This weekend I had the pleasure of spending the weekend with a mate up North and whilst we spent what seemed like fifty days watching England get stuffed by Sri Lanka at the cricket our conversation meandered onto the twin topics of Bellamy and Owen.


Now my matey is a season ticket holder with The Toon and although he can be a little blinkered when it comes to his beloved team (unlike my good self who is fair minded and tolerant of other peoples football opinion), he knows his stuff and knows how the Toon feel about their players.
We started talking about the fact that not so long ago we had Owen worrying about his next contract and they had Bellamy playing out of his skin week in week out making chance after chance for his strike partners and bagging a fair few for himself.


The conversation continued onto the fact that whilst a lot was made at the time about Souness and Sheppard's reaction to the fall out with Craig, not much attention was paid to the ‘Toon Army’ itself. Yes, it was acknowledged that off the pitch Bellamy could be al little bit .. well to be honest ... a bit of a twat the fact is - who gives a shit.

It's what he does on the pitch that concerned the lads in the Toon. And on this point no one could ever question Bellamy's attitude or ability and even now after the well publicised fallout he remains well regarded and sorely missed.


Having had the pleasure of watching him on numerous occasions for the Toon (my mate gets me tickets when I am up North) and for Wales I can back up the fact that we have a sodding gem. You wait and see – he’s lightening fast, can spot people in better positions than himself (remember Baros!) and when he strikes the ball he does so accurately and with confidence.


Of course I have a Welsh bias but I tell you, we've got the best of this deal by a country mile.