Bellamy deal adds pressure - Lambert
Chris Lakey Paul Lambert believes Craig Bellamy could become a marked man after his move to the Championship. The former Canaries star has attracted huge publicity since his loan move from Premier League rich kids Manchester City to his hometown club Cardiff.
Chris Lakey
Paul Lambert believes Craig Bellamy could become a marked man after his move to the Championship.
The former Canaries star has attracted huge publicity since his loan move from Premier League rich kids Manchester City to his hometown club Cardiff.
Bellamy, who came through the ranks at Carrow Road before leaving for Coventry a decade ago for �6.5m, was an instant hit last weekend, scoring the final goal in a 4-0 drubbing of Doncaster.
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The Canaries manager's final season as a Celtic player coincided with Bellamy's half-season loan with the Scottish giants - and believes it could get much tougher for the
31-year-old Welshman.
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“It will give Cardiff a huge lift from it, but it will also raise other teams against him,” said Lambert.
“That's the thing they will have - the expectancy level will be huge on them now as well, but a terrific signing for the league.”
Bellamy's decision to drop down a league has certainly added lustre to the Championship, a division which is becoming increasingly distant from the top flight.
City defender Adam Drury has played in both, and agrees that it gives the second tier of English football a major lift.
“It does when you can attract those sort of players into the Championship,” he said. “It just goes to show how many good players there are about when you have people like that playing in this league -throughout the league you have got good players in every team.”
Bellamy's move attracted its share of publicity, not all of it good, with Cardiff's ability to manage a �30m debt causing concerns with the football authorities.
But Lambert believes Bellamy's decision is purely personal.
“I know him because he came up to Celtic when I was there - a terrific lad and a terrific footballer,” he said.
“I think his house is down there and his family is from there. It is his prerogative where he wants to go and it is great for our league, there is no two ways about it.
“He will have his own reason why he wanted to go back and one of the reasons is because he is from there.”
