[Mighty T.A.L.]

'Pool bank £16m for Cisse and Bellamy

Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, was stepping up his search for a world-class winger last night after offloading Craig Bellamy and Djibril Cisse for a combined fee of about £16million.

Bellamy, the Wales forward, has joined West Ham United in a deal worth up to £8million after passing a medical yesterday and putting pen to paper on a four-year contract worth about £70,000 a week.

Yossi Benayoun, the Israel midfield player, is expected to move in the opposite direction and become Liverpool's second significant signing of the summer after the £20.2m capture of Fernando Torres, although a deal had still to be concluded last night.

Liverpool have also agreed to sell Cisse to Marseilles for about £8m. Portsmouth made a bid in the region of £9m for the France forward, but Benitez accepted that the player only wanted to join a club who could offer Champions League football.

Cisse will sign a three or four-year contract with the French club, who have also signed Boudewijin Zenden on a free transfer after the former Holland midfield player was released by Liverpool at the end of last season.

Although Liverpool will make a significant loss on Cisse, whom they signed for £14.2m from Auxerre in 2004, the money from his sale, and that of Bellamy, will give Benitez the funds to make another big-money signing.

Benayoun will offer Benitez more options on the right side of midfield, but the Spaniard is keen to bring in a second winger who can play on either flank. Alessandro Mancini, the AS Roma winger, and Ricardo Quaresma, of FC Porto, are thought to be interesting Benitez, although he appears to have conceded defeat in the chase for Florent Malouda, with the Lyons winger likely to join Chelsea.

Source: News from Ireland & Worldwide - Independent.ie