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Cardiff City legend Craig Bellamy is back with his home town club, having taken on a role as Bluebirds Player Development Manager.

Working with Academy Manager James McCarthy, his new job is arguably even more important moving forward than that of Neil Warnock because the Bluebirds aren’t developing enough home-grown talent.

Righting that wrong is a key mantra for Vincent Tan, because it is about the very future of the club.

Hence Bellamy’s expertise being brought on board in an official capacity, to ensure talented youngsters such as himself from 20 years ago and more recently Gareth Bale don’t slip through the system.

Dressed in his smart Bluebirds’ tracksuit, we caught up with Bellamy at Cardiff City Stadium as he spoke with typical passion and enthusiasm about his hopes and ambitions for the club.

In this fascinating Q&A, Bellamy outlined the need for a Cardiff City playing identity and also addressed issues such as captaining the team to promotion, that Premier League season and why it won’t take anything like another 50 years to get back into the top flight...

So Craig, how did the new role come about?

Bellamy: When I finished playing in 2014 I had the summer off, which was completely new to me. Around October of that year James McCarthy (Head of the Academy) gave me a call and asked if I would like to help coach some of the youngsters at the club.

To be honest I wasn’t too sure if I was ready. I felt it was important to take two years out of the game, but he encouraged me to come and go when I wanted, look at various age groups, from under sevens upwards.

Once I began doing that, it whetted my appetite. I started asking questions of myself as I learned new skills and really enjoyed watching the youngsters develop.

After Euro 2016, when I had time watching Wales in France, I waited to see what was happening at Cardiff.

Neil Warnock came in as manager, asked to meet for something to eat, and we discussed what type of role I could possibly have. Did I see it with the first team? I replied that I saw it as youth development at the moment, particularly as I had already noticed a lot of changes that I liked during my previous two years of unofficial involvement.

The Cardiff hierarchy were tremendously supportive. Vincent Tan, Ken Choo, Steve Borley, as well as Neil and James each encouraged me to become involved.

We asked ourselves ‘Where are our young players in the first team?’ We have got a great catchment area here in and around Cardiff and should be producing more numbers than we do.

The plan is to improve this. We just felt this was the best route for myself at the moment, where I could have the biggest input in helping the club.

I’m involved from the under sevens right through to the 23s, looking at different teams, taking different sessions, going to different matches. It’s look and learn.

What are the main challenges and aims, then?

Bellamy: Everyone has different ideas as to how we see football, there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s about opinion.

But I’ve always believed, maybe because I’m from here and see it and because of players like Gareth Bale, that this is an area that produces truly top footballers.

Unfortunately, they have not each played for Cardiff City , but I see so much quality around here that we have to tap into properly.

It’s obviously about identifying, but then it is also about developing. As players and as people.

We can have one or two making their debuts every so often. Mark Harris has just broken into Neil’s set-up, we’ve another who I also think will be there soon.

But that’s not enough for me. Can we keep going with one or two local players making it every so often and be regarded as successful? Yes, but our dream is to get that up to seven or eight.

Is that realistic? From the outside I would say no, but I look at the talent we have in this area and at our club, note the fact that everybody is suddenly pulling in this direction under one umbrella, which has’t always been the case, and think why not?

What about the lack of home-grown talent in the team at the moment?

Bellamy: Well clearly it’s not been good enough in recent times. But Neil Warnock has offered real encouragement, made it clear he wants to play local youngsters. If they’re good enough, they’re old enough as far as he is concerned.

I haven’t been involved enough over the last couple of years to get into the debate about whether certain ones have deserved their first team opportunity.

But it’s my job to help the manager by ensuring we DO produce players who ARE good enough going forward. It will take time, but it will happen... and has to for the good of the club.

Instead of going out to buy a player for a certain position, the manager may be able to hold off knowing a particular youngster is about to burst through.

So will you implement one generic playing style?

Bellamy: Yes, that’s already started. From sevens the whole way up to under-23 we will look to play to a certain shape.

That means the mantra is being comfortable on the ball, build from the back, play football.

We put youngsters in difficult situations so that it becomes second nature to want to pass the ball and keep passing it.

If somebody, at whatever age level, gives the ball away in defence and the opposition score a goal, no-one is to blame them. You blame me because we’re insisting upon that style, which has far more benefits to negatives.

If that does happen, we don’t want the individual concerned suddenly resorting to percentage football. No, get the ball again and play it out from the back once more.

Doing this from an early age will prepare these youngsters properly for any challenge they may one day hopefully face in the harsher environment of first team football.

The style of play may or may not differ at that level, but they would be equipped for any given situation.

The key phrase is ‘What is the Cardiff City identity?’ Well this is it, the way I was brought up as a player myself.

Other clubs in other countries are well ahead of us in sustaining this sort of approach. We’ve been to Villarreal, Barcelona, Ajax and other places to look at what they do and what parts of it we could adopt ourselves, within our own budgets, of course.

The tactics may change, rightly so, but the general style and approach will remain constant. We put a really talented under-11 into the under14s the other day and he was able to adapt because the style of play wasn’t alien to him.

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What about the man-management side of the job? How would Bellamy the young player have reacted to Bellamy the coach?

Bellamy: Football is about so much more than talent. If these youngsters didn’t have ability, they wouldn’t be with us anyway.

There are so many other things off the field that we have to do to get someone ready for the first team. I can’t stress enough how important mentality is.

Look, there are a lot of bad habits I let myself pick up when I was a young player. So it’s easy for me to spot those and try to stop them today before they become problems.

I worked hard and was privileged to have the career that I did, but before that there was a period where I may not have had that career.

I don’t want to see Cardiff City youngsters today in that position. Any wrong habits we will get rid of from a very young age. And those who don’t behave won’t be here any more.

We are sympathetic and of course we will take into account any personal issues. But if the players don’t react the right way they won’t make it as footballers anyway.

We pulled up a youngster who we found out hadn’t gone to school the other day... so he didn’t play for us in the next game.

We can’t guarantee these youngsters will make it into the first team, but we can guarantee they’ll be better human beings for their experience with us.

Bluebirds fans love home-grown players. How good is the talent on the club’s books?

Bellamy: It’s here, trust me it’s here. It’s our responsibility to make sure it blossoms properly.

Let me give you an example. We’ve got an 11-year-old who is as good as anyone I’ve seen at that age. Seems daft, doesn’t it, to get excited by someone who’s only 11. But he’s beautifully balanced, creative, can really play and I reckon will be in the first team by the time he’s 16 or 17. He’s got that much potential.

But he started moaning at his own players in one game and we have to get that out of him. We sat him down and explained ‘It’s easier for them to get the ball to you if you encourage. If you just have a go, they may go into their shells and that is not going to make you play well’.

It’s a team thing. 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.

So we pushed this youngster into the under-14s where the older ones encouraged him. Then we put him down with the nines to see if he encourages and leads them properly. Is he responsible, can we trust him?

This is what I mean about it being so much more than just ability if you are to develop into a professional.

Listen, we have some top talent. At under-14, under-16. Lower down the age grade there is an even greater clutch of them.

But developing them properly at those ages is crucial. Everybody wants to win games, but we have to look at the bigger picture.

We could be ruthless and win every single game at every age group, but also have no players making the first team. Is that success? No, development is what counts, then the players make it.

In the past perhaps we didn’t always have the facilities. That meant it was sometimes more appealing for people like myself, even Gareth Bale, to go elsewhere and develop at other set-ups.

We’ve changed that. We are trying to put everything in place to make our modern-day youngsters realise this is the best opportunity for them.

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This, of course, would also benefit Wales?

Bellamy: We can benefit one another. Being Welsh means you sometimes get exposed to international football earlier. Again that helps player development, speeds up their thought process in a different kind of environment.

That in turn aids Cardiff City for when they return from Wales duty.

What about that 40-pass goal the other day by the under-23s against Ipswich?

Bellamy: I suppose that kind of symbolises what we’re trying to achieve. Players have to be comfortable on the ball for that to happen.

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.

If a 60-yard ball is on then play it, but there is nothing wrong with going five yards if that’s more simple and looking for the return pass.

There’s only one football out there in a match you know, not four or five, so it’s important you keep hold of it.

So, a few other things.. what about the Euros?

Bellamy: It was so very special. People will talk about the quarter-final win over Belgium, but for me the first game in Bordeaux was the best.

It was the moment we had waited those decades for, the atmosphere was fantastic and for good measure we beat Slovakia too.

Remember, I’d been in the dressing room with these players and they didn’t always have it easy. They had some real tough times coming through, but even back then I used to tell them they were the ones who would qualify, achieve the dream.

And they did.

What do you remember about Cardiff’s promotion-winning season?

Bellamy: Just remarkable. We were such a good group of men.

We definitely knew we were not the best team in the Championship, there were sides with superior individuals, other teams who passed the ball better.

But as a group we were definitely the strongest mentally. The word promotion wasn’t taboo, as such, but we genuinely did not mention it until the end.

We just chalked off the games one by one, knowing if we kept winning we would have enough points. The mentality of the group meant we were able to do that.

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And the Premier League campaign?

Bellamy: It was a tough, tough season because of the quality in there and the fact that it was a new experience to us, as a club and for many of the players individually.

I certainly wouldn’t call it an anti-climax, because it had taken us 50-odd years to get there so this was something special.

But the disappointment of immediate relegation certainly hurt. I will tell you this, though, there is no way in the world it will take another 50 years for us to get back up there. The systems we are putting in place will ensure success comes much quicker than that.

What about what’s happened since?

Bellamy: I’m not trying to dodge the question or be political, but the truth is I haven’t seen too many first team games. Maybe five or six at most in the intervening years.

If I go and the manager has been under pressure, suddenly people are putting two and two together and coming up with six. That’s the last thing I want when the club have kindly invited me as a guest and a guest only.

Given that, I felt perhaps it’s best to stay away. Maybe if they were winning every game it would have been easier!

Was Neil Warnock’s appointment the right one?

Bellamy: It made so much sense at the time, he was the one the fans really wanted. He’s been fantastic for us within the whole club.

If I see a player who I think is ready for the first team, he encourages me to nibble away at him and push that individual.

Do you still have ambitions to manage Wales or Cardiff one day?

Bellamy: I can use the word dream because that’s what it still is to me, a dream. I’m nowhere near achieving that at the moment.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I do feel it’s really important to get my grounding first at this level.

I don’t know where I will end up, but if I do want to be a first team coach or manager one day I would have to do groundwork and start from the bottom.

This is a role I’m genuinely excited about and really enjoying.