West Ham United are set to move for Porto's Benni McCarthy after having a £6m bid for Southampton's Peter Crouch turned down. At this time of year, players do not always enjoy training, but there is no easy way around it. There's no pill you can take to get over that, it's just hard work."Souness will have less than a fortnight to prepare for the first competitive fixture on the weekend of 16-17 July. The Welshman was not the only absentee as the Newcastle squad resumed training after their summer break with Hugo Viana - another player the club is trying to offload - also due back next Monday along with Jermaine Jenas, Shay Given, Stephen Carr and Jean-Alain Boumsong, who were all away with their national squads after the Premiership season.However, Newcastle's £6.5m signing Scott Parker was among those who started preparations for the new season as he got a first chance to meet up with his new team-mates."We are back to work, although we are not going to have the full squad in as we felt we had to give some of the players a bit more time off to rest up," Souness said."We are going to have to push them on pretty quickly, but we also have to make sure we do not push them too far. What he said shall remain private, but we offered him what he wants."As for claims that Benitez wants the £30m Gerrard would yield to complete the overhaul of a squad, the Liverpool manager said: "We don't need a lot of money.
We have a clear idea about what we need and we have the advantage of players wanting to come here because we are European champions.". Craig Bellamy was a man in demand yesterday although the Newcastle striker's anticipated showdown with Graeme Souness failed to materialise. The 25-year-old was due back on Tyneside yesterday as the bulk of the Newcastle squad returned for pre-season training. But after informal talks with Everton on Sunday over a proposed £6m move to Merseyside, the Wales international was given a further week off, officially to recharge his batteries after the Scottish season, where he was on loan at Celtic. However, the delay in his return headed off a tense reunion with the manager Souness and the captain Alan Shearer - with whom relations have soured seemingly beyond the point of repair - at the club's training headquarters.Neither Newcastle nor Everton were commenting on the situation yesterday with the Tyneside club still talking to Celtic and Aston Villa, who insist their interest is ongoing.It is understood that Bellamy met the Everton manager David Moyes and that further talks will take place later this week. We are looking for a solution and I believe it is still possible to get one. I have spoken to Stevie about the situation and asked him what he wants. But Benitez refuses to give up hope of a compromise."The club, the board, the chief executive, the chairman and me all want him to stay...
He can even be the next manager, though only if I decide to go! I want Stevie to stay here all his life, that's it."Liverpool's attempts at reconciliation may have come too late, with Chelsea rekindling their long-standing interest.Rick Parry, Liverpool's chief executive, said: "We hope this situation is repairable", as close as anyone at the club has come to conceding talks had broken down. If I renew my deal after four more years here I would like him to be the next assistant coach, the next assistant manager or the next chief scout if he wants it. We talked about improving the team and the squad, and we are improving the team and the squad."We want Stevie to stay with us. We talked about the team winning trophies, then we won the most important one in the world.