Craig Bellamy rules out managing Cardiff City saying he ‘needs to relax’
Craig Bellamy has ruled out managing Cardiff City, saying he “needed a couple of years to relax” having quit football at the end of last season.
The former Cardiff striker has been linked with the vacant post at his old club but he quashed talk of an immediate return to the Cardiff City Stadium.
“For me, to come away from football has been a release because the intensity that I worked at it drove me mad and everyone around me at the time,” he told The Clare Balding Show.
“I do realise if I do go into management, that’s why it’s not going to be for a few years. I want this time and I need this time to relax and enjoy things, take a step back, but I do know the intensity I’ll need to work at as a manager will be 20 hours a day. So I need this period, I need a couple of years to relax.”
Bellamy, 35, retired after 17 years in the game citing wear and tear on his body. He said he was offered the chance to take over at Cardiff when Malky Mackay left the club but turned the job down.
Asked if he would manage Cardiff now he said: “Certainly not, I had the opportunity at Christmas to do it – when Malky left they offered it to me then, I didn’t really give them the chance to get into a conversation.
“I’m not right for the club at this present moment, they need to go a different direction and the club’s not right for me at this present moment. I wouldn’t be a good enough manager, it deserves better than me at the present moment.”
Mackay’s replacement Ole Gunnar Solskjaer left the club on Thursday after just nine months in charge, during which time he managed to get them relegated and left them fighting for survival in the lower reaches of the Championship.
The Dundee manager, Paul Hartley, has been tipped as his replacement although the club have insisted he is going nowhere.
Bellamy tipped the Newport-born Tony Pulis, who is out of work since abruptly leaving Crystal Palace just before the start of the season, to step into the breach.
“I’m doing my pro-licence at the moment,” he said. “I need a bit of time, there are so many little aspects of the game I’m umming and ahing about that I want to try and nail down before I make this step. Unfortunately in football your first step can sometimes be your last as well.” He added: “The obvious choice would be Tony Pulis.”
The Clare Balding Show airs Friday 19 September at 10:00pm on BT Sport 2