Guardiola Interest Over

Glenn Roeder has decided not to pursue his interest in Barcelona's Spanish international midfielder Josep Guardiola.

Despite reports suggesting he was due to fly out to meet the player this week with Hammers' MD Paul Aldridge, Glenn says: "There were one or two points with the Guardiola proposal that we weren't comfortable with.

"As a result, we have decided not to further our interest in the player and will carry on looking elsewhere.

"The interests of the supporters and of the club must always come first."

Guardiola has been available on a free transfer since the start of the month.

Glenn is still pursuing his interest in Hannu Tihinen, however, and he says: "We are at the early stages of talking to both parties really, both him and his club in Norway.

"Hannu himself is aware of the situation and really wants to return because of how much he enjoyed his short spell at the club.

"The players got on well with him; he is a fantastic guy and loved playing for the supporters and the passion they showed.

"It's all about whether we can do a deal with Viking Stavanger which is proving to be a bit difficult at the moment but we are really seriously working as hard as we can.

"We can't pay silly money for anybody; we have got to negotiate hard and get the best deals that we can for the club.

"If we can spend the money carefully hopefully we can manage to bring in an extra player.

"If you study the squad and go into great depth, we are really light in terms of what you would call absolute first team players."