Reading that just makes me want Bellamy back at the club even more.
+ Visit Cardiff FC for Latest News, Transfer Gossip, Fixtures and Match Results |
Fascinating read this
https://www.viewfromtheninian.com/20...the-graduates/
Reading that just makes me want Bellamy back at the club even more.
I wonder if Spence is pissed off that Cardiff finally utilised the academy after he left. I know I would be.
Very interesting. I was just about to post that too - along with the other two interview/articles done with Scott Johnson for VFTN in the last few days.
Bellamy has got the 'bullying' allegations still muddying the picture (despite the internal club investigation that pretty much cleared him, and his apology for any fault) and he is clear about wanting a year at home with his family. But I would love to see him back in some capacity at the club - coaching, mentoring, game preparation, tactical work.....
https://www.viewfromtheninian.com/20...y-coming-home/
https://www.viewfromtheninian.com/20...y-the-academy/
Not to have him involved in the club is such a wasted opportunity.
How is that man not part of our club?
I never really liked Bellamy as a player (before he came to City), but having read his autobiography and these interviews I admire him as a coach.
As much as anything else, he speaks of them with genuine affection
nice article, hopefully he'll continue his coaching journey
Hang on. didn't we try to block man city from taking matondo? Not sure how that tallies with Bellamy's story here.
We appealed Matondo's move but I do recall stuff about us not being overly bothered with losing Matondo if we kept Spence and the stuff about off field problems rings a bell. I've definitely seen versions of the "we rated Spence higher and were more bothered with keeping him" story before
Very interesting stuff even if I would have liked to have seen the discussion extended to include some of the players in the current youth team.
on the subject of Matondo, after a slow ish start in Belgium, he's now scored 5 goals in his last 4 games.
Cercle Brugge have an option to make it permanent as well.
That's correct-Sion Spence was offered a 1 year deal, along with Sam Bowen. This was when Neil Harris was in charge, and he basically said to Sion, I wont be using any youth players in the first team. Sion decided to try his luck elsewhere, and Sam Bowen stayed. When Bellamy was still there, towards the end of Warnock's reign, he was constantly pushing for both to be given the opportunity in the first team, he felt they were ready. Warnock wasn't interested and batted him away with, "put them in the U23's". I don't think Bellamy was a fan of U23 football at the time, so kept them with him in the U18's. I suppose its a sliding doors moment, and Sion might have been wise to stick around, but he was desperate for first team football.
Reading those articles , if he can manage his mental health issues , I would love to see him working at our club.
Have people said that? That's definitely not true, we offered Spence a deal that he turned down because there was no path to the first team, Bowen almost left this summer as well I think?
The Matondo/Spence thing though was mentioned at the time, has been repeated a number of times and now Bellamy's said it. I imagine there's at least a little truth in it
For all McCarthy did wrong, he massively improved the pathway into the first team for youngsters, although that did start under Harris as well, as I'm sure Mark Harris and Joel Bagan were already getting game time.
Warnock was never likely to be the guy to bring through a youngster unless he was absolutely sure he could rely on them. Skipping u23 football and trying to go straight from u18s to the first team was never going to happen, possibly a bit of naivety from Bellamy, or perhaps he wanted to keep them in the u18s so he got more of the credit for their eventual emergence, rather than letting the u23s coaches get the credit.
Spence had played a lot of U23 football by then. Bellamy came in to oversee the pathway from academy to first team. He was in charge of the U23's, but from what i can gather wasn't a fan. I think he saw it as a backwater for youngsters, journeymen and older players coming back from injury. If you remember, Andy Legg came in solely as U23 manager/coach, and Bellamy reverted to academy coach, primarily with the U18's. I suppose by then he had seen enough of the players to know they were ready for first team football.
I've been impressed with a lot of what I've read about and seen from Bellamy on here recently, but I can't see the logic in that. whenever I've seen the u23s it has been a much higher standard than the u18s, so it is always going to be riskier for a manager to promote someone straight from the 18s to the first team tha ln from the u23s.
also if he was in charge of the pathway, just being "not a fan" of the u23s so not putting players in there seems like it isn't addressing the issues he saw with the U23s.
it seems Spence is doing fairly well at Bristol Rovers. he didn't get many minutes to begin with, but has started to get a few more now, and has an impressive goals per 90 and assists per 90 record (although very few minutes so too early to read much into it yet probably)