It has certainly been a productive move for the 29-year-old, with two definite goals and his strike at Anfield being chalked off as an own goal. Tomorrow he faces his most recent employers, a club that he is on record as stating that he has never left one on such good terms.
Nevertheless, Craig states that he saw the move to City as a challenge and that he was fully prepared to move out of his comfort zone.
Craig says, “I could have stayed at West Ham with expectations that are completely different and seen out the end of my career. That’s no disrespect to West Ham at all, but I have earned my money and I am happy, as are my wife and kids.
“To put myself back into this is a test for me, and my name will always get dragged in to things. A part of me thinks, ‘Do I need this?’, but another part of me thinks that if I did not give it a go here and shy away from it I could look back later and regretted not coming.
“Who cares what anyone says? It is a challenge, you want to be involved in the best games and if you don’t play well then people can have a go at you. Instead of fizzling out my career I wanted to attack it as much as I could.”
Despite the good performance at Anfield, Craig is well aware that the Blues have not been at their best away from home in the Barclays Premier League.
“This is a club and a group of players that is trying to get it right,” he continues. “At home we have been a different team, my home games have been brilliant, but at times away it has been two opposite teams.
“As a player it gets to me because we need to sort it. If we get it right, you cannot tell me that quality-wise outside the top four or five that there are players much better than what we have here. But one thing other teams do is that they work a lot harder without the ball, and at this level you need to do that.
“With games against Liverpool, United, Chelsea, you know you are going to have to work hard because otherwise you get turned over. The disappointing thing is that we need to show the kind of attitude we had at Anfield against the other teams.
“We have the ability in the team, we need to get a stranglehold on games and work hard. When you do that and match the other teams, your quality players can make that difference.”
