Bellamy beats the clock to return to Kop

Craig Bellamy left it late to make a sensational return to Liverpool, signing just before the 11pm transfer deadline.

The Wales striker was given permission to leave his national team’s training camp at Celtic Manor to speak to his former club and undergo a medical, and he made a dramatic helicopter flight north to complete the deal.

But complications over the player’s pay-off from Manchester City meant that negotiations dragged on late into the evening, putting the deal in jeopardy.

Tense talks centred around the player’s request to have his City contract paid up, as any switch to Anfield would require him to cut his Blues salary by half.

City eventually conceded, and Bellamy himself accepted a reduced deal from his former club, to allow the free transfer to proceed at the last minute.

The striker was still completing his medical at 10pm, with Liverpool medics closely checking his hamstrings, which blighted the end of Bellamy's previous campaign while on loan at Cardiff.

But the deal was pushed closer to completion, as Reds manager Kenny Dalglish made perhaps the most surprising move of the transfer window to bring Bellamy back to the club.

Even Bellamy admitted he never thought it would be possible to return to Liverpool, the club he supported as a boy, after being forced out under a cloud by the Benitez regime.

He was involved in an incident with then-team-mate John Arne Riise, after hitting him with a golf club following a booze-fuelled night out at a training camp in Portugal.

However, Dalglish sees the striker as the perfect back up to first choice Luis Suarez, and he believes the forward’s pace will add an extra dimension to his squad.