February 2009 and Craig Bellamy stops for a chance conversation in the duty free area of Manchester airport. Manchester City are on their way to a UEFA Cup tie in Copenhagen and Bellamy has his game face on.
Then a key member of Mark Hughes’ team as Abu Dhabi money starts to wash through the Etihad Stadium, Bellamy is raging about a team-mate. It is an off-the-record chat but he won’t mind me saying now, 14 years on, that the player concerned was the Brazilian dilettante Robinho.
Robinho had rocked up at the airport in his club suit but with white trainers on, his shirt untucked and without his tie.