IT’S said you should never go back. But for Craig Bellamy, the Liverpool FC he returned to this summer is not the one he left four years ago.

And the Welshman believes the club is all the more better for it.

Bellamy spent the 2006-07 season at Anfield having arrived from Blackburn Rovers, scoring nine goals in 44 appearances before being moved on by Rafael Benitez after less than 12 months.

The striker, though, insists he shouldn’t have signed, claiming that under the regimented Spaniard, Liverpool weren’t quite the team he had grown up supporting.

Kenny Dalglish’s return changed all that. Now, back at his boyhood club, Bellamy was convinced the Anfield outfit had rediscovered their true identity after watching their revival under the Scot in the second half of last season.

“I’d never sound negative against Rafa or Gerard Houllier because they did so much and were outstanding for the club but this was the Liverpool Football Club that I grew up supporting,” says Bellamy, who started the 2-1 win at Chelsea on Sunday.

“I watched the way they played towards the end of last season, the passing and moving, the free-flowing football. It felt like it was back.

“I don’t want to sound critical towards Rafa or Houllier, but under them it was more tactical and disciplined, hitting the opposition on the break.

“But now, this feels like Liverpool again. To be a part of that, it was too big a deal to turn down.”