Liverpool star eager to start

New signing Craig Bellamy has expressed his delight at moving to Liverpool while also acknowledging the hard work he will have to put to seal a place in the starting eleven.

Bellamy said: "The hard work starts now, we already have a strong squad and to not only break in and be a hit here I have to work extremely hard,"

"I feel very fortunate playing for a club I supported as a boy. It is a special honour and I hope I can make the most of the opportunity.

"Rafael Benitez spoke to Mark Hughes and the fee was agreed. We had a good chat but he (Benitez) knew my feelings before that anyway. He knew the inevitable was going to happen and that was it."

He continued: "A few people would question me after having five knee operations. But the belief in me that this day would come has been my inspiration.

"I have spent days, weeks, doing rehab, on my own after everyone else has gone home. I would be thinking I would not be able to get fit but the desire to reach the moment in my career I am now at has been the driving belief.

"It is what kept me going when I was younger, to get this opportunity at this level and with Liverpool. To fight through all those injuries and operations.

"I am always going to be labelled as a player with baggage, it's one of those things. I can say, 'look I'm a really nice guy,' but people will still say what they want to say.

"All I can do is try as hard as I can to improve, the only thing I really care about is to try to make my team better and how I work around the training ground."

Bellamy added: "I have played for some big clubs, but what I am missing is trophies and that is what I aim to put right here. Otherwise it will all be a bit of a failure.

"This is a special honour, and anyone who has supported a club and then gets the chance to play for them knows it is a surreal situation.

"I'm nervous, I don't want to come here just to get Liverpool on my CV, I want to be a big hit, and be remembered for doing really well as a player.

"That's what is driving me now, that hunger. Its one thing coming to a club like Liverpool but quite another to be remembered as a really good player.

"This is a completely different level. But I have worked hard for this, I have trained hard and always believed that this opportunity would come for me."