The Guardian: The main hope for an equaliser was Dean Ashton. He will surely be in the England squad to be announced on Friday, even if sharpness is lacking slightly after a year of injury. A header straight to Almunia from Lee Bowyer's fine cross was particularly galling. None the less, he is valuable to West Ham, who are concerned about the groin strain to another important striker, Craig Bellamy. Curbishley thinks that it may have been caused by the orthotic inserts the Welshman wore in his boots to counter an old injury that still bothered him. After seeming fit, Bellamy had to pull out of the game following training on Friday. The medical team may be feeling as taxed as all the football sides who have to cope with Arsenal. (Kevin McCarra, 1st October, 2007)
BBC Sport: Wales boss John Toshack hailed skipper Craig Bellamy's display in the 5-2 win away to Slovakia as "unbelievable". Bellamy scored two great goals, forced an own goal from Jan Durica and had a hand in both Wales' other scores. "You normally have 22 players battling away out there, pretty evenly matched. This game saw 21 players and one who was just unbelievable," Toshack said. "It was a scintillating performance - I cannot recall the last time I saw such an individual performance."
The Guardian: If Ashton is desperate to reward the West Ham fans with a goal, he is not alone. "You want that goal," said Bellamy, still searching for his first for the club. "Sometimes that takes over everything, which it shouldn't do. You want to get off the mark." (Simon Burnton, 27th August, 2007)
BBC Sport: Craig Bellamy scored one goal and made another as West Ham secured a stylish victory at the Madejski Stadium. Bellamy raced on to Lee Bowyer's pass to slot the opener within six minutes. And the fiery striker then played a key role in setting up Matthew Etherington who rounded off a glorious move to blast the second after the restart. (1st September, 2007)
Sunday Times: Making light of harsh memories, and the loss in midweek of Kieron Dyer, West Ham, inspired by Craig Bellamy, simply took Reading to pieces. As early as the sixth minute, it was plain that West Ham were most unlikely to repeat the fearful 6-0 humiliation they suffered here last New Year’s Day. When Lee Bowyer intercepted a Reading midfield pass, he expertly and precisely stroked the ball to enable Craig Bellamy to go through a huge gap. Away went Bellamy, never an easy man to catch at the best of times, finally to send his low right-footed cross-shot into the left-hand corner of the Reading goal. (Brian Glanville, 2nd September, 2007)
Bellamy scoring against Reading
The Observer: Three men deserve special praise. Craig Bellamy, showing pace and poise, scored the first and teed up the second. Matthew Etherington delivered the killer touches for the second goal and then - in the dying moments - the third. And the other West Ham hero was their goalkeeper Robert Green, who made the 76th-minute save from Kevin Doyle's penalty that ensured it would be a far more comfortable end to the game than it could have been for Alan Curbishley's team. (Arindam Rej, 2nd September, 2007)
The Times: Bellamy may infuriate many, with his strutting manner and nonstop verbals, but his high-octane tempo is priceless and Curbishley believes that he can earn cult status at Upton Park: a sort of Welsh version of Paolo Di Canio. “We worked hard to get Craig here,” Curbishley said. “I promised we would get other players in and I told him that the fans would love him for his endeavour, his passion, his finishing. I said, If you come here, they will carry you around the Boleyn.” (Russell Kempson, 3rd September, 2007)
KUMB: Noble then came up with the creative move of the game on 51 minutes as he made a teasing Di Canio-like run into the left side of the box. He foxed two defenders, and passed to Bellamy who only got half a boot on it, hitting Dyer on the back. Bellamy seemed brighter and responded to the raised tempo with a great run down the left, but unfortunately his whipped-in cross was just over the head of Zamora... Three minutes later, the mounting pressure from West Ham resulted in a goal after Bellamy went haring after a ball sent into the right side of the box by Dyer. Doyle came steaming out and Bellamy nicked the ball away from him. Although the ball was heading for a goal kick, the keeper didn’t make it and caught the Welshman. Birmingham protested to the linesman, but ref Mike Halsey was clear about the penalty decision. (East End Martin, 20th August, 2007)
The Times: If life was fair, West Ham United supporters would be waking up this morning and reading about how their team bounced back from losing to Manchester City on the opening day of the season. Life is not fair and Alan Curbishley knows that better than most managers. Curbishley has had more bad press than Pete Doherty since he arrived at Upton Park last December and nothing he says or does seems to make a difference. On Saturday, he had to deny reports that he had fallen out with Craig Bellamy and that the Wales forward had been involved in a scuffle in the tunnel after he had been accused of diving by Birmingham City players. “I had a fairytale existence at Charlton for 15 years,” Curbishley said. “I didn’t upset too many people, but, at the moment, it seems everything I do upsets someone.” Bellamy is the kind of player who could start an argument in an empty room, but Birmingham players would have been better off blaming Colin Doyle for their second defeat of the season. The Irish goalkeeper did not need to rush off his line when Bellamy raced clear in the second half and, when he did, a penalty looked like the most likely outcome. “The penalty was the right decision,” Bellamy said. “Criticism is part and parcel of the game. If it affected me, I would have got out a few years ago.” Millions of words have been written about the Carlos Tévez affair and whether West Ham deserve to be playing in the Premier League this season, but only a Sheffield United supporter would fail to be impressed by the squad that Curbishley is assembling. Sean Bean may disagree, but the top flight is the natural habitat of players as good as Robert Green, Matthew Upson, Mark Noble, Kieron Dyer and Bellamy. “Craig’s a better player than I thought,” Curbishley said. “He’s very professional and he’s not been a problem. You get these situations where you become a target and it’s very difficult. We’re under the spotlight continuously. I’m a patient boy, but perhaps I need to have a thicker skin.” (Kaveh Solhekol, 20th August)
Daily Mirror: The white rhino is an endangered animal on the brink of oblivion... but still thriving in the Premier League. West Ham striker Craig Bellamy said he has had to develop the hide of a rhinoceros to survive in football's most unforgiving habitat. Many defenders and former team-mates would love to make Bellamy extinct - the Welshman has already racked up his seventh club following a £7.5million summer move to Upton Park from Liverpool. The Welsh firebrand was typically at the centre of; controversy at St Andrews when he infuriated Birmingham by winning a hotly-disputed penalty. The striker sprinted into the box and, though his touch past Brum keeper Colin Doyle appeared to be going out of play, Bellamy engineered contact to go down - allowing Mark Noble to net the only goal from the spot in the 70th minute. Bellamy was surrounded by Birmingham players following the decision and confronted at the final whistle by Radhi Jaidi and Mehdi Nafti. But the ex-Anfield star was unrepentant and brushed off the incident, telling his doubters to stay in and watch Match Of The Day. After receiving a ton of flak over the years for his many bust-ups, Bellamy won't be losing any sleep over this latest episode. He admits he has had to develop a thick skin in the face of the taunts and abuse he has endured. "If it affected me I would have been out of this game a few years ago," said the 28-year-old, who has also played for Norwich, Coventry, Newcastle, Celtic and Blackburn. "I would have been washed up because if you let everything get to you, you are not going to last long. "When I used to go and watch football as a kid no-one got booed off at halftime but everyone has a right to criticise now. "Criticism is part and parcel of football these days but what went on before has gone and it is a new season for me and a new club. I want a settled period because I have signed a five-year contract and want to do as well as I can for West Ham." (James Nursey, 20th August)
Sunday Times: Just an average Saturday afternoon for Craig Bellamy. Back-page news in the morning for an alleged set-to with his new boss, by early evening he was being accused of illegally engineering the penalty that earned West Ham United an important, if extremely unglamorous, win at Birmingham City and scrapping with an opponent in the tunnel. Alan Curbishley defended his summer signing on all three counts - no shouting match last weekend, didn’t know anything about an alleged shoving match with Mehdi Nafti postmatch, and no question that goalkeeper Colin Doyle has cleaned Bellamy out for the decisive spot kick. “Bellamy got a touch on the ball and once the keeper comes and gets himself in that position it’s difficult; you’ve got to get contact on the ball and he never got it,” said Curbishley, who angrily knocked down reports that Bellamy had torn strips off him after the previous weekend. “Absolute nonsense,” he said. “There is an agenda out there and if I’m not the target, it’s the club. (Duncan Castles, 19th August)
The Guardian: The Wales manager believes the front pairing of Craig Bellamy and Robert Earnshaw needs competition. "I don't think we have ever seen the best of Earnie under my management of Wales," he said. "Craig has completed his third pre-season with three different clubs over three years. That must be unsettling." (Ewan Murray, 14th August)
WestHamOnline: Just like against Roma, this is a typical Craig Bellamy performance that he has put in for every club he as been at. In effect it is just huff and puff with very little end result. He buzzes about a lot and is always looking for the ball, often coming very deep to get it – which is fair play, you can’t say he hides. But if his record hasn’t convinced you then this performance should – the guy isn’t a goal scorer, so it seems pretty obvious that we need another striker as well as Bellamy, Ashton and Zamora. (11th August)
The Independent: Ljungberg brought a touch of Arsenal quality to his operations wide on the right, linking effectively with the overlapping captain Lucas Neill, while Bellamy's quickness off the mark regularly flustered the home back line. Southend's best efforts at attack provided little more than heading practice for Anton Ferdinand and Danny Gabbidon as West Ham soon took command. First, a Neill free-kick, met ferociously with Bobby Zamora's head, was repelled one-handed by Darryl Flahavan, then another Zamora header rebounded off the goal frame, as did the committed striker. Bellamy headed straight at Flahavan, and Lee Bowyer scooped over before Zamora claimed the opening goal on the half-hour. Meeting Ljungberg's long ball, he spotted Flahavan off his line and deliberately looped his header over the keeper. Bellamy scored easily just before the break with a bright yellow boot when Bowyer's effort rebounded from the bar. (29th July, 2007)
The Observer: Curbishley was heartened by the superior fitness, pace and slick passing presented to Southend. It was a contest effectively ended by two first-half goals. The opener came after 29 minutes. Ljungberg played a clever diagonal from the right. Darryl Flahavan thought he could claim it before Bobby Zamora, but, having advanced to the edge of the area, the West Ham No 9 beat the Southend keeper with a looping header that rolled in off a post. Bellamy, the day's best player, then got his reward when Lee Bowyer headed Matthew Etherington's ball against the bar. From the rebound, the Wales captain finished. That was after 39 minutes. (28th July, 2007)
Sunday Telegraph: Lucas Neill says he is honoured to become the captain of West Ham and hopes it will finally silence his detractors. Neill was criticised last January after he rejected a move to Liverpool and opted for a move to east London, although West Ham were facing a relegation battle. Doubters suggested the Australian international chose Upton Park because of the £60,000 a week salary he was reportedly offered... Despite the signing of Craig Bellamy from Liverpool and the possible arrival of Kieron Dyer from Newcastle, Neill is confident he can control all the players in the dressing-room. He said: "If people step out of line, then we're open to criticism and will push each other to greater heights." (28th July, 2007)
Craig Bellamy playing against Southend United
BBC News: West Ham have completed the signing of striker Craig Bellamy from Liverpool for a club record £7.5m. The 27-year-old Wales captain has signed a five-year contract after just one season at Anfield. "I wanted to make sure that, if I left Liverpool, it would be to a club that is going to be pushing for Europe," Bellamy told the West Ham website. "I want to play in Europe, it's important to me, and I felt that same drive and ambition here at West Ham." (10th July, 2007)
