Alongside Cremers, Bellamy’s other behind-the-scenes additions were his former Wales teammate and current Brighton first-team coach Andrew Crofts, former Newport boss James Rowberry, England’s goalkeeping coach England’s Martyn Margetson and former Wales performance manager Ryland Morgans.

Although he only turned 30 last month, Cremers has a decade of experience as a coach and analyst.

As well as working in his homeland with NEC Nijmegen, Excelsior Rotterdam and NAC Breda, the Dutchman spent a year at Brentford before enjoying longer spells at Manchester City and Burnley.

At City, Cremers moved from being an under-23 performance analyst to being responsible for analysis and performance insights for the first team. It was in this role that he worked alongside Guardiola, the legendary former Barcelona boss who won six Premier League titles, the Champions League and 11 other trophies during his eight years in Manchester.

“He was Pep’s analyst for four or five years, day to day, so the insight of a truly incredible mind,” says Bellamy.

“To be able to exploit that – and I’m not a little Pep, if you know what I mean, I have different mannerisms and no one is him – but to get an insight and see his point of view, it gives you bring you to look at something.

“Because we (Cremers and Bellamy) are so aligned with what we see, that also allows me to find comfort. Do you understand? Am I angry here? If I told you certain shapes and showed you some of them, you would say “that’s crazy”. But he puts it into practice: “No, this is actually the right thing to do, this is how we do it.”

“That’s why I say what I say about training. If I showed you how we would take on someone else, you would say “you can’t do that”. But I saw him working and I said to myself “wow, it works, it’s serious”.

Bellamy is in his element when talking about football and its tactical intricacies.

Some of his answers can turn into four or five minute monologues on playing patterns or counter-pressing; the former Welsh captain only comes up for air when he apologizes, while smiling, for having taken another tangent.

But his enthusiasm is contagious and it’s clear how much he draws inspiration from his fellow coaches.

“I probably wouldn’t, but I’d love to sit here and take credit for it, but it’s him (Cremers), (Andrew) Crofts, Rowbs (James Rowberry),” Bellamy says.

“These people that I was able to bring in, those are them. Honest truth. I’m just for you guys, I’m the one in charge of the media.

“I don’t think it’s just about one brilliant guy, it’s the people you have around you. When you work in a group, you find solutions much more easily. In this way, I find it to be the best solution.