sport news Vincent Kompany and I speak the same language in football, says Burnley ... trends now

It is late by the time Craig Bellamy gets back to his rented apartment. He opens the door and shows me in. The sitting room is spartan. No pictures, no decorations, no fuss, no mess. Clear, clean surfaces, two sofas, a flat-screen television on the wall.

'I'd offer you tea or coffee or some food,' Bellamy says cheerfully, as he stares out at the red tail lights of the Manchester traffic crawling through the darkness below, 'but I haven't got anything.'

Bellamy lives at the Burnley training ground. That's his home in the North. This is just somewhere to sleep. Eat, sleep, football, repeat. It has always been that way with him, first as a player for Liverpool, Manchester City and a string of top-flight teams, and now as a respected coach whose reputation is on the rise for the work he is doing as Vincent Kompany's No 2 at the club that is running away with the Championship this season.

'I'm happy,' Bellamy says. 'I love what I am doing. As long as I'm in football, I'm OK. Outside life, then there's a problem. My playing career has gone but I only see myself in football.

'I love football people. I can tell if you're not a football person. I'm more comfortable being around players. We talk the same language. I feel safe with them. That's my environment. It's all I'm comfortable with and it's all I want to be comfortable with.'

Some might be confused by the evolution of Bellamy, 43, from the enfant terrible of the Premier League, a scourge of referees and the archetype of a player who could start a fight on an empty pitch into a cerebral, empathetic, fiercely driven coach who has helped transform Burnley into an attractive, agile, possession-based team who can compete physically with opponents, too.

But the truth is that Bellamy has always been a keen student of the game. He has always been eager to learn and to teach. Even when he was a player, he made regular trips to the Netherlands to study Dutch club sides. He is a devotee of Johan Cruyff and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of European football.

When Kompany, a one-time team-mate of Bellamy's at City, took over at Anderlecht in 2020, Bellamy went with him. He overflows with evangelism when he talks about the job Kompany and his staff are doing at Turf Moor.

Some see them as an odd couple; the quiet, serious, urbane Belgian with his Masters degree in business, and the fiery Welshman who railed against authority and thrived on confrontation.

'We are actually from similar backgrounds,' Bellamy says, 'so we had work ethic in common straight away. He speaks five different languages. I barely speak one. We are opposites on a lot of stuff in life but we speak the same language in football. We don't believe we are geniuses. We are humble in how we see football.

'It is the work, the dedication, the hours you put in, the meetings you attend. I want to stress that. It is about hard work.

'I still feel a little bit behind his work ethic. I work hard. I work 12 or 14-hour days but Vinny is phenomenal. I am still blown away by him. I don't know when he sleeps. Seriously. I don't know when he has time. If he gets three hours' sleep a night, I would be shocked. He works constantly. He has never had money to spend before. Now he is able to buy the odd player for a couple of million. People say we have bought the league. Really? We have spent £22million on 15 players.

'So those people are insane. Look at Watford's squad. One player is worth more than our whole squad. They didn't sell anyone and still bought (players). Norwich? Do you see them selling? When we started pre-season, we hardly had anyone. The players we have here now amaze me every day.'

Bellamy and Kompany, the former City captain, face an old boys' reunion in the FA Cup quarter-finals against Pep Guardiola's side at the Etihad on Saturday but they had a match at Hull City first - they won 3-1 - and Bellamy embarks on a stream of consciousness about plans for formations and pockets and grids and overloads and breaking lines and the benefits of a lop-sided 4-4-2. Sometimes, it feels like listening to Dennis Hopper's photographer in Apocalypse Now, landing on fractions in space.

'We're beyond committed to a style of play,' Bellamy says. 'Everything is about why we do it. I know that Guardiola has had a huge impact on Vinny. He has had a huge impact on everyone. How can you love football and not love this human being? How can you not love what Guardiola has given us over the last 15 years, that Barcelona team and everything else he has created?

'We love Cruyff, too, obviously. If I could have a statue of Cruyff at our training ground, I would. That is how important I believe he is to football. Vinny feels that way as well. The effect he's had, he's the most important man who has ever been involved in football.

'Was Messi better as a player? Yes. Was Maradona better? Yes. But Cruyff wasn't far off them and his effect on the game has surpassed anyone's.

'It's because of the way he saw

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