Kenny Dalglish sprung one of the biggest surprises of the August transfer window by bringing Craig Bellamy back to Anfield on a free transfer.
After a summer filled with signings aplenty, Liverpool had moved on the likes of Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen and David N’Gog yesterday as the Liverpool boss freshened up his first-team squad. With the announcement of Raul Meireles’ shock departure to Chelsea late on last night, Dalglish decided to give the controversial Welshman a second chance on Merseyside, awarding him a two-year contract, in what may prove to be a canny piece of business from King Kenny.
Bellamy was clearly delighted by the chance of playing under one of his idols:
I’ve grown up with Kenny Dalglish, now to be signed by him is a massive honour. I get this opportunity again for Liverpool fans to hopefully see a real good side of me on a playing level. I know what I have to do to play in this team, so this should be a good time. I can play on either wing as well, like I did at Manchester City.
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The Stats
Liverpool become the Welshman’s tenth club of a well-traveled career which started a decade and a half ago at Norwich, where he spent four seasons scoring 32 goals in 84 league games.
A single season at Coventry followed before Bellamy moved to Tyneside and joined Newcastle, where he partnered Alan Shearer under the tutelage of Sir Bobby Robson. Three and half seasons at St James’ Park saw another 28 league goals scored in 93 games.
Half a season on loan at Celtic with 7 goals in 12 games followed before ex-Wales manager Mark Hughes took him to Blackburn, where he bagged 13 goals in 27 league games.
The next big move saw Bellamy snapped by Rafael Benitez at Liverpool but he only lasted one season, scoring 7 goals in 27 before joining West Ham. An injury-ravaged season and a half saw him play just 24 times scoring 7 goals before Manchester City handed over £14m for his services.
A year and a half in the Citizens saw Bellamy make 40 league appearances picking up 12 goals and 8 assists for his troubles before being ushered out on loan to Cardiff the following season, where he scored 11 and assisted 10 in 35 games. City’s continued investment in big-name alternatives and with rumours of friction between Bellamy and Roberto Mancini, the forward was deemed surplus to requirement.
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The Prospects
Bellamy is no longer one of the young bucks and previous injury worries mean he’ll need to be catered for carefully and meticulously by the likes of Raymond Verheije.
That risk is only confounded by the expectation that Bellamy must surely be seen as, at this stage in his career, nothing more than an experienced but highly capable first reserve. Bellamy reportedly had offers from the likes of QPR where he would have been entrusted to lead a new Premier League outfit but whether wages, self-confidence or anything else came into play he chose to return to take part in the revival currently underway at Anfield.
Bellamy has today been priced at 7.5 by FPL captain but with the likes of Luis Suarez, Andy Carroll, Stewart Downing, Jordan Henderson and Dirk Kuyt all surely ahead of him – how much he’ll play and/or start will be the great mitigating factor.
