CRAIG BELLAMY:I felt bad for Newcastle when they lost their 2005 FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United.
They had loaned me out to Celtic by then, but I still had a lot of affection for them.
They lost 4-1 and were never in it.
Afterwards, Alan Shearer did a television interview.
He mentioned shortcomings in defence, which made me laugh.
Alan needed to look at himself a bit more. He wasn’t the player he had been and now he was trying to pass the buck.
It was sad, because I had so much admiration for Alan as a player and I learned so much from him. But time had caught up with him.
I had seen the semi-final.
I had seen how poorly he performed personally.
I thought it was wrong for him to do an interview afterwards in those circumstances.
So I got my phone out and texted him.
“F****** typical of you,” I texted. “Looking at everyone else yet again. You need to look at yourself instead. Your legs are f****** shot. Concentrate on yourself and let the team take care of itself.”
I got one back from him straight away.
“If I ever see you in Newcastle again,” he wrote, “I’ll knock you out.”
“I’m back in Newcastle next week,” I texted back. “Pop round and say hello.”
I certainly wasn’t scared of him.
I’ve seen his bite.
His 'Big, hard Al' act wasn’t for me.
I have seen younger boys than me put him in his place on the team coach.
I watched him digging out Lomana LuaLua once, and when LuaLua told him to go to the back of the coach and say it to his face, Al didn’t fancy that much.
He didn’t move an inch.
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