More time for Bellamy to secure new club

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. 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. 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. Newcastle will travel to Slovakia or Turkey for the first leg of their Intertoto Cup third-round tie with the former looking the more likely after Dubnica beat Ankaraspor 4-0 in the first-leg second-round tie on Saturday.