LONDON, Jan 23 (AFP) - Newcastle United manager Graeme Souness revealed after Sunday's 1-0 defeat away to champions Arsenal that Craig Bellamy had been left out of the side because he did not want to play on the right side of midfield.
But minutes after Souness had spoken, Wales striker Bellamy, 25, insisted he had been available for selection and was prepared to play anywhere.
Before kick-off Souness said Bowyer was out of the side because of a hamstring injury.
But, after the final whistle Souness insisted Bellamy had declared himself unfit on Friday only to declare himself fit 24 hours later.
"What every football club tries to do is keep its business behind closed doors. We tried to do that in this case. There was an incident on Friday which led to me having to have a meeting with the chairman (Freddy Shepherd) and that will remain private," Souness told Sky Sports.
"But I think Craig Bellamy is not happy in the positions we are asking him to play sometimes and he's gone about showing his displeasure in totally the wrong way," the former Liverpool and Scotland midfielder added.
"And that's why he wasn't involved today (Sunday)."
Asked what he meant by "the wrong way," Souness, previously in charge of Premiership sides Liverpool, Southampton and Blackburn, explained: "Declaring himself injured on Friday, walking off on Friday and then being fit on Saturday.
"We are trying to create a team spirit at Newcastle. I am only interested in having players at the club who will give everything for the cause. Sometimes you are going to be asked to play in a position you feel is not your best position but at the end of the day if it's for the cause, that's all that matters.
"Our supporters don't care about petulance and people saying they only want to play in a certain position. They just want to see 11 players out there working their socks off.
"Unfortunately, we are faced with a situation where that's not the case and really I don't want to enlarge on that because I'd like to keep as much as we can in-house. All the proper clubs do that and we shall try and do that this time."
However, Bellamy - who was not even on the substitutes bench - contradicted Souness's version of events, saying: "I walked off training on Thursday but I trained normally on Friday.
"I feel I am not doing a job for the team. I'm a forward and I want to play up front. But I've played 20 games this season. I've tried to keep silent but it's been a long day."
And he insisted he was prepared to play out of position. "You don't want to play in midfield but you get stuck in .. I wouldn't want the people of Newcastle to think I wasn't trying to do my best for this club."
Newcastle were involved in a similar player-manager row back in August when England international Kieron Dyer refused to play on the right of midfield, rather than his favoured central role, for former boss Sir Bobby Robson.
Ex-England manager Robson was sacked by Newcastle later that month before being replaced by Souness.
Sunday's defeat left the Magpies 12th in the table.
01/23/2005 19:16 GMT - AFP