Craig Bellamy has slammed claims he threatened to go on strike while at West Ham United to earn a move to Manchester City.

The Welshman insists that far from being desperate to leave Upton Park in January last year, he loved the club and had offered to sign a new contract.

"I was enjoying it at West Ham and Gianfranco Zola had woken me up again in terms of my football," Bellamy told the Mirror. "I adore they guy and I was really happy where I was but I was being auctioned off to City and Spurs.

"The way I left still aggravates me because it is one of the happiest periods I have ever had in football and it is a really special club.

"Having played for West Ham is one of the things that Carlos Tevez and I talk about. It's the first result we both look for every weekend. I'm not likely to play now for any other English club in my career but if I did, I'd like it to be West Ham.

"I know the fans probably won't give me a great reception on Sunday and I don't blame them. If you thought that a player went on strike to leave your club, I wouldn't expect fans to be too happy with that. But the truth is that never happened.

"I was told to go home to Cardiff because the Man City deal was done and the clubs were ironing out the final details.

"City were playing Wigan on the Saturday and West Ham were playing Fulham. I was told to stay in Cardiff. Then a paper came out and said I had gone on strike and had stormed out of West Ham. The thing that angered me most was the idea that people might think I would do that to Gianfranco Zola.

"Franco was the first person to ring me up when I scored my first goal for City. Do you think he'd do that if I'd walked out on him?"