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Craig Bellamy takes a seat at his desk and connects his laptop to a projector showing its contents on the opposite wall, the desktop background barely visible behind a maze of files and folders.

The Wales head coach whizzes through a few clips – every single training session he has ever conducted is there – and reels off some of the statistical indicators of Wales’ improvement during his year and a half in charge.

It can be hard to keep up.

Behind him are two framed Wales shirts and a framed photo of the late Gary Speed, his friend and former team-mate and coach, during his time as Wales manager.

Other than a copy of Bellamy’s autobiography on the desk, there is little else decorative in this neat, sparse office at Dragon Park.

Bellamy chooses to work at Wales’ national development centre on the outskirts of Newport because, in his words, this is a football place.

The Football Association of Wales may have its headquarters in the Vale of Glamorgan but, outside of international camps, that is as much to do with matters off the field – from finance and marketing to grassroots administration – as it is the elite game.

Here, it is all football, just as Bellamy likes it. Coaches and analysts pop in occasionally but, in the main, he is left to it.

“Socially I can be very awkward – not on purpose – but when it comes to football, I’m really open and happy,” he says.

“If a person wants to stop me in the street and talk football, unfortunately you can’t get rid of me.”

Happily, that becomes clear as this conversation morphs into a four-hour epic, rich with unexpectedly heartfelt and humorous detours.

It is a wet and windy January morning in Newport, and Wales do not have a fixture for two months.

Some international managers might view the long gaps between games as a chance to unwind. Some do not live in the country they manage, while others have additional jobs.

But Bellamy is consumed by football, and his work as Wales head coach is an obsession.

“I do way more than I need to,” he says. “But what I’ve learned is to not get caught up on it.

“It’s inevitable changes are going to happen between now and the game, so I try not to let it break my heart when it happens.”

The 46-year-old has always watched an extraordinary amount of football, as demonstrated by his encyclopaedic references.

Montenegrin journalists looked on wide-eyed as Bellamy used a pre-match news conference in Podgorica in 2024 to talk about Yugoslavia’s Under-21s of 1990 as much as Wales’ Nations League match there the following day.

Bellamy watches hours of opposition analysis in his office, studies his own team’s matches and training sessions, and then there is the football he watches at home.

Does he ever switch off?

“Funnily enough, last night I was watching a film about the Balkans war,” he says.

Wales host Bosnia-Herzegovina in a World Cup play-off semi-final on 26 March.

“I need to see who they are, what they come from,” he adds. “I’ve done the same with Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein. I need to know who they are as well.

“That’s just for me. That’s not going to give me any ammo. Where’s the manager born? Were they involved in a conflict? Where’s his mindset?

“I love history. History, geography, football. They all fit in – they’re my three favourite things. It’s how I relax.

By his own admission, Bellamy needs to keep his mind occupied.

He misses the day-to-day consistency of club football but, as this is his first senior managerial role, do the extended quiet periods of international football offer him some valuable time to take a breath, decompress and analyse?

“Yeah, it definitely gives you that, and that’s a huge advantage,” Bellamy says. “Not working every day, I knew was going to be challenging.

“When I sat down with my partner and we discussed it, our first conversation was: ‘How are you going to cope?’ To me, it was how can I make it work? I’ll do more.

“I probably say ‘yes’ to a lot of things I don’t need to do, but I need to keep active and it keeps my mind busy. I need my mind to be busy.

“From January to March, I need every day, whether I’m at Spurs for a couple of days then Man City for a couple of days, Hong Kong.

“I’m nipping back and forth, like one minute I’m in Wrexham, back, then I’ve done a talk up in Bangor two days later, back, then a talk somewhere else – boom, boom, boom,” adds Bellamy, who lives in Cardiff.

“You’d think I’d be better off just staying there for a few days but with two young kids it’s very difficult at times.”

He admits he finds it “difficult” to switch off but that’s where his family helps him.

“I find switching off is having two young ones – their moments are their moments, then you’re all in,” he says. “Whether it’s Ken and Barbie, Beauty and the Beast, playing with dolls or whatever.

“My daughter really enjoys me playing with her, which I really like. She’ll wake me up in the morning to play before she goes to school and, as soon as I pick her up from school, it’s playtime. My youngest boy’s getting a little bit jealous of that now as well!

Bellamy the coach is a different person to Bellamy the player.

His evolution from snarling, combustible forward to considered, methodical manager has surprised some people who may not have followed his career as closely once he had retired.

The inner fire and determination remain, but he is mellower, more mature these days.

“Sometimes as a player, I think you can just go into your own world because you’re basically in a fight to survive,” Bellamy says.

“You are constantly fighting, thinking your club might buy someone or they might sell you. That brings out a really competitive side to you that’s not always easy to switch off. This is different.”

Bellamy was only 17 when he had the first of three children with his former wife. He wrote in his autobiography that they had split because she had “enough of the absentee husband, enough of the selfishness and the black moods”.

Having suffered from depression, Bellamy sought help. These days, he better understands his own mind, and his relationships with others.

“Make sure you listen because everyone dedicates enough time to you,” he says.

“My partner and I both made this decision [of taking the Wales job]. We both sat down, looked at the options and she reminded me: ‘Don’t be moaning, don’t be thinking I should have done this or that. You commit and we’re all in.’ And we have been. I’ve loved it.

“This moment has been our moment – we’ve done it as a group of people. I’ve been able to share something with people I love.”

The idea of being present is important to Bellamy.

When he first took the Wales job in July 2024, he said he would not be here for a long time, a clear nod to a future in club management.

Many people, even his employers, thought that meant Bellamy could leave after the 2026 World Cup campaign, even though he is contracted until 2028.

However, the prospect of leading Wales at Euro 2028 – which they will co-host with England, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland – is so enticing that Bellamy feels he cannot walk away yet.

“I know when it happens [that I leave] I’ll be like, ‘I wish I was back there’, so don’t wish it away,” Bellamy says.

“Very few people get this opportunity so enjoy every second of it because it’s not here forever. I don’t think anyone would want me here forever! So I try to relish it.

There was a spiritual pull for Bellamy returning to Wales.

Born in Cardiff, he spent most of his playing career outside of his homeland, representing the likes of Liverpool and Newcastle.

As a coach, Bellamy followed Vincent Kompany to Anderlecht and Burnley, describing his time with the now Bayern Munich boss as an “education”.

The former Manchester City team-mates remain good friends and speak frequently, but Bellamy felt it was time to become a head coach in his own right when his country came calling.

Despite only being an assistant to Kompany at Burnley, Bellamy took a substantial pay cut to take charge of Wales.

This, however, was a job like no other. As well as the obvious emotional ties, Bellamy had unfinished business.

He never got the chance to play at a major international tournament but, as head coach, he aims to put that right by qualifying for this summer’s World Cup.

“You always have that buzz of chasing something, like I want qualification, I want to be at major tournaments,” Bellamy says.

“But how do we do it? I’ve got loads of flaws, but the team needs to play with intensity, play with balls.

“As long as you have belief, that’s the motivation. That’s why you do so much work, why you look at opposition.

“As a footballer for Wales, I didn’t really feel belief, I just felt hope. Italy [when Wales won 2-1 in 2002 in a European Championship qualifier] was different because we took the game to them. We were brilliant but there weren’t many nights like that.”

Bellamy scored the winning goal when Wales last faced Italy in Cardiff, a momentous occasion at a sold-out Millennium Stadium.

The teams will meet again if they win their respective World Cup play-off semi-finals on Thursday, with the final to be played at Cardiff City Stadium the following Tuesday.

Much like Bellamy himself, Welsh football is unrecognisable from that memorable night 24 years ago.

Having been absent from major tournaments since the 1958 World Cup, Wales not only qualified for Euro 2016 but reached the semi-finals in France, three years after Bellamy retired.

They followed that by getting to the knockout stages at Euro 2020 and then qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.

Bellamy wants to build on that success – and take his country to new heights.

“Euro 2016, that moment was like, ‘We are here’. That gave belief and I want to carry that on,” he says.

“We do punch well above our weight but that’s where we want to be. We need to do it continuously. I like expectations.

“This is what it takes to be a Wales player. To wear this shirt, these are the qualities you have to have. I believe we have a chance to consistently be at major tournaments.”

With that, Bellamy turns back to his laptop. The cursor hovers over files labelled ‘Italy’ and ‘Northern Ireland’ – Wales’ potential play-off final opponents – and then back to ‘Bosnia’.