Paul: A Year Of Change

Paul Goddard says that 2002 will be a year of many changes at West Ham.

"There is a rebuilding job that has been started and has to be completed," he says, "and that is an ongoing thing.

"There are a lot of players out of contract in the summer and there are going to be a lot of decisions to be made as we look for new talent.

"We are already building a dossier and there will be a big change in the summer.

"When players' contracts are up there are big changes and it will be a testing time for us. There are a lot of players whose contracts are up and decisions have got to be made on a lot of players including a lot of young players, and we have to see whether they warrant new contracts.

"Glenn has got to make these decisions with the help of myself and the staff."

2001 was certainly a year of change for Paul personally as he returned to Upton Park to answer Glenn Roeder's call, and he says: "It was a big change for myself in the summer coming back to West Ham after spending so long away.

"We have got a good atmosphere going and I am thoroughly enjoy working with the first team.

"It was a little bit of a surprise but you soon learn in football you are never quite sure what is going to happen and I have enjoyed working with the players we've got."

He says moving to a bigger club has not presented problems for him, adding: "What is pressure? I don't see football as pressure in that respect; there are people in life that have far more testing lives than the kind of pressure we face."

And he hopes his old club Ipswich can recover from a disastrous first half of the season to stay up.

"There will be many people looking at the different reasons why they are down there," he says, "but they were incredibly lucky with no injuries last year and they've had a number of vital injuries this season."