Craig Bellamy reveals he turned down a move to Manchester United in 2002

We wonder how the striker would have done in that team?

Ahead of the marquee game of the weekend in the Premier League between Liverpool and Manchester United it has been interesting to hear from the few players, like Paul Ince, who played for both clubs. Another one of those players could have been Craig Bellamy but in an interview with the Daily Mail Bellamy says that he turned down a shot at signing for the Red Devils in 2002. The Welsh striker, who had two spells at Liverpool in his career, as well as a stint at Manchester City, reveals that Alex Ferguson met his agent to try and engineer a move 13 years ago. But Bellamy vetoed the move.

‘Fergie met with my agent in 2002 and said: “Can you get him out of Newcastle?”’

‘The honest truth is my knee. I had just had an operation. I knew that if I went to Man United I would have to hit the ground running and with my knee that would have been impossible.

‘I did think that maybe I should just go and deal with it then. Just get there… but I would have got caught out at United and that would have been terrible.

‘I have to live with myself and sometimes that hasn’t been easy. But I had to be honest with myself so I was.’ In fairness to Bellamy, most players probably would have made the move to Old Trafford, regardless of injury concerns, so he has to be applauded for that. Instead, United would sign Diego Forlan in 2002, and David Bellion in the summer of 2003. Whatever you think of Bellamy, he probably would have had a bigger impact than either of those two.