John Carver is delighted with the way Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy is now being recognised.

Bellamy spent four years with Newcastle after being taken to Tyneside by Sir Bobby Robson.

But he left in 2005 after falling out with Robson's successor, Graeme Souness.

Attack Bellamy has won support from an unlikely corner - Robson's former St James' Park assistant Carver.

The pair had an infamous bust-up at Newcastle airport before a Toon European trip to Real Mallorca in 2004 when Bellamy threw a chair at Carver, says the People.

But the coach, now working as Paul Mariner's assistant at Plymouth, insisted: "Nobody is happier than me at the way Bellamy has developed.

"If Didier Drogba is the best striker in the Premier League at the moment, then Bellamy is the most effective because of his goals and assists."