player, captain AND top scorer too. Moysey could do a lot worse. I hope he has a stinker against Cardiff on May 22 in the play-off final, but I don't think he will.
If my memory serves me right isn't he a Blue? I think years ago there was a report that he had an Everton tatt on his arm.
Brian, I watched Charlie Adam for Rangers and he was shite, he looks better at Blackpool but that's against opposition a league below us; no thanks.
Anybody see Harry Waxface say 'See you soon' as they shook hands at the edge of the Eastlands pitch the other week after Spurs won? Bellend-amy looked like he just realised what Redknapp meant and nodded.
Personally, I'd say it's just like Robbie Keane. We were linked with both of them back in the Summer of 2005, nothing came of it and they both ended up at Anfield claiming they were Liverpool fans since birth. Both failed to impress and have not done much since. Why would we want people like that at Everton? Thankfully, neither will be coming our way.
Add Your Comments
In order to post a comment to the MailBag, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.
Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and MailBag submissions across the site.
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
-sm.jpg)
1 Posted 13/05/2010 at 14:56:25
Report abuse
'Linked'