Roeder's Denial

Glenn Roeder denies that he is preparing to swoop for Perugia duo Trayanos Dellas and Marco Di Loreto.

27 year old Loreto, who was once on Lazio's books, is a left winger, while the 25 year old Greek  Traianos Dellas is a defender.

But Glenn says of the story:

"That is just speculation; I have never even heard of them."

Nonetheless, he is working hard to improve the squad and underwent a midweek trip abroad that did not see him return home until the middle of the night, to grab a couple of hours' rest before training the next day.

"There aren't any surprises to the squad this weekend," he says, "at the moment it virtually picks itself.

"But we are trying to change that as we still need to strengthen, which we will do as and when we can.

"But first of all you have to highlight the players that you feel will do well for us.

"I was in Holland on Wednesday looking at Feyenoord v Sparta Prague and it was a game worth seeing; we might have spotted a couple of potential targets."

Whether they are affordable remains to be seen but he remains optimistic.

"I hope they are if we decide to go for one or two of them," he says, "but I have not asked the question yet.

"One of the teams, Sparta Prague, were very impressive in terms of quality and most of all how hard they worked, the sweat they put on the shirts.

"It was like watching 11 Tomas Repkas!"

Glenn remains convinced that any targets he does identify will want to join West Ham if a fee can be agreed.

He says:

"It is a fantastic club with a great tradition of playing good football, but it is important

that you play not only good football but winning football, and that is what we have to get in the mode of doing."

News on the injury front, meanwhile, is encouraging, and he explains:

"David James will be able to play in the reserves in around two weeks, and in the first team in three to four weeks - we are all surprised how well he has done.

"Ian Pearce needs six weeks, and Steve Lomas needs a couple of full reserve games.

"But there is no immediate rush as he has been out for eight or nine months."

Joe Cole is still out of action and Glenn says:

"Joe's season hasn't got up and running yet."