The Other Side Of The Toon Fence ...

Last updated : 31 December 2009 By Footy Mad - Editor

NU

But it was the bust up waiting for a flight to Majorca that Craig Bellamy is more famous for.

He was involved in a series of high-profile rows during his four-year St James's Park career, most famously with assistant boss John Carver as Sir Bobby Robson's players waited to board a flight to Mallorca for a UEFA Cup tie in March 2004.

Craig Bellamy (talking to THE MIRROR): "The thing people don't know is that John Carver is one of my best friends – he was at my wedding.

"As a coach and player, we used to go out in the evenings together – I liked him a lot.

"The row before the Mallorca game had started at training a few hours earlier. I parked in his parking space. He's a coach, he should have been in before me, so I parked in his space.

"I knew he was upset about it, and I kept winding him up. We had a bit of a confrontation at the airport, and I was fuming then because he had had a go at me.

"So I had a big go at him, but we didn't know what to do, because we are friends, so we ended up wrestling stupidly.

"I didn't throw a chair at him. I threw a chair out of the way to go and argue with him, and it nearly hit Shay Given, but that was it.

"Someone went to get the manager. Bobby Robson came in and yelled at everyone to get out and get on the plane. I was saying, 'I'm not getting on the plane – I'm going home to see my missus'.

"Bobby Robson told John Carver to get on the plane, and I was still saying I was going home. He put his arm round me and said, 'walk with me, son'.

"So I walked with him and he started asking me about how my kids were, how they were doing at school, how was my missus. The next thing I knew I was on the plane. I was thinking, 'how did I get here?'. If he'd told me I had to get on the plane, I wouldn't have got on.

"That evening, I was in my room in Mallorca, and still not happy. It didn't take much in those days to put me on edge. So Bobby Robson has come round to my room and brought John Carver and Alan Shearer with him.

"I thought they had come to gang up on me so I was ready to have a right go back, but then Sir Bobby started blaming everything on John Carver and made him apologise to me. Then he told Alan what a great player I was, and Alan had to agree.

"Sir Bobby gave me no room to argue. I was just sitting there taking compliments. I had been desperate to have an argument, but I had nothing to go against.

"The next thing I know, I'm shaking everybody's hand and we're all friends. I ended up apologising to John Carver as well. Bobby Robson was a great man. I found it very hard to feel the same about Newcastle when he was fired."