Craig Bellamy slammed West Ham fans as he shared he received threats to his safety after he left the club to join Manchester City.
The Sky Sports pundit shared that Hammers supporters had been misinformed by the media over the scenario surrounding his exit from the club but that they still give him stick over departing.
“So they (the media) fuelled people’s opinions, when I left West Ham to go to Manchester City for instance, I was told to go home as the deal was done but certain journalists put on that same Saturday that I had gone on strike,” said Bellamy on Sky Sports Premier League (Saturday December 15, 11:44am)
“Imagine, what West Ham supporters felt towards me so my safety, as West Ham supporters aren’t the most forgiving of supporters as well at times, so the amount of threats I had off the back of that, so as a journalist I liked to say, do you understand what you just wrote? The effect it could have on me. My safety, has got to be paramount but they have no interest in that, it was the type of thing that people out that thought well he would do that.
“I seen other journalists, even on Sky, talking about it and they can write me a little paragraph apologising for it, it wasn’t true.
“But the damage was already done and I go back to West Ham and they still give me stick over it.”
The 39-year-old played 24 times for the Hammers between 2007 and 2009 before leaving to join Man City.
OPINION
Bellamy highlighted how the media misinformed West Ham fans over his exit but he still doesn’t paint them in a positive light. The retired forward points out that the misinformation regarding his exit saw his safety put in jeopardy and that should never be the case, regardless of what a report says. Given that the Sky pundit admitted that he still gets stick to this day, maybe that will change after he explained the situation. Then again a team never likes it when a talented player departs them so maybe it will just down the level of stick he gets rather than stop it completely. However it is nice to know after all these years that Bellamy never went on strike to force through his exit from the Hammers as that always did leave a bitter taste in his mouth. Now the Welshman has opened up about the whole scenario,it’ll be interesting to see if he appears at the London Stadium anytime soon, what kind of reception he will get.
