West Ham have this morning confirmed that the signing of Craig Bellamy from Liverpool has finally gone through. The two clubs agreed a fee last week, and the player had agreed personal terms with West Ham before passing a medical. On Saturday Rafa Benítez told reporters the deal had gone through but West Ham denied this, saying Bellamy had some issues to resolve with Liverpool first.
That now done, Bellamy has left Liverpool and signed for the Hammers for a fee of – according to West Ham – £7.5m. The West Ham website said this morning: “West Ham United is delighted to announce the signing of Wales international captain Craig Bellamy from Liverpool for a fee of £7.5million. The 27-year-old striker put pen to paper on a five-year contract at Upton Park this morning to become Alan Curbishley’s fourth summer signing.”
Liverpool signed Bellamy from Blackburn last summer for a cut-price £6m after learning of a clause in the Welshman’s contract which allowed him to leave for a Champions League club at that set figure. The season he had at Anfield wasn’t a disaster, but Rafa told Bellamy he wasn’t part of his main plans for the new season. Bellamy, a boyhood Red, is set to earn £75,000 a week at West Ham.
The low-point of Bellamy’s time at Anfield probably came during the infamous trip to Portugal when Bellamy was alleged to have hit team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club. That was quickly followed by one of the highlights, when an excellent performance from Bellamy saw him score one and set up the other – ironically for Riise – as Liverpool earned a 2-1 lead in the first leg of their Champions League tie against Barcelona.
Good luck from AnfieldRoad.com to Craig in his future career.