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London hosted the last Olympics back in 2012 and the football tournament is not one to forget in a hurry.

The Football Associations of the rest of Great Britain told England that they did not want their players from being picked for the competition, leaving England largely on their own. Stuart Pearce was in charge of the football team of Great Britain. It was difficult but the coach was able to force some Welsh players into the team.

Former Red Devils star player Ryan Giggs was the captain of the Great Britain team. He was aging but since Wales were not known on the international scene, the Manchester United legend was given a chance at the games. He was one of the over aged players at the tournament. Pearce also gave former Reds player Craig Bellamy an opportunity at the games. Micah Richards was called upon to make the team as well.

David Beckham played a big part in helping Great Britain secure the hosting rights but he didn’t get action time despite being among the final 35-man squad. The coach reduced the players to 18 and the fans were not happy with Beckham being off the team. The team was talented as players like Joe Allen. Aaron Ramsey, Neil Taylor, Danny Rose, Ryan Bertrand, Jack Butland and Daniel Sturridge made the cut. A former Watford player Marvin Sordell was expected to impress but he didn’t. He plays at Coventry now.

The team played a draw against Senegal, won the United Arab Emirates 3-1 and defeated Uruguay 1-0. The team got to the quarter finals before losing on penalties, as England have come to be known. The score was 1-1 at regular time in the game against South Korea but Daniel Sturridge lost his kick, sending the team crashing out.

Dimitri Payet has been one of the players that has sparked life to the 2016 Euro’s as the Frenchman is one of the standout performers of the international competition after having scored against Romania and Albania.

France are considered to be one of the favorites of winning the 2016 Euro’s and considering that they have top and well known players such as: Antoine Griezmann, Paul Pogba, Raphael Varane, Patrice Evra and Yohan Cabaye, just to name a few of the more well-known and recognized players in the French national football team.

Despite all of these popular figures, it has been Dimitri Payet who has stood out and Craig Bellamy had a few things to say concerning the player of West Ham United.

“He’s been around for a few years now. His last year at Marseille he was outstanding. West Ham done incredible business to get him, it caught a lot of people by surprise but a great bit of business for West Ham.

“We’ve been lucky enough to see him in the Premier League this season, he’s just been immense and now to be on a stage like this for, whom I find are the favorites the French, keeping out Antoine Griezmann, keeping out Paul Pogba.”

Craig Bellamy is a former West Ham United player who is now retired and working as a TV pundit and has taken time to talk about Dimitri Payet and according to Bellamy, the Premier League and West Ham United are both lucky to have a talented player such as Dimitri Payet performing at such a high level.

West Ham United only spent £10.5 million in Dimitri Payet as the player completed his transfer from Marseille and it has turned out to be a bargain price for the Frenchman who has been making outstanding performances and scoring sublime goals for the Premier League club.

The former footballer Craig Bellamy is extremely confident that the Welsh national football team will be able to make it past the group stages of the 2016 Euro’s and this will not be an easy task to accomplish, especially considering the fact that Wales was pitted in the same group as England, Russia and Slovakia.

Back in his playing days, Craig Bellamy used to perform with various Premier League clubs as well as with his national side Wales. The retired player is aware of the performers that are currently representing Wales at the international scene and he is so confident in their abilities that Bellamy is sure they will able to progress further and that neither England nor Russia will give Wales a serious problem.

Craig Bellamy voiced his support and confidence concerning the Welsh national side as he said: ‘’I think we’ll get a result against England, I really do. If their full-backs bomb on and centre-backs come forward, we have players who can expose that. When you’ve got the pace of Gareth Bale you know you can cause problems for anyone. Russia will be similar.’’

“My only concern is Slovakia because I’ve watched some of their games and I can see that they typically like to sit in and we don’t have the sort of offence to break them down easily. I think they’re a tough team and they’ll make it really difficult. Due to the players we have, it will be hard for us.’’
The first group stage match of Wales is scheduled to take place on June 11 as they face off with Slovakia which is the toughest opponent that the Welsh side is going to play against according to Bellamy.

The Football Association of Wales wants Craig Bellamy as their next coach
With Chris Coleman’s current contract due to expire this summer, the Football Association of Wales is currently working on his replacement.

There is still talks going on with Coleman about a new contract, but the Association is also working on alternatives in case the current coach does not want to renew his contract.

Indeed, there are reports that Coleman might be interested in managing in the Premier League and would want to wait until the summer to see what options might be available for him. One team that might be interested in him is Swansea City, who might be looking for someone to replace Francesco Guidolin. The Italian is expected to leave during the summer.

It is believed that Craig Bellamy is being considered by the Football Association of Wales as a possible replacement for Coleman. The former Newcastle and Liverpool player is currently working with the Wales junior squads and may be keen to take his first managerial job. The Football Association of Wales has a history of handing out jobs to inexperienced managers, and it may do the same with Bellamy.

Bellamy made his debut in the Premier League with Coventry City in 2000. He was signed as a replacement for Robbie Keane, and he will go on and make 39 appearances for the club. He will score 8 goals during this period. After Coventry’s relegation, Bellamy will leave the club and sign for Newcastle.

During his time at Newcastle, he will make 128 appearances and scored 43 goals. He will also participate in the Champions League as well as the UEFA Cup with Newcastle.

Subsequently, he will move to Blackburn Rovers, Liverpool, West Ham United, and Manchester City before ending his career with Cardiff City.

Chris Coleman doesn’t think that there is any question of his team suffering because of him not having had an agreement yet with the association regarding getting his contract extended.

Some of the people feel that entering the Euros with no guarantees of the future might distract Coleman a little bit, but, according to the 45-year old former defender, if he agrees to a new deal or not, it has got nothing to do with his Euro preparations.

According to Coleman, this moment has come for the country after a long time. Everyone has had a long wait. There are so many dreams attached to the campaign, but, instead of the upcoming tournament, it’s something else which is catching all the attention. Everyone seems to be involved in this contract discussion which is certainly not as important as it is thought to be.

Also, Coleman believes that although the England game is quite a big one for his team, but, he is not as bothered about them as he is about the other two challengers in the group because he has less idea about them in comparison to the Three Lions.

In Coleman’s words, “With all due respect to England, their standard is of course very high, but, our focus will be more on the other two as they are the ones who are a bit unknown to us in terms of their play. There is no need for us to do that much of research about England as we watch them play on a weekly basis.”

Wales and Slovakia will kick off the Group B battle in the Euros as they will lock horns in Bordeaux on the second match day of the tournament.

A little later on that same day, England faces Russia in another Group B match.

Cardiff City legend Craig Bellamy claims that he was offered the opportunity to manage the club a few years ago, but he turned down the opportunity since he felt that the club needed a much better manager than him.

The former Liverpool and Manchester City striker revealed that Cardiff approached him when they were just back in the Championship. Owner Vincent Tan was very keen on reviving the Premier League dream of the club. Bellamy would have commanded instant respect upon arriving as the manager, but he felt that the lack of experience made him an unwise choice at that time.

Bellamy has since been involved in punditry and not direct managerial works. He has indicated in the past that he would like to manage Cardiff at some point in the future. However, the possibility of the same arriving anytime soon looks difficult with Bellamy not stepping into any managerial job as of now. After being turned down by Bellamy, Cardiff began looking at other options and brought him Russell Slade. However, the regime under Slade has been less than mediocre and the club are far away from competing even for a play-off place. Even though they have suffered just one defeat in the past five games, Cardiff are already seven points behind Burnley.

“I was offered it [Cardiff managerial role], but I wasn’t ready at that time.Cardiff being the club that I had grown up with deserved better at that particular time than what I was. So I made it clear that for Cardiff City to have a good chance of staying in the Premier League, I certainly was not that option. I was coaching the under sevens and under eights the other night. I see what they are doing and what we can do better as coaches,” said Bellamy.

Former Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy has revealed that he has always had the desire to become the manager of Cardiff City, where he is adored as one of their own.

Bellamy recently retired from football after a stellar career that saw him represent top teams like Manchester City and Liverpool. He may have been less successful in terms of trophies, but the former Welsh striker remains a fan favourite at Cardiff City. He retired from football while playing for the Championship club. Even though he has since been involved in several aspects of the game like punditry, Bellamy says that his ultimate ambition is to manage Cardiff.

Bellamy was recently named as the new pundit alongside Jamie Carragher at Sky Sports. The position was previously held by the former Manchester United defender, Gary Neville. Hence, it is clear that Bellamy has big shoes to fill since Neville won great reviews for his exemplary work over the last couple of years. Bellamy turned in an impressive show in his opening with Carragher, but he claims that his ultimate ambition will be to get into the dugout of Cardiff. The Welsh outfit are struggling to assert their superiority in the Championship this season. They are in the ninth spot after almost halfway through the campaign.

“Probably Man City at this present moment, with all the money they have.In an ideal world, probably closer to home at the moment, like Cardiff, like Wales.It’s something I’m really close to at this moment and I feel really confident I’d be able to do something about it.I’ve really enjoyed my time off.But over the last couple of months, it’s been really good going into clubs and having a good look around,” said the striker about his desire to manage Cardiff and also his pastime since retiring.

Liverpool once again failed to take their chances, as the wait for the first victory continues for new manager Jurgen Klopp. The club could only manage a 1-1 draw against Southampton at Anfield.Klopp came to Liverpool amidst a lot of hype that he could build on the success of Brendan Rodgers.

The Northern Irishman turned out into a one season wonder for the club. Apart from coming very close to winning the title a couple of seasons ago, Liverpool have been extremely sluggish under Rodgers.Klopp was expected to take the club to the next level, but he has made a mediocre start by drawing his first three games.

After starting out with the 0-0 draw against Tottenham last week, Liverpool were expected to get the much needed victory out of the way. Home game against Southampton and a Europa league encounter in the midweek were seen as ideal opportunities, but Liverpool have failed to capitalise. Three consecutive draws have led to the manager stating that the players seem to lack belief right now, but he expects results to improve sooner rather than later.Klopp will have to find the right combinations soon since Liverpool have tough matches against the likes of Chelsea in the upcoming weeks.

“With many things I saw tonight, I was fine. I saw two teams fighting for a result, one with more freshness because they had one game less in the week. They pressed high, but we were brave enough to play football against them. We had our situations, our moments, everything you need to win in a tight game. We still had 10 minutes to go, and I think we saw tonight we didn’t give up physically, but we didn’t believe we could change the game and that’s the problem,” said the Liverpool boss.

Former Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy is of the opinion that the Reds will struggle to finish in the top four once again. Manager Brendan Rodgers overcame several question marks about his future to sustain in his role.

However, there has been numerous changes at Anfield in terms of the coaching personnel and players. The arrival of players like Christian Benteke has brought a lot of positivity surrounding the club, but it has vanished after a mediocre start once again. Liverpool huffed and puffed to get a 1-0 win over newly promoted Bournemouth in the opening game of the season.

Since then, however, they have not been able to get a victory in the last two games. More recently, they were involved in a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of West Ham United at Anfield. It will go down as one of the worst results for the club in recent memory, but there could be more trouble in the near future since they visit Manchester United after the international break. Bellamy represented Liverpool for several years when the club was regularly qualifying for the Champions League. Now, however, it has become a rarity at Anfield. After managing it only once in the last five years, it looks like Bellamy is backing for another campaign without European football.

“I’d love to say they can qualify for the Champions League but I feel they will fall a little bit short of that again this year.I think [Christian] Benteke is a brilliant signing – he’s definitely a player who is going to do well. They’re desperate for [Daniel] Sturridge to have an injury-free season as he holds a lot of the keys as to how Liverpool will do,” said Bellamy. The team may take a while before they start clicking and functioning at their best. Benteke, though, has been a reasonable success so far.

Former Cardiff City striker Jay Bothroyd says that the club should consider bringing back their legend Craig Bellamy as a manager to replace Russell Slade.

The latter has received intense criticism after a very poor campaign that saw the club finished only 11th in the Championship. Cardiff were expected to challenge for promotion spots, but it went out of the window a long time before the end of the campaign. The club’s parachute payments will take a significant hit from next season onwards and Cardiff will want to return back to the top flight as soon as possible.

Bothroyd argues that one of the ways to do this will be by bringing back the passion from the supporters. This can be done by appointing a manager like Craig Bellamy. The former Cardiff City striker does not have any managerial experience, but he will be able to lead the club very well due to his knowledge from within. Slade came on as the replacement for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in October 2014 but he has not been able to put up much of a change in the club’s promotion aspirations. Bellamy is currently undergoing his coaching badges after having recently ending his playing career with the bluebirds.

“The manager’s job at Cardiff would be a great first job for him.He’s worked with great managers and trained with great clubs over the years. I’m sure he’s taken a lot of things on board. No fan is not going to want to pay money to watch that kind of football.They’ve played too many long balls. The fans have been used to exciting football.The manager obviously implements his style of play on the team. Nothing against Russell Slade but I don’t think that he’s improved the team at all since he took over,” said the former striker.