Despite Wales being guaranteed a play-off berth, this international break felt a bit like make or break for Craig Bellamy. The expectation was to fill our boots in Liechtenstein, a team with zero points or goals, then any sort of win against North Macedonia, who were unbeaten. In the end, the reverse happened, as Wales toiled away from home and provided a performance for the ages back in Cardiff.
Wales were always expected to finish second to Belgium, ranked the eighth best team in the world and that is exactly what they did. They were a late winner away from topping the group winners and now head into the play-offs flooded with confidence. Similarly, some Cardiff fans were starting to grumble about Brian Barry-Murphy over the international break after a disappointing result and wobbly performance at Blackpool, despite being a game in hand away from the top of League One.
An impressive, rather fortuitous win at Northampton later and Cardiff have reached the summit and the doubts have floated away. For now at least. Objectively, both teams look in rude health. They play largely successful, attractive football, under young managers with big ideas that are looking to make a name for themselves. This should be something to celebrate because it has been a long time coming, but it has felt like the enthusiasm is not exactly universal.
Embed from Getty ImagesMaybe that’s simply a sign of the times and the nature of social media, where every thought is spoken aloud and magnified. It’s also increasingly difficult to find anything that a lot of people will ever agree on. For me personally though, I’ve never wanted two managers to succeed more than these two and it boggles my mind that some are so keen to find fault and quick to lose faith.
Both Bellamy and Barry-Murphy are cut from the same cloth and are original thinkers, so its no surprise that there is a mutual public appreciation of each other. Bellamy, a year younger, is finally beginning to shed the hot head persona forged in his youth, which was as outdated as it was unfair. He has clearly calmed down, understands himself far better these days and communicates very well. I know he’s prone to sweeping statements that people hold him to, but surely ambition should be encouraged rather than mocked.
Ask anyone that has worked with Bellamy and they will tell you that he is a workaholic with incredibly high standards, which is surely exactly what you want from a manager of a relatively small, upwardly mobile nation. He has his favourites, as all managers do and ironically that has dented his reputation in his hometown due to his refusal to pick Rubin Colwill. The conspiracy theorists are out in force every time he names a squad and this is used to highlight how stubborn he is deemed, but surely that shouldn’t be such a significant metric in how he’s appraised.
Anyone that watched the second half at Blackpool will have witnessed the naivety that Cardiff sometimes display, as they were exposed on the break time and time again. The defeat could have been far heavier and the truth is that Cardiff have rode their luck at times this year, but they also showed real guts to see out the Northampton game and that is a quality that was sadly lacking last season.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe way that Wales and Cardiff have learned to love the ball is a testament to their managers and is a remarkable feat because both used to have a pathological fear of possession at times. That is a huge culture shock that both have navigated successfully and seamlessly. Much is made of the young squads both managers oversee, but the truth is that the players are far more experienced. Bellamy and Barry-Murphy are both novices, at the very start of their coaching careers and learning on the job. They need and deserve our unwavering support.
The reality of the situation is that while some of you are still making up your minds, the football world is taking notice and there’s nothing they love more than the next big thing. Bellamy was linked with the Celtic gig and Barry-Murphy was talked about as an option for Middlesbrough. Both are clubs with their finger on the pulse and they won’t be the last.
Bellamy has a huge standing in the game and is coming off the greatest achievement of his coaching career in overseeing the annihilation of North Macedonia, ahead of a four month break until his next game. Similarly, Barry-Murphy will lead Cardiff out against Chelsea in the EFL Cup quarter-final next month and the tabloid press requests have already begun to flood in. This should be appreciated because it’s rare that club and country share the same attention and upward trajectory. Long may it continue and the transformative effect both managers have had, at the genesis of their careers, in such a short space of time.