Bellamy builds his Wales backroom team

Williams captained Wales through the Euro 2016 run, the closest thing the country has had to a golden era, so he arrives with the kind of dressing-room credibility that doesn't get taught on a coaching badge. Sheehan, meanwhile, has been in the Championship trenches with Swansea, dealing with the week-to-week grind of club management that international football doesn't always require but often benefits from.

Bellamy himself knows both sides of that split. He played under serious pressure at international level and has since built his reputation in club dugouts, most recently at Burnley before taking the Wales job. Bringing in Williams and Sheehan looks like an attempt to cover the bases he can't cover alone: one voice who's been the captain in the biggest games, one who's been the manager making the daily calls.

No breakdown yet on specific duties

BBC Sport confirmed the appointments but didn't detail exactly what each man will do day to day. There's no breakdown yet of whether Williams will focus on defensive organisation, mentoring the squad's leaders, or something broader, and the same goes for Sheehan's remit. Wales haven't clarified the timing either, so it isn't yet clear whether both are in place for the opening Nations League fixture of this cycle or arriving slightly ahead of it.

None of that undercuts the logic of the moves. Wales are heading into a new Nations League cycle needing more structure than star power, and Bellamy building out a staff with genuine domestic and international pedigree is the kind of groundwork that tends to matter more in March than it does in September.

Why the profile fits

Williams didn't just wear the armband, he did it through a period when Wales went from also-rans to semi-finalists, and that kind of experience is hard to fake in a coaching setting. Sheehan's added value is more practical: recent, direct experience of managing a club through a Championship season, results and all.

Neither Bellamy, Williams nor Sheehan has commented publicly on the appointments yet. For now, the story is simply that Bellamy is shaping his staff early, and doing it with people Welsh football already trusts.