West Ham today rejected a £9million bid from Manchester City bid for Craig Bellamy.

City stepped up their interest after failing with a combined £15m offer for the striker and Scott Parker last week.

West Ham have said they want to keep their top players in this month's transfer window but Tottenham have also renewed their interest in Bellamy while City, owned by billionaire Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, are unlikely to give up.

Bellamy, 29, is said to be tempted by a lucrative move to City, where he would link up again with his former Wales manager, Mark Hughes.

It looks as though midfielder Parker will be staying at West Ham along with other coveted players, defender Matthew Upson and goalkeeper Robert Green.

Centre-half James Collins, meanwhile, is confident West Ham's luck has finally changed on the pitch.

Collins recovered from a nightmare first-half at the hands of Michael Owen at Newcastle on Saturday to help the Hammers earn a 2-2 draw.

He said: "We had a bit of a bad run a couple of months ago. We just couldn't get the results even though we were performing really well. Hopefully, that's long in the past now."