Birmingham City have had a £6m bid for Craig Bellamy accepted by Newcastle. The player is expected in Birmingham over the weekend for talks and a medical.

Steve Bruce commented:

"We have agreed a fee with Newcastle and we've got permission to speak to the player.

"We will be having talks with him over the weekend and we hope we can convince him to come to Birmingham City.

"He's a quality player, quality players don't become available very often and that's why we've made the offer that we have to Newcastle.

"My board have backed me ever since I came here and they've done it again.''

Assuming the deal went through, Bellamy would be in line to make his Blues debut at home to Southampton on Wednesday night. It's not expected that the player would be looking at property in the Coventry area....

Whether this move would appeal to Bellamy remains to be seen - Birmingham is hardly a dream destination and if the price for him is £6m, then the Welshman may yet stall in the hope that a more glamorous outfit enters the fray at this late stage.

Of course he could equally refuse to move on and remain at Gallowgate - out of favour but earning his quoted £40k per week, knowing that his continued presence is an irritation to the club.

And, if results went against us, that he could sour Souness's already fragile relationship with many supporters, if the manager refused to play him in the event of injuries or loss of form from the front men. All theoretical of course - but far from fantasy.

Being wet blankets of course, we're duty- bound to say that the subject to a medical line could also be significant, given his history of injury problems - although the last Steadman visit saw him get the all-clear.

So, the Geordie manager tries to take the Geordie reject, but the Bruce / Bellamy link-up could have taken place at Gallowgate last year, had United managed to tempt Steve B into succeeding Sir Bobby as our boss.

We've already played Birmingham both home and away this season meaning there would be no reunion this time out with Newcastle, even if we met in the FA Cup - Bellamy having appeared for us against Yeading.

The conversations in the dressing room at St.Andrews would be interesting, as Bellamy compares notes with Dwight Yorke, David Dunn, Martin Taylor - all sold by Blackburn while Souness was in charge at Ewood Park and in the case of Yorke and Dunn at least, parting on less than cordial terms....

The move would make some kind of sense I suppose, after Brum had sold Savage Steve Bruce has a vacancy for a Welsh jumpy jack in his squad....