Craig Bellamy has spent more than half a season at Belgian club Anderlecht and it's fair to say he is loving his new surroundings.
He left Cardiff City's academy setup to take up a similar role at the Belgian giants following a phone call from his former Manchester City team-mate Vincent Kompany last summer.
Bellamy, a club legend during his playing days, left Cardiff under something of a cloud last summer.
A report in the Daily Mail alleged that Bellamy had bullied a former Cardiff academy player. Bellamy denied the claims.
Cardiff vowed to implement robust changes after an investigation into the accusations highlighted 'a number of significant concerns' to its coaching procedures and an 'unacceptable coaching environment' at the club.
Following the findings of the report, Bellamy issued an apology for any offence he caused during his time as Cardiff City academy coach.
While he is now clearly enjoying life in Belgium, he still speaks fondly of his time as under-18s boss at Cardiff City. He says he acknowledges his mistakes, and explained his love and passion for the club.
“I loved Cardiff,” he told The Athletic . “I took two wage cuts to go to the club, I paid for funerals of people who worked at the club — a cleaning lady; I donated money to the statue.
“I gave back to the club, I worked there for three years without pay, and even when I did get paid, I didn’t claim an expense. I was passionate about it.
“But I knew I had to come away.”
The Athletic also report that Bellamy sometimes worked voluntarily and donated £5,000 for the statue of their FA Cup-winning captain Fred Keenor to be erected.
A huge gripe of Bluebirds fans in recent years is the dearth of players to come out of the academy there.
Bellamy adds: “They just need a chance.”
The former Wales international was tipped as a possible contender to succeed Neil Warnock at the helm last November, but that post was ultimately filled by Neil Harris.
He appears to be enjoying life at Anderlecht, in charge of the club's under-21s.
Bellamy's remit is to ready young players, of which there is no shortage of quality, for the first team before, eventually, selling them on for a big profit to other European clubs.
The likes of Romelu Lukaku, Youri Tielemans and Leander Dendoncker are fairly recent graduates who have gone on to net Anderlecht a fairly hefty profit.
He has high hopes for a number of young players there and understands it's his job to nurture them through into the senior game.
Whether we see Bellamy back doing that, or even in a first-team capacity, in the Welsh capital anytime soon is anyone's guess, but it's fair to say, since Kompany phoned him last summer, he has not thought twice about returning.
He added: “I didn’t have to weigh anything up. I just said, ‘Yeah, definitely.’ I’ve hesitated before when offered things but I just said, ‘I will, yeah. I would like to go.’
“We had a conversation about where I’d be most beneficial to him and that was with the under-21s.
“I spoke to Cardiff, because I was still doing work there. They wanted me to stay but understood. It was fine.
“I spoke to Jean Kindermans, the head of the academy, that night, and within a day of coming back from holiday I was here. And I’ve not really gone back.”
