7 Mar 2012

Liverpool striker admits: I may only have *one* more year left at Anfield...

Craig Bellamy has been a revelation for Liverpool this season. With nine goals and five assists so far, the Welsh international is making a real impact, and providing excellent value for money. Despite this, Kenny Dalglish has inexplicably chosen to leave him on the bench regularly over the last month, which is extremely frustrating for fans, myself included. Now, Bellamy has hinted that he will only be at Liverpool for one more year.

Bellamy is 33 this year, and he may never play as well as this again, which is why Liverpool should (IMO) be capitalising on his form and playing him as often as his fitness will allow.

Unfortunately, it seems that Bellamy's time at Liverpool will be brief once again. In an interview with the Liverpool Echo today, he dropped a strong hint that he may not be at Anfield for much longer. He said:

"There’s a lot to be positive about. I’m looking forward to being part of it over the next year or so and then sitting back and watching the progress continue".

Bellamy definitely seems to be suggesting that he'll either leave Liverpool, or retire from the game altogether in 'a year or so', which is even more reason to utilise him as much as possible now.

Bellamy has been on the bench for the last three games now, including the Carling Cup Final, which - in my view - was a gigantic and unfair snub. To add insult to injury, he was brought on in the 87th minute against Arsenal last weekend, which is pretty insulting to a player who has been so integral for Liverpool this season.

I have no doubt that if Bellamy had played more games this season, Liverpool would have more league points on the board. Yes, there is an issue with his knees, but Bellamy himself admitted earlier in the season that he has been fit for every game so far. Additionally, his knee problem didn't stop him making 71 starts in the two seasons prior to joining Liverpool.

John Aldridge is also frustrated with Dalglish's failure to utilise Bellamy more often, and in his column for the Liverpool Echo, recently, he urged Dalglish to play his best team as often as possible:

"Liverpool can't afford to have any more defeats between now and the end of the season. We just need to start winning games again and not play conservatively as the side have been guilty of this season.

"Kenny has to play Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll up front together in every game with Steven Gerrard and Craig Bellamy in support. They are the players who are capable of winning us games".


Winning games is exactly what's needed right now, and to do that, Bellamy has to play regularly. If he doesn't, then Dalglish will be guilty of wasting the talent of one of Liverpool's only genuine match-winners.

Jaimie Kanwar


48 comments:

  1. KK not able to make room for Maxi or Bellamy, as he is too busy trying to justify signing Downing and Hendo.

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  2. How many times are people going to say Bellamy should be picked more? He's picked when he's physically available to start a match! Because of his knee injuries he has to be managed and cannot play more than 1 full game a week. He didn't start against Arsenal because he played for Wales in midweek. Stop beating the same drum when you do not have your facts straight Jaimie.

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  3. surely playing both maxi and bellamy would bring us the needed wins, 

                   Reina
    johnson skrtel Carragher enrique
              
    maxi   spearing  gerrard  downing

            Suarez Bellamy 

    Surely the lineup above is our stongest (obv without lucas and Agger due to injury currently) and we should be playing this against sunderland. 

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  4. KD this season has been poor in my opinion. Of course the team has been inconsistent and there's a few new faces but his selection process has been very poor this season. Like you said Jamie, bringing Bellamy on against Arsenal on 87th minute is a joke. And then Comolli comes out with some nonsense in regards to not needing many changes in the summer. Not many in terms maybe of defence, but attacking options we are hopeless.

    Suarez is overrated, poor scoring records in England and has terrible composure. Carroll, well, Carroll is Carroll.......Downing has been playing better recently but not good enough, SG is playing very poorly recently, maybe because oh his injury potentially. JH is terrible. In the final he was ineffective. But I shall wait on him. Adam is not a bad player but you can see he is not playing with the same standard as last season. We need 2 non-English wingers ( Adam Johnson only I can think of ), a clinical poacher striker, and a CREATIVE attacking midfielder.And if this rummor of PSG and Suarez are true then sell him for £30+. He is a good player but simulates way to much for my liking, dives and is controversial.And we need to give our young ones a change. Sterling seems ready for a final 15mins of game and so does suso.

    I have a feeling they won't make the great like Pacheco because of a lack of chances.

    But hey, I guess we won a cup so that makes this okay -_-

    Rant over guys...feel free to criticize.

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  5. giovani.. you telling me maxi should get the nod over kuyt?? if you are.. you know nothing!! maxi had a purple patch, last season , when he banged in a few goals!! what has he done previopusly?? or since?? everytime i watch him play, he constantly gives the ball away cheaply, and doesn't do half of the work kuyt does!! and you have spearing in your line up too! he does work hard, but like maxi, constantly gives the ball away, which is exactly what we dont want, when playin pass n move footy!! wilson... it sounds to me like you don;t know so much!! have you been watching a diff team to me?? i've seen, on most occasions this season, barr a few dodgey games, us play teams off the park!! including city, man u, chelsea... we are playing some really good, attacking, attractive footy!! who, we have kenny to thank for... or are you one of theses fans?? that would rather, we be playing the dull, boring, negative football, of the rafa era??  ok, we aint won as many games as we should of done, but sometimes you get that in football!! we've hit the woodwork so many time, i canny even remember how many times it's been, one of our best players , the "overated" suarez, as you call him, has been out banned for a while, and if he is overated, why are the likes of barca.. psg.. Madrid sniffing around him?? cuz they no nothing right?? we are a team in transition, lots of new players... who we bought for not just half a season, so why you feel the need to sit therre and judge?? be so negative? and try and belittle the cup we have just won?? 

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  6. Any recent reliable source for this 'knee' story? I mean specifically in relation to his lack of playing time at Liverpool.

    Bellamy started 35+ league games last season, in the more physical Championship. Maybe he can't play 2 games in a week but he sure has proven last season that he can start plenty more games than he has this season for us.

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  7. Fact is, I can't see Bellamy ever playing too many games for us but I do agree with the opinion that Kenny is too busy trying to justify his poor signings to give games to the people who are actually doing something. Enrique, Agger, Lucas, Gerrard, for one more season, Bellamy, for one more season. After that, the rest can go at the right price. Bring Kelly in at right back, give Johnson a go at right midfield, start bring Coates into the team. Stick Bellamy on the left. Still means we need a provider and someone to score on a regular basis. Hoillett on a free transfer, at the end of the season, would do me, then go sign up Pogrebnyak on a free, once his Stuttgart contract runs out. Make up the rest with youth signings. We won't have much cash this summer, so whoever we get will have to be cheap. I'd happily move Reina on for a big price and buy a decent keeper at half the amount he would bring in.

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  8. chirag is correct in his post

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  9. And just what are the facts ?? The way I see it is if a player isn't capable of playing at least 60 mins of football a week then why is he in the service of the club ?? If his knee injury is that severe then why was he offered a contract ??

    Bellamy has a lot more to offer this team than he is being allowed give at the moment. The only one who's beating the same drum is KK when he suggests that he's resting or protecting Bellamy. The guy himself says he's fit to play a bigger part, and the amount of games played in the championship last season would suggest he's up to it.

    To suggest that because he played in a mid tempo friendly during the week as to being the reason he only came on with 3 mins left against Arsenal is laughable. Besides the stats which can sometimes be manipulated, a blind man can see he's our best attacking option this season. So use him more !!

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  10. In reply to your other post about Pepe.. I ll post it here too for you..


    You seem to be under the impression that replacing a top keeper with a younger keeper for half the price is easy peasy lemon squeezey

    May I remind you we 'picked up' supposedly the BEST young goalkeepers in England in Kirkland and Carson. Both flopped. You underestimate the value of a great keeper and the ability to find one at your peril.

    Pepe is a great keeper. And while not having his best season at Anfield, he will provide Liverpool with many more years of top class service. Anybody suggesting we sell him really needs a reality check and needs to use their long term memory a little bit more rather than their short term memory.


    And I'm not sure what your comment to his leadership off the pitch is alluding to ??????
     

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  11. In reply to your other post about Pepe, I ll post it here too..

    You seem to be under the impression that replacing a top keeper with a younger keeper for half the price is easy peasy lemon squeazy.

    May I remind you we 'picked up' supposedly the BEST young goalkeepers in England in Kirkland and Carson. Both flopped. You underestimate the value of a great keeper and the ability to find one at your peril.

    Pepe is a great keeper. And while not having his best season at Anfield, he will provide Liverpool with many more years of top class service. Anybody suggesting we sell him really needs a reality check and needs to use their long term memory a little bit more rather than their short term memory.

    And I'm not sure what your comment to his leadership off the pitch is alluding to ??????

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  12. Bellamy only played in the league for Cardiff last season and the Championship is 46 games so he missed 11 games.
    Up until a couple of seasons ago had never played more then 15 games in a row in a season without getting injured.
    May be we should have just played him in the league!
    Extract of interview with Bellamy talking about his on going knee problems July 2011.Having being lured to City by former manager Mark Hughes, Bellamy claims his career at the club nosedived within days of the Italian being installed as Hughes’ successor in Dec 2009.
    Bellamy had been allowed to adhere to a personalised training regime under Hughes in order to protect long-term knee problems, but the players claims that Mancini refused to allow it to continue.
    “It was tough [when Hughes left], it was like losing someone.” Bellamy said. “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 that my knee was hurting, he tried to tell me that it wasn’t.
    “Mancini wanted me to come in another day and do some work, but I told him that 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, ‘OK, no problem, I’m going home then’. That was a week after he’d arrived, and then he never spoke to me again.
    “When I went into pre-season, the physiotherapist Jamie Murphy spoke to Mancini and told him that I wasn’t able to do a lot of the things that Mancini wanted, because it would cause a reaction in my knee. Mancini wants to have it all.”
    Bellamy then added: “I went away to the pre-season tour in America, trained with the squad, but my knee blew up, and it became more swollen than it has ever been.
    “I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t have turned around and said, ‘Look, I’m not training’. Because then they would have said that I refused to train and that I didn’t want to be there. The same old rubbish, so I forced myself to train even more.”

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  13. In response to your other post about Pepe, I ll post it here too

    You seem to be under the impression that replacing a top keeper with a younger keeper for half the price is easy peasy lemon squeazy.

    May I remind you we 'picked up' supposedly the BEST young goalkeepers in England in Kirkland and Carson. Both flopped. You underestimate the value of a great keeper and the ability to find one at your peril.

    Pepe is a great keeper. And while not having his best season at Anfield, he will provide Liverpool with many more years of top class service. Anybody suggesting we sell him really needs a reality check and needs to use their long term memory a little bit more rather than their short term memory.

    And I'm not sure what your comment to his leadership off the pitch is alluding to ??????

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  14. A decent Keeper at half the amount ??? Decent young keepers like Carson and Kirkland, who were touted as the best young keepers in England when we bought them. Do I need to remind you they both flopped.

    You underestimate the value and difficulty in finding a top keeper at your peril. Pepe is a great keeper.

    Seems to be a train of thought gathering a bit of speed that we should or could off load Pepe, the sooner this train is derailed the better.

    I've said it before and I'll say it again, some fans are as shallow as a garden pond and have the memory of a goldfish you might find swimming in it.

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  15. That's the exact same thing I've been asking for and nobody has been able to do so - ppl are just making up excuses to justify the unjustifiable

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  16. So why could he start for Wales and not Liverpool the week before?? 

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  17. Up until this season, Van Persie had only started more than 20 games in a season once.

    Bellamy had two consecutive seasons starting 25+ games, so it was fair to assume that his injury problems were behind him. He hasn't suffered any notable injuries at Liverpool and has only started 8 league games, in spite of the team struggling for him and him outperforming his competition. There is simply no justification for this, no matter how hard ppl may want to dig to convince themselves that Dalglish is doing the right thing.

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  18. Bellamy on after 87 minutes and Carroll after 93 - that's just a slap in the face to any player.

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  19. Maxi gives the ball away a lot and Kuyt doesn't?? I'm no Maxi fan, but that's just ridiculous

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  20. davewestausregularguest2:52 am, March 08, 2012

    DALGLISH NEEDS TO GO at the end of the season! We want RAFA back before he goes elsewhere!

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  21. oh please! stop making excuses for incompetent and clueless management that we are stuck with. And what's the excuse for bringing him on so late at Cardiff?? A game he deserved to start more than anyone on the team but SG... instead he crams Carroline down the throat of the first team once again...and what does he do at Arsenal??..88th min! Are you kidding? Dalglish has proven to be Championship caliber manager at best.. the game has passed him by and he now just looks like a bumbling has-been trying to hang on.. FIRE DALGLISH NOW! 

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  22. Jay have you ever thought that it is due to the management of his long standing knee problems is the reason he hasnt been 'injured' ?

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  23. Rafa oh my days please? thats just as blinkered as saying Kenny is the right man, lets get to the end of the season and have another look at it then. RE: Bellamy, the guy has had so many serious injuries http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/nov/19/craig-bellamy-manchester-city thats a link to a story 3 yrs ago with CB saying he might only have 2 yrs left due to injury. As much as we would all LOVE to see him play week in week out he cant. He was always going to play for Wales due to his relationship with G Speed, so it was no surprise that he was left out. As i said i would love to see him in every game but he cant play, KD has already said that he needs to be managed properly and with care, do people not understand that?

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  24. Keep saying it, but, considering what we have paid for players, you should be able to see with your own eyes that price does not guarantee quality. So, pull your neck in and accept that someone else has a different opinion. Considering the other post is about our ex keeper BRAD FRIEDEL, I'm not sure what it is that you don't understand, if Barcelona were offering 15 million plus for Reina, then, in my opinion, but clearly not yours, Friedel for free or Given for 5 million would do me as a replacement. Even Robinson, when Blackburn go down, would do me if he was 5 million or less. Reina's performances haven't been that great and I don't think these other guys, with a much smaller transfer fee and probably less wages would mean a drop in our level. Carson and Kirlkland have nothing to do with it so I'm not sure why you bother bringing them up. 

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  25. Jay i think you'll find Bellers and Kenny have both stated he needs to be managed. I'd also like to point out that I'm not making excuses for him coming on late against Arsenal. I said he did not START because he can't play more than 1 full game in a week.

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  26. OriginalChan, it was only a few months ago if i remember correctly, that KD and Bellers both said this. unfortunately I don't save every single interview i read or hear.

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  27. and you're bringing in RVP because? He doesn't play for Liverpool and his injuries are not Bellamy's injuries. Comparing players injuries isn't the best thing to do considering every player recovers differently from injuries.

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  28. Chirag - the Bellamy injury excuse is a complete myth. In January, he said the following about his fitness levels:

    "I have been available for every single game which has been great for me"

    Clearly, that means he has been *fit* for every single game, yet despite this, he continues to be a bit-part player.

    Let's just run with the notion that Bellamy can't play two games in a week. If that's the case , who do yo explain this:

    11 Feb: Came on in the 60th minute against Man United (playing time = 30 mins)

    ----> 15 days of rest time, then:

    26 Feb: Came on in the 57th minute in the Carling Cup final

    How can this be justified? 15 days of rest time yet he still doesn't start the Carling Cup Final? It's utterly ridiculous and is, IMO, negligence. The job of the manager and coaching staff is to play the best team possible to benefit *Liverpool*

    Why then would you leave your top goalscorer on the bench for an cup final?!

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  29. I never said I have all the facts Jay, please tell me where i said "I HAVE ALL THE FACTS". To clue you up also, the club knew how much it meant to Craig to play for Wales in the Memorial game for Gary Speed, it's called sentiment. Whether that was the reason he didn't start against Cardiff or not, I don't know but he said himself in an interview prior to the game he wasn't looking forward to playing against Cardiff!

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  30. he was actually brought on at a decent time of the game against Cardiff, so how you can claim that's late i do not know! And IF you'd watched any previous games Andy Carroll had been playing well the last few games, hence he was there on form! 

    Why the substitutions happened against Arsenal so late, i haven't a clue and maybe they should have come on considerably earlier. 

    GM23 are you a professional  footballer or manager? if so, maybe you should apply for the LFC job! heck, why don't you apply for the England job since you think you know it all! 

    People need to stop throwing their toys out of the pram and look at the bigger picture. The team has moved on considerably since the start of last season. Spending however much we have did NOT mean instant success. We have been playing catch up with the teams above us, and only now do we actually have a squad with some depth.

    If you are a Liverpool fan, get behind the team instead of slagging them off or at least leaving the slagging off til the end of the season when we'll know where we have finished!

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  31. Jaimie, did he state he was fit to START every single game? NO! he simply stated he has been available for the game. 

    also the 15 days rest you claim he had, agreed, it should have been enough BUT you might want to read this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/21/liverpool-craig-bellamy-fit-cardiff 

    clearly says he picked up an injury post the United game. So IMHO, unless you were involved in the decision making process in the run up to the game, you're trying to second guess the decision to not start him and that does not help anyone.

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  32. You conveniently ignore the title of the article, which states that Bellamy is fit to start the Carling Cup final. He had a 'back spasm' after the United game, so nothing to do with his knees. The fact still remains he had 15 days of rest after that game, and he was fit to play in the CL from the start.

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  33. They aren't behind him he just manages his knee problems better by not over training, his knee problem is never going to go away if anything they will get worse in time. In the interview it says"in order to protect long term knee problems"  that is why he left Man City to get away from Mancini before he crippled him, wouldn't allow him to carry on with his own training program!
    I agree he should have started every league game and left to rest for cup games especially seeing we have a goal scoring problem! 

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  34. Can't seem to reply to Jaimie's reply...I did not conveniently miss anything. The point is he had an injury in the run up to the final which might explain his absence from the starting lineup. You're really clutching at straws now mate.

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  35. Absolutely no "snub" to Bellamy its quite well known that Craig Bellamy has an ongoing condition with his Knee and at times is unable to string consecutive performances together, This is being managed by the medical team at Melwood and he is being played accordingly. As for Justifying the purchases of certain players think some of you need to have a real word with yourselves Henderson wouldn't have started anywhere near the games he has this season were it not for the horrific injury to Lucas early on and has always been viewed as a player for the future (Like Lucas himself actually and I would guarantee the same people giving Henderson a hard time prob gave Lucas a tough time in his first few seasons)
    It was a lot of money to spend but again it is relative in an inflated market such as ours and again 'actual fees' are always way below the inflated reported ones for example I belive in order for the final value of Hendersons transfer to reach anywhere near the reported 20 mill mark he would have to become lord Mayer of Liverpool and ride bare ar&ed through the streets of Kirkby!
     I am not a "Blind devotee" of Liverpool football club and dont always agree with some of the decisions that have been made but I think sometimes a bit more of a balanced view of the direction of the club is definitely needed after all we are a club in transition albeit ahead of some of our near competitors who will be having the same issues in 2012-2013 season (Arsenal and Chelsea).

    Rant over ;-)   

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  36. You made your uppity statement while also stating that Jamie needed to get his facts straight. That implies that you do have the facts, does it not?

    As I said, you and so many others are just making up nonsense to justify the unjustifiable. Now all of a sudden is concerned about resting one of its best players so that he can start an international friendly!? GTFOH!

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  37. Super-fans and pundits keep saying that, every time they realize that  Bellamy has been dropped yet again and need to justify it somehow, not Dalglish and definitely not Bellamy himself

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  38. You've got all the answers to your questions there. He may not be capable of playing at least 60 mins of football a week, but he is in the service of the club because he has alot more to offer the team than he is being allowed to give. He was offered a contract despite his severe injury because a blind man can see he's our best attacking option!

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  39. It is precisely because the club understands Bellamy could get injured and is our best attacker that he isn't allowed to play to his limits to ensure he doesn't go beyond them, and then we lose him completely for the spell of his recovery.

    It is in protecting him from playing injury that has enabled him to be fit for every game, which may not have been the case if he played more minutes and indeed in every game. Lucas' being out for so long is a good lesson to learn from.

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  40. As always I'm quite comfortable leaving fitness and playing time decisions up to the staff of the football club rather than pundits and bloggers. I suspect Kenny has a bit more insight into what effect any extra playing time would have on Bellamy in a longer term view. The statement regarding Aldridge actually says it perfectly:
    "John Aldridge is frustrated .... he urged Dalglish to play his best team as often as possible"
    Yes, Aldridge is frustrated. That's fine. I'm sure Kenny is frustrated too by Bellamy's inability to front up for 90 minutes a week. I think we all are.  So what? 
    Yes, Kenny should play his best team as often as possible. That's what he's doing. I don't consider giving Bellamy extra minutes that would put him at great risk of injury as something within the realms of "possible". Stupid, maybe. 

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  41. Bellamy's injury problems have held back his career in the past, but they didn't stop him regularly starting games for the last two years. Yet you guys choose to keep looking back way into the past as evidence of why he can't start games, all the while ignoring his recent history which is conclusive evidence that he in fact CAN start regularly

    And I bring up Van Persie in comparison as evidence of another player that has long suffered with extensive injuries. Except that Bellamy has proven to be even further away from his injury problems than Van Persie. Yet while Van Persie starts week in week out for Arsenal because they need him, we're messing about giving Bellamy 5 minute cameos, in spite of a desperate need for him to figure more prominently also.

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  42. Verheijen is the physio that has extended Bellamy's career.
    Verheijen's earlier tweets included: "All season we have stuck to the 'one-game-per-week' principle as this approach has kept CB [Bellamy] injury-free for almost two seasons already.
    "In last month CB played three games in seven days followed by two games in three days and two games in five days. We're collectively responsible for this gamble.
    This is from a tweet reported on BBC SPORT after Bellamy got injured in the first leg of the Play off versus Reading last season I think that puts to rest that Bellamy can only play once a week and if he plays more it is a gamble.
    I agree with you if Bellamy is fit he should play more but I don't think Bellamy's knee is fixed and he still has problems which he has to manage so he can play.

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  43. we have a squad with depth??? What team are you watching?? We are utter crap half the time.. and mediocre the other half... we are not better than we were last year (hence the fact that we are lower in the table!! )... but you keep drinking the dalglish koolaid as we sink into mediocrity.. fans like you are the problem.. supporting a crap team doesn't make you a "better fan" than one who is honest about how bad the team is criticizes the team the garbage play and demands better.. you get the respect and support you EARN.. and these clowns haven't earned any.. FIRE DALGLISH NOW! 

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  44. if i had to choose, wether to have maxi or kuyt in my team, it would be kuyt everytime!! he a class above maxi!!

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  45. He was playing week in and week out last season, in the more physical Championship. 

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  46. The internet is easy to use, non?

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