Manchester City star Craig Bellamy says he is playing his best football of his career - and owes it to former manager Mark Hughes.

However, Bellamy insists he is committed to the City cause and happy at Eastlands.

"Listen," he told the Mirror, "Man City could get another Craig Bellamy within two minutes.

"There are better players than me out there. But this has been my best year in football and I just want to keep going the way I am. I think the way I have been playing reflects on Mark Hughes. If you do your homework on me and check my background, you might be surprised to find that a lot of people speak very well of me inside the game, because believe it or not, my attitude is very good.

"I wasn't upset about being left out of the starting line up against Stoke on Boxing Day. I knew about that at least four days earlier. I have had seven knee operations in the last nine years and it is no secret that I struggle to play two games in a week because of my patella tendon.

"The physios went to see Mancini about it early in the week and he was great. He understood. Me playing two games in three days just wasn't going to happen. The headlines from it about me being dropped were predictable but they weren't accurate.

"I've just seen Cesc Fabregas score for Arsenal after coming off the bench. They didn't say he was dropped, did they? I knew there would be a lot of stories like that because people knew I had a very good relationship with Mark Hughes.

"This might surprise you but even though I completely respect Mark Hughes, I don't have his mobile number on my phone. I wouldn't ring him up. I don't have that relationship with him. I have not spoken to him since the day he was sacked. I have a professional relationship with him. He is a very quiet guy. He keeps himself distant and I am similar.

"I am relieved that I was able to play well for him because he put his reputation on the line to bring me to this club and I take enormous satisfaction from the fact that I was able to reward him for that. I went to see him in his room after we had been told he was fired. I wasn't yelling about what I was going to do or anything. I just wanted to thank him.

"When I got there, I didn't know what to say. What do you say to a man who you highly respect and who has just lost his job? He said to me: 'You have been incredible this season. Just carry on. You are on the best stage you could ever have. Carry on playing the way you are. This is the perfect platform for you'.

"Then his family came in and it all got emotional. It was the first time I'd seen him emotional and I realised it was not the place for me to be."