Rafael Benitez says that he wants to find out just how passionate Craig Bellamy is about the possibility of playing for Liverpool. Liverpool have had a bid accepted for the player and Rafa says they’ll speak to him once he’s back from his honeymoon.
Rafa explained: “We have an agreement which allows us to talk to the player. He is on holiday, but we will talk over the next few days.”
Speaking to the official Liverpool FC website, Rafa said he knew that the player was good enough ability-wise, now it was a case of checking out other factors before the deal went any further: “I know the player’s qualities very well. He is a very good footballer and now we need to see if he has the passion to play for our club. I don’t think this will be a problem because he is a Liverpool fan, so I think it will be easy for him.”
Further to what Rafa said, Bellamy is known to have been a fan of the Reds since childhood and this would be dream move for him. Rafa’s just got to be sure that Bellamy has the right temperament and attitude to fit in. Djibril Cisse complained about being played on the wing for Rafa, a similar complaint to one that led to an alledged bust-up between Bellamy and Graeme Souness when he was a Newcastle player. Rafa wants to make sure Bellamy will play for the team and not for himself.
Rafa reiterated that the player’s talent was not in question: “I will be talking to him to express my ideas. He has the ability, the pace and the talent we’ve been looking for and now we need to talk about other things.”