EVERTON are convinced Craig Bellamy will be at Goodison Park at the start of next season, but boss David Moyes is ready to make Newcastle sweat in the hope of picking up a bargain.

Bellamy was a high-profile absentee as the bulk of the Magpies squad returned to pre-season training at the club's Little Benton base yesterday.

The Wales international was given an extra week's grace as boss Graeme Souness put his players through their paces on Tyneside.

Publicly, Newcastle officials have extended Bellamy's holiday in line with the club's other internationals who were involved in extra games at the end of last season.

But, privately, they are hoping the 25-year-old uses the extended break to finalise a move away from St James' Park, thus avoiding a potentially explosive re-union with Souness and some of his former team-mates.

The chances of that happening improved greatly on Sunday when Bellamy held constructive talks with Moyes.

But, while the Everton boss remains desperate to add the striker to his ranks, he is willing to bide his time in the hope of forcing Newcastle's hand.

Bellamy is understood to have told Moyes he is willing to move to Goodison Park provided a satisfactory agreement can be reached over his personal terms.

The Everton boss is confident of brokering an agreement that satisfies Bellamy without smashing the club's current wage ceiling of £40,000-a-week. And he is also hoping to back Newcastle into a corner, forcing them to lower their current asking price of £6m.

Celtic dropped out of the race at the weekend after Bellamy informed officials at the Glasgow club he was not willing to spend more time north of the border despite enjoying a successful loan spell in Glasgow at the end of last season.

The volatile striker was similarly dismissive when Aston Villa agreed a fee with Newcastle earlier this summer and has also turned down the possibility of a move to Birmingham.

That leaves Magpies chairman Freddy Shepherd with a stark choice - sell Bellamy to Everton for a cut-price fee or watch him rot in the reserves until the transfer window re-opens at the start of January.

"We have not agreed a fee with Everton but we have given Craig permission to speak to Everton and Celtic," admitted Shepherd yesterday.

The Newcastle chief has previously refused to countenance reducing his asking price for Bellamy but, with Souness struggling to bring in new recruits of his own, his hand may be forced unless new suitors enter the fray this week.

That scenario is unlikely and the time is fast approaching where Shepherd will have to cut his losses to avoid further disruption to Newcastle's pre-season preparations.

Moyes refused to discuss his pursuit of Bellamy yesterday, but new Everton signing Simon Davies did underline his new team-mates' support for the frontman's possible arrival.

The Welsh midfielder has first-hand experience of Bellamy's explosive character and feels he has been misunderstood and mishandled in the past.

"I've heard that he has been in talks and that's very exciting," said Davies. "It's just the sort of player we should be going for.

"I know Craig Bellamy very well and he is a much nicer lad than he has been painted. He just wants to win all the time and that's the type of player we need here at Everton."

Meanwhile, defender Daniel Van Buyten last night became the latest player to turn his back on a possible move to the Magpies.

Souness has been tracking the Belgian centre-half all summer and had been hoping to persuade him to leave his current club, Hamburg, for the North-East.

But, after Christian Vieri and Alan Smith rebuffed the Scot's advances at the end of last week, Van Buyten has also slammed the door on any suggestion of a move to St James' Park.

The 27-year-old has publicly committed himself to Hamburg and delivered yet another a hammer blow to Souness' hopes of strengthening his squad ahead of this month's Intertoto Cup campaign.

"I will be staying," revealed Van Buyten, who was also attracting the attention of German champions Bayern Munich. "My head and my heart belong to Hamburg and I'm very happy to be here.

"The club has secured the services of some good players. We have a good team and we want to do better than last season."