End Of Term...

West Ham's players spent their last day of the season at the Chadwell Heath training ground on Friday after completing a series of tests with the club's medical staff.

Those that are not on international duty - the full and under-21 England players, Christian Dailly with Scotland, Vladimir Labant with Slovakia, and Shaun Byrne with Republic of Ireland's under-20s - had their final day of examinations before their holiday.

It is an innovation new this year, and club doctor Ges Steinbergs says: "In fact we have discussed it all season. We are going to do another profile when the players come back, and we are hoping to learn something from the tests that we are doing.

"When the lads return from England duty we will have a better idea what shape they are in, too, and we can gage things from there."

Anything that can give the edge when it comes to fitness, and therefore performance, is being looked at, and Ges adds: "It is a new move for us though it remains to be seen whether it will win us trophies. At the moment we are hoping to get information that will help the players and inevitably the team, not to mention the national team in the future.

"I am grateful to Glenn for allowing us to do all these changes; a lot of these things originate from when he was with England."

Glenn has praised the medical staff repeatedly this season and given them the freedom to apply new techniques in the pursuit of excellence - and minimising injuries.

Ges is confident that the club will reap the rewards and adds: "I think the club has made some very, very good changes this year and I hope it will take it further on from the seventh position we got this season."