Golden night but Bellamy's antics leave sour taste
By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent
Published: 23 February 2007
There is something about the Nou Camp that seems to make English football go giddy, that turns the world on its head and makes the implausible possible. To Manchester United's victory over Bayern Munich there eight years ago add Liverpool's comeback against the European champions on Wednesday night. And then there was Craig Bellamy taking the moral high ground.
Strange but true. About an hour after the defeat of Barcelona on Wednesday night, a very chirpy little Welshman could be heard lecturing those who sought to question his right to have played any part at all in the game. This was the man who, six days earlier, had allegedly burst into a team-mate's hotel room and tried to strike his legs with a golf club - but then who cares when he has just scored the equaliser in a famous win over Barcelona? That is a question that those who wish to add Liverpool's win to the list of the club's great European nights might care to consider for a moment at least.
The charges against Bellamy are not trumped up, there has been no denial, what matters now is how much forgiveness a goal against Barcelona buys a footballer who has been handed a most convenient way out.
So how had the last few days been for Bellamy? "I don't read the newspapers," he said - and this just seconds after he had warmly greeted by name one of Fleet Street's best-known faces. Did you feel you owed the Liverpool fans this one? "Not really." Any regrets? "I don't want to keep going on about this." It was not shaping up to be the complete public apology.
It is hoped that the Liverpool players, Steven Gerrard included, who grinned while Bellamy swung his imaginary golf club in celebration, did so in the split-second of embarrassment at an action so inappropriate it took many by surprise. Given the chance of redemption you would have thought the last thing on Bellamy's mind was his alleged attack on Riise - but it turned out he quite likes this latest bit of notoriety.
It is a curious truth about Bellamy that he can come across as a reasonably intelligent, upbeat type who does not shy away from the tough questions. But he pushed his luck on Wednesday night with this answer. "It sounds mad you know, and you guys can write what you want, but it [Liverpool's squad] is a quiet group and this [training camp in Portugal] had probably been the best week we've had together laugh-wise," he said. "I think it has brought us a lot closer together. Maybe because we had Barça coming up we knew we had to be closer and work together because of the attack they had - so it was perfect."
A goal at the Nou Camp is as good a time as any, Bellamy seemed to be thinking, to get on the front foot. "If anyone scored, that [golf-club celebration] was supposed to be the deal," Bellamy said. "I was supposed to do it when I did score but it was one of those 'was it in or was it not'? We've had a decent week and when you have got a game like this to look forward to nothing can spoil that."
And there he got to the nub of the truth: win and all is forgiven if not quite forgotten. That is the pragmatism at the heart of Rafael Benitez's decision to pick Bellamy after the alleged attack on Riise that left the Welshman's team-mates in disbelief. That is Benitez's right as a manager but he has to be clear that in doing so he made clear that the founding principle of his management is winning and not any other bothersome concerns like the basic standards of behaviour and decency.
Bellamy talked about his goal being the "best moment" of his football career, about how it was a fitting way of marking his son's 10th birthday and, after a while, the uninformed could have been forgiven for thinking that the victim was the one wearing the Liverpool tracksuit. Of course, that status belongs to Riise who was dignified enough to discuss his own feelings about the match. "Yes we had some difficulties before this game but we put it behind us and worked hard," he said. Riise is just beginning to find out how much has to be sacrificed for the team when Bellamy is adjudged by Benitez as too important to drop.
Not only does he have to play alongside him, he must congratulate him when he scores and accept it when Bellamy re-enacts the alleged attack on him as a means of celebrating the best moment of his career. Surely even setting Riise up for the winner at the Nou Camp does not make up for that kind of insensitivity.
"I don't know if it was fate but we both just put everything that happened behind us and worked hard for the team," Riise said. Spoken like a man who has given up all hope of ever getting an apology.
There are those of us who try to make the case that it is, on the whole, a good thing that the riches of English football are paid to young men who are largely from ordinary, sometimes deprived backgrounds, in a profession that is notoriously brief and volatile. But Bellamy does that cause no good. No-one was even asking him to apologise, instead he went one step further and humiliated his victim.
A famous win in Barça, and a plane landing in the early hours of yesterday carrying a Liverpool squad with a real chance of eliminating the best team of their generation from the Champions League. As the Liverpool players settled down to sleep in their dormitory at the Melwood training ground you have to wonder, given recent events, how many of them were really glad that Bellamy was still among them.
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I think the way that Riise embraced Bellamy after both goals shows that all (whatever it was) is forgiven.
This fella obviously can't resist one more dig at Craig even after he's played a starring role in one of English football's all time great victories.
Yes, he's fiery. Yes, he can be a bit too big for his boots. Yes, IF he threatened JAR with a golf club it's wrong. But yes, he is a quality footballer. And he deserves more respect...
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