Vlad's The Lad

Glenn Roeder says the best of Vladimir Labant is still to come.

He has settled into the rigours of Premiership football with apparent ease, having already started two games since his arrival from Sparta Prague, and Glenn says: "There's nothing that I have seen so far that makes me think he won't eventually be able to call himself a good Premiership player.

"He will share the position for the rest of this season with Nigel Winterburn - who is having another excellent campaign and obviously at the moment it is Nigel's shirt.

"But he wasn't fit for the game at Bolton and it gave Vladimir another opportunity to play in the Premiership.

"I am sure that come the start of next season he will be completely settled here. He will be speaking English by then and all those sort of things that people might not think are important but are.

"It will all go to help his cause, and he is working ever so hard to learn English. He is having lessons every afternoon and is mad keen to pick the language up, as is Tomas whose English is improving rapidly.

"But Vladimir is already starting to catch him up in terms of understanding English and being able to speak one or two sentences.

"His wife arrived today from the Czech Republic with his young son and that will help his home life.

"All those factors will help when he plays."