Bellamy lashes out at Mancini

Posted Friday, July 08, 2011 by

LONDON (AFP) - Unsettled Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy has reiterated his determination to leave the club, revealing he has not spoken to manager Roberto Mancini for 18 months.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph on Friday, Bellamy said his relationship with Mancini broke down within days of the Italian being appointed to replace Mark Hughes in 2009.

The 31-year-old Wales international, who has a year remaining on his City contract, spent last season on loan at Cardiff but is now keen to secure a permament move away from Eastlands.

However Bellamy said if he is unable to secure a move he expects to spend a year languishing in the reserves at City.

"At present I expect to go back there and stay the whole year. And if Mancini is still there I'll probably do very little. Obviously I won't be involved with him and the first team," Bellamy said.

"It was tough (when Hughes left) - it was like losing someone. It was probably as bad as losing a family member in some ways. I even struggled to eat for a few days.

"It was a totally different structure which affected me completely. Mancini told me to stay with the team all the time. We had longer training sessions, but with no intensity whatsoever.

"He seemed to know my knee better than I knew it myself. He tried to explain why I had problems with it and what I should do about it. When I told him my knee was hurting, he tried to tell me it wasn't.

"Mancini wanted me to come in another day and do some work - but I told him I'd finished my work that day, that I was keeping to my own schedule.

"That was when he started about my programme, that I couldn't follow my own schedule while he was the manager - and that I had to do what he was telling me.

"He said 'if you don't you can go back home now. And don't come in again'. I replied 'okay, no problem, I'm going home then'. That was a week after he'd arrived - and then he never spoke to me again."

Bellamy said any move away from City would be determined by his wages, ruling out a paycut because of his charitable projects in Africa.

"I have my own academy in Sierra Leone, where I have to take care of 13 children, day in, day out. My wages are more important to them than they are for me," Bellamy said.