Glenn: I Won't Lose Sleep

Glenn Roeder is dismissing claims by Sebastien Schemmel of mistreatment at the club - but insists he won't lose any sleep over it.

Seb has made claims of being frozen out at Upton Park, says other high profile players are going to be sold, and claims some selection decisions were wrong last season.

Glenn responds:

"Sebastien Schemmel's comments don't surprise me but they disappoint me because some of the allegations that have been made, if you ask people that really know me, are not the truth.

"I would feel comfortable for anyone to ask Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Jermain Defoe, Christian Dailly, David James, or any other player if they feel the same way.

"It is the comment you would expect from a player that becomes unhappy at a club; you have to be big enough and have broad enough shoulders to be able to handle it and my biggest concern at the moment is making sure we get off to a good start to the season.

"Sebastien Schemmel would not be high on the priority, which is on getting this squad really focused and really motivated and positive for the new season.

"I wouldn't be the first manager to be criticised by a player that is not in favour, because that is basically the real gripe.

"They criticise the manager as a result; it is not the first time it has happened and it won't be the last time.

"If you have sleepless nights over personal criticism from players who are out of favour there is no point being in the job.

"So he has said it, it doesn't surprise me knowing the lad - but it disappoints me he has chosen to go down that route."

Whether the outburst signals the end of his career at West Ham after Glenn signed him permanently from Metz for £465,000 on taking over the reins - it had previously been thought he would cost three times that figure when he had been on loan at the club under Harry Redknapp - remains to be seen but Glenn admits:

"It is too early to say, but since Glen Johnson took his place in the team last February we have never had any serious interest in him, so we will just wait and see what develops."

The door is now open for Anton Ferdinand to step in at right back and Glenn adds:

"When things like this happen it means that somewhere in the club someone else is given an opportunity.

"We have a young 18 year old that is desperate for an opportunity and I am sure our supporters will look forward to seeing the development of young Anton Ferdinand over the coming weeks.

"I was really pleased with his two performances over in Sweden, especially against the champions Djurgardens where he acquitted himself very well.

"We have to accept he is very inexperienced but you only get that by playing games.

"Glen Johnson last season was very inexperienced until we put him in but he took to the first team like a duck to water.

"Anton was 18 in April and he is coming to an age where, if he is going to be the player we want him to be and he wants to be, certainly before his 19th birthday he should be making some sort of mark on the first team.

"So he is probably going to get a chance sooner than we expected, because I don't like putting them in before they are absolutely ready and it is always a gamble.

"Sometimes you have to do it and hope they will swim; in Anton's case I hope he takes to first team football like Glen.

"He is a pleasure to work with, a well rounded young man very like his brother who will want to be recognised solely in his own right as Rio would want him to be.

"Neither of them would want the younger brother to be compared to the younger brother; that will inevitably happen but Rio and Anton are two separate people who would like to be judged solely on their individual merits.

"Rio proved while he was with us that he was a defender of the highest international quality.

"I am amazed that some people said when he went to Leeds he became a top class international defender; they have short memories.

"He was a top class international defender at West Ham, made in the West Ham mold."

As for whether David Connolly makes his debut against PSV Eindhoven on Friday, Glenn explains:

"How soon we can get him involved I don't know because he hasn't had the full preseason that our players have had; he is fit but I am not sure he is match fit yet because he has not had the opportunity to play too many preseason games for Wimbledon.

"Let's wait and see for Friday night but we will assess his fitness over the next five days and the important thing is we have got his signature.

"And with Fredi Kanoute, Jermain Defoe, and now David Connolly there are three strikers there who I would like to think there is a stack of goals in."