CRAIG BELLAMY'S LIVERPOOL DREAM NEARLY OVER

Craig Bellamy is on the verge of ending his one-year Liverpool career by signing for West Ham United – as Portsmouth raised the stakes in the bidding for Djibril Cisse by tabling a £9million bid. Welsh forward Bellamy didn’t report for the resumption of pre-season training at Melwood yesterday as he made his way down to London for talks at Upton Park.

Liverpool are in the process of negotiating a fee of around £10million for a player who they bought from Blackburn Rovers for £6million last summer. And Yossi Benayoun is likely to be part of the deal as Liverpool close in on boosting their midfield with the Israeli playmaker. Manager Rafael Benitez has already missed out in one bid for Benayoun earlier in the summer but the signing of French international Julien Faubert from Bordeaux earlier this week seems to have paved the way for his departure.

Bellamy has been West Ham’s number one target since they missed out on the £17million capture of Charlton’s Darren Bent, who snubbed them for London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. And Benitez made it clear he was ready to listen to offers for the 27-year-old once he furnished his forward line with record buy Fernando Torres this week, along with Ukrainian Andriy Voronin on a free from Bayer Leverkusen.

As for Cisse, staying with Marseille, where he has been on loan for the past year, is his preferred option. But Liverpool will hold out to recoup as much of the then-club record £14million they paid Auxerre for him as possible. Portsmouth’s bid could, therefore, force Marseille to up their valuation, especially as West Ham and Bolton are also preparing offers for the Frenchman.

While wide players, such as Roma’s Alessandro Mancini, remain Benitez’s next priority in terms of incoming players, he insists that the Torres signing signals the end of purchases in the £15-20million bracket. He said: “We know this is big money, but we were prepared to pay this for a top class striker. Now we are looking for other targets who are not as expensive as Fernando. We are working on two or three new faces. We are close with some of them, but you never know. Not until the players are here at a press conference will I be convinced that they are here.”