Barca beware blossom time for Bellamy

Champions' League: Robson's faith in the searing pace and predatory art of young striker is spectacularly fulfilled

So now Sir Bobby Robson has got Christian Vieri, Hernan Crespo, Patrick Kluivert, Javier Saviola and Oliver Neuville to worry about. But, then, after Newcastle United's stunning victory in Rotterdam on Wednesday night Hector Cuper, Louis van Gaal and Klaus Toppmoller have Alan Shearer, Kieron Dyer, Hugo Viana and Craig Bellamy to trouble their thoughts going into Group A in the second phase of the Champions' League. Bellamy, in particular, will be giving the coaches of Internazionale, Barcelona and Bayer Leverkusen plenty of cause for a restless night or two.

The young man with the golden boots played the King Midas role for the Magpies in the 3-2 win against Feyenoord, scoring the opening goal and the last-minute winner that completed Newcastle's great escape after losing the first three matches in their first-phase group. His searing pace struck sufficient terror into the Feyenoord defence to give Newcastle confidence of maintaining their momentum when Inter come to Toon on Wednesday week. The Italians could be excused for not relishing the prospect, Newcastle's Welsh striker having put their national team to the sword at the Millennium Stadium last month.

It is remarkable to consider that Bellamy has since been to the United States and back for treatment and specialist advice about the tendonitis of the knee that has troubled him since the start of the season. It is also remarkable to reflect back to January of 2001, when Bellamy executed a Ronny Rosenthal masterclass of sitter-missing in a 3-1 defeat for Coventry City at St James' Park. Gordon Strachan was seen handing a linesman a piece of paper at pitch-side that day. He said it was a diagram illustrating the offside law, though it was suggested in these pages that he would have been better off drawing the frame of a goal and explaining to Bellamy that the ball was supposed to go in it.

From the vantage point of the home dug-out, Robson saw a different picture than the unforgiving critics. "I kept thinking, 'Jeez, that kid's got in on goal again,'" he recalled. "I thought, 'If he can just improve his finishing', and that we should still try to buy him."

Robson had already attempted to sign Bellamy once, before the precocious Cardiffian moved from Norwich to Coventry. "At the time we were waiting for Everton to buy Duncan Ferguson and we couldn't do the deal until we had that money," the Newcastle manager reflected. "The day that he signed for Coventry I must have left five messages on his answer phone, which he ignored. I said, 'Don't sign for them.' But he wouldn't listen. He was that keen to get out of Norwich he thought Coventry was the club for him. Anyway, we lost him and then Coventry got relegated and we were able to come in for him again."

There were many who raised eyebrows when Newcastle paid Coventry £6.5m for a player perceived to have been a Premiership flop. Robson, however, could see his potential and the man who has worked with some of the striking greats – Shearer, Ronaldo, Romario, Lineker, Beardsley, Van Nistelrooy – has made a mightily impressive job of developing a player who is still only 23.

"He's a top player because he wants the ball where defenders don't like it, which is behind them," Robson said. "He knows that's where you score goals and that's how you get in. You saw with the first goal on Wednesday night how he reads Alan Shearer's flicks. He believed Alan was going to win the ball for him and he was on his way.

"He has improved at getting the ball past the keeper, and he's a good footballer, you know. You can build off him. You can play to feet and he'll hold it up. He'll turn and he'll shift people, and he'll beat people in possession. He's a great trainer too. He's worked hard, with his injury, to get himself fit. He's not a pain in the butt in that sense. It's just that sometimes..." Robson broke off to make a yapping motion with his right hand. It was brought to his attention that the Norwich players once locked Bellamy in the toilet on their team bus when the 17-year-old insisted on telling the seasoned professionals where they had been going wrong.

"I'm not surprised," Robson said. "I keep out of the dressing-room, to be honest, but I could imagine he stirs up some struggles and strife in the course of a day.

"Can you tell me what truculent means?" he added, after a pause for thought. "Bolshie," someone ventured. "That's the sort of guy he is," Sir Bobby continued. "But it's all instant stuff and quickly forgotten. I don't think he knows sometimes what he is saying. It just comes into his head and he has to say it." Perhaps he is simply making up for having sent himself to Coventry.