"When we came into the club there seemed to be apathy around the place and in the standards among the group," Bowen told the Manchester Evening News. "If we lost a game it was almost as if players tended to accept it of each other. It was a horrible feeling to come into the dressing room and accept that.
"We were delighted to see the reaction after the Hull game. Things were said by management and staff as well. We are all very demanding of each other.
You don't need to be particularly well-informed to guess that Craig Bellamy was at the heart of this: his standards, his candour and his fearlesness in exactly these situations are some of the main reasons why he is so popular with Mark Hughes and Mark Bowen. It's often said that players like Bellamy are the 'eyes and ears' of the management in the dressing room, and while that is true, he plays the role of their mouth as well. Remember his famous argument with Elano and Robinho after the shameful performance at Fratton Park last season: well this sounds like a re-run.
And given its success, it's yet another confirmation that Craig Bellamy has been one of Mark Hughes' better buys as City boss. When we signed him some anti-MCFC voices in the media said that he would upset and disrupt the dressing room. But that was precisely the point.
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