"He was a brilliant player. When I first got there, I sort of understood why I was there. Alan's mobility was sort of gone, it happens, especially with the injuries he had, but if you get Alan in the box he was going to score goals. That was always going to happen. Bobby Robson wanted someone who could run in behind and stretch the game. If teams went high against someone like Alan then I had space in behind. If you have a problem with someone going in behind they would drop deeper and that suited Alan. That is when we would get crosses in and when you get him the supply he is going to score goals. That also gave me freedom to drop deep, go out wide and mix my play up so it was a team built for Alan because we knew if we got him the service he would score goals to win us games and if you are winning games you are going to be successful. So I understood Sir Bobby Robson's thinking in bringing me in.
"That gets widely thrown out there. Kieron Dyer, who was probably my closest friend, it is something we find completely insulting and completely untrue. It was easier if somebody wanted to sack him, why not blame younger players? He couldn't control us. Are you telling me Sir Bobby Robson couldn't control us? I still wait to be told to leave now when I eat. You realise more when you are coaching now how good he was but at the time I still knew how good he was. I would do anything I could to play as well as I could for him. The rest of the players were the same. Newcastle wanted change and they thought they could move on with someone who could win us trophies and take that next step. They thought they had someone in place for that. But he was the reason we were finishing third. He was the reason we were finishing fourth. He was the man who needed to push us on and to do that he was going to make one or two big changes that the club wouldn't allow him to do. We needed a different forward. Alan wasn't the same player and I know it might break Newcastle hearts but it was true. If you really looked at it, he was a shadow of the player he was. He was still scoring goals but his ratio was coming down. We can't wait for time to catch with us up in football but he wasn't prepared to leave that."
"I love playing for Newcastle and I love everything about the club but if Wayne Rooney comes, I will have to review my position because I am not sitting on the bench anywhere. I like Wayne Rooney a lot because he is a great player. He is my sort of player and it would be great for the club, but no good for Craig Bellamy. If he does come, I will have to consider my position. My issue with that was we had just sold Jonathan Woodgate. We had just sold him to Real Madrid, why are we putting a bid in for a forward when we have just sold our centre-back for £17million."