Newcastle United legend Warren Barton has bestowed a dubious honour on former Magpies teammate Craig Bellamy.
Barton played 164 times for Newcastle over seven years, scoring four goals along the way.
He became the most expensive defender in English football when he moved to St James’ Park for £4 million from Wimbledon, swapping the Crazy Gang for the The Entertainers that were assembled by Kevin Keegan.
And one of Barton’s teammates during his time on Tyneside clearly left an impression on him in more ways than one.
Barton responded to the question “Which players in world football would you not want to face off with in a fight?” by naming Bellamy, who he played alongside towards the end of his Magpies career.
A dubious honour if ever there was one but Barton went on to clarify that he admired Bellamy’s ability.
“He was a very good player and a great lad,” Barton added on Twitter.
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So there you have it, Mick Harford, Joey Barton, Vinnie Jones, Billy Whitehurst and co eat your heart out because Bellamy could handle himself too.
Barton is not the only former Newcastle star to mention Bellamy this week after Kieron Dyer lifted the lid on a brilliant story involving Bellamy while playing under Sir Bobby Robson.
Bellamy was withdrawn early with the Magpies cruising to an easy victory as Robson elected to save the striker’s legs for another day.
That did not go down too well with the firebrand Welshman, though, who was cursing in the changing rooms after the game at being taken off.
“Craig kept jabbering away about the injustice and finally Sir Bobby snapped. ‘I’ll squash you, son, like an ant.’,” Dyer revealed in his new book.
“Craig looked a bit taken aback but after a brief pause, started complaining again.
“‘Who are you?’ Sir Bobby said. ‘Ronaldo, Romario, Stoichkov, Hagi, Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Gascoigne: these are the people I deal with. And who are you?’
“The changing room went quiet. Even Craig went quiet. And then Craig looked over at me and said: ‘He’s got a point, hasn’t he?'”
The good old days at Newcastle seem a long time ago.
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