City step up Bellamy hunt

Manchester City have responded to their disastrous FA Cup third-round defeat to Nottingham Forest in the fashion expected of the richest club in the world: by raising to £20m their bid for the West Ham pair of Craig Bellamy and Scott Parker. It is understood that the new bid was put together before Saturday's game and City expect an answer this week.

Bellamy and Parker are both aware that they could improve their wages by going to City but will wait to learn West Ham's reaction first. The last bid for the pair by City, of £15m, which was delivered on 27 December, was firmly rejected by the West Ham chief executive, Scott Duxbury, who will presumably believe now that he can extract even more from City as they desperately try to strengthen their squad.

Bellamy's first choice, should he leave West Ham, is known to be Tottenham but their bid of £6m, rejected on Boxing Day, looks ever more puny compared to the amount that City are prepared to pay. It is Bellamy whom West Ham are more eager to keep out of the two players, although it appears that they will be tested to the limit this month with City's need all the greater after another humiliating defeat on Saturday.

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After the match, Mark Hughes (right) said that the 3-0 home defeat to Forest, currently 21st in the Championship, demonstrated the "frail" element at the heart of his team which he evidently hopes Parker, an aggressive holding midfielder, can change. "At the moment we are frail, we lack a physical presence," he said. "It's evident that we need a certain type of player to help in that respect and we need good players in key areas of the field to make sure we are strong and don't compromise ourselves."

The City manager is not expected to be under any immediate pressure with regard to his job after a performance he called "not acceptable". However, there is no doubt that preparations to bring some of the biggest names in football to City in the summer are progressing whether Hughes is still at the club or not. The Milan playmaker Kaka and Valencia's David Villa are the two most likely targets.

The Ghana midfielder Stephen Appiah will start training with Tottenham today with a view to signing for the club until the end of the season. Appiah, 28, is effectively out of contract although he has a long-standing legal wrangle with his former club Fenerbahce relating to his last contract.