Sincs: I'll Stay

Trevor Sinclair insists that he is prepared to stay at Upton Park and help the club back into the top flight - despite speculation linking him with a number of clubs recently.

"I am hoping to stay but sometimes transfers and club situations are not legislated by the players - it is more to do with the financial people," he says.

"What can I do? I will just have to wait and see what happens after the summer."

He feels that the best policy will be to retain the bulk of the current squad and, with Sven-Goran Eriksson making it clear that being a first division player will not prevent being selected for England, adds: "It is definitely important that the club keeps as many of the best players that they can."

"I don't know if we can keep them all but it will be important to retain a lot of the squad to give us the best opportunity of bouncing back."

Trevor admits that the pain of relegation has not faded, and explains: "I have not got over relegation with Queens Park Rangers, never mind West Ham. It always leaves a sour taste in your mouth, especially going down with such a talented bunch of players.

"That is the bad thing this time, whereas last time I was quite a young player and we were weak and lacking in numbers of quality players at Rangers.

"The same can't be said about the West Ham team, and that is the disappointing thing.

"I am much more disappointed having gone down with West Ham than Queens Park Rangers due to that fact.

"This is a much more talented side and one I felt was much more capable of retaining Premiership status.

"But there is an old saying that 'you are never too good to go down' - and that has been cruelly exercised because obviously 42 points would have been good enough any other year.

"But it is up to us to prove to everyone that we are good enough for the Premiership and bounce straight back."

But he is not looking for sympathy, and adds: "I wouldn't say it is an injustice, because we deserved to go down. We were the third worst team in the division - the third lowest amount of points.

"But we want to prove to people that, although we didn't perform last year, we have got consistency in the squad and we can put a good enough run together to bounce back.

"Although a lot of people say we might not have anything to prove I think the pride of the players will make us demand it of each other that we bounce straight back."