Trio Sign

Ian Pearce, Steve Lomas, and Trevor Sinclair have all agreed new contracts at Upton Park - and Glenn Roeder hopes more good news lies ahead.

"It is great news," says Glenn. "We held on to it for a few weeks because contract talks have been ongoing.

"Trevor agreed to sign a new contract a couple of weeks ago which we were delighted about, and he certainly proved to himself last year that he can be a West Ham player and not hinder his chances of being an England player. He had a great World Cup, and he was happy to renegotiate a new contract, which he has now done.

"Steve Lomas is the same, and it is ironic that he is not fit at the moment; but after he proved his fitness at the end of last season we obviously wanted to keep him at the club.

"The same goes for Ian Pearce who, again, after a long injury, proved his fitness last year and has looked fitter than ever this pre-season.

"That is three that have signed, and we are in talks with Jermain Defoe as well.

"Hopefully we will have some good news on that front in the not too distant future. Although we have got him on a long term contract already, because he did so well last year, we would like to make it even longer and be able to tie Jermain up for a few years.

"Anton Ferdinand will probably sign his first professional contract this week, for three years, and during the season I expect we will be opening negotiations with other young players at the club that we will want to lengthen the contracts of.

"The good thing at the football club is that although we are not able to spend transfer money on players at this present time, no one is putting me under any pressure whatsoever to sell any of the players, particularly those young players such as Cole, Carrick, and Defoe.

"We want to build a team around players like that, and now we have secured players like Lomas, Pearce, and Sinclair on longer contracts we want to tie up the three young boys on even longer contracts - even though they are on lengthy deals now.

"I look at those three particularly at 19, 20, and 21, and each season now we should be expecting an even better season from them than the last.

"They are going to improve every year, and it is good that the club is ambitious enough to want to secure these young players on the longest possible terms that we can, so we keep them.

"We certainly want to build the squad around the young players at the squad now, and we are hoping, in the next 12-18 months, that two young players in particular - Glen Johnson and Anton Ferdinand - make a break through into the first team."

Glenn admits that finishing higher than seventh place this coming season will be a tough task, and says: "If we want to get to the next level, which, to be fair is driven by all the clubs that have spent a lot of money in the transfer market, it is going to be hard.

"We are realistic people at the football club and I thought we did almost more than was expected last year in finishing seventh.

"But we mustn't forget that the sixth team was about 11 points above us, and that is a big gulf - which we are aiming to close with our present squad.

"With the exception of Chelsea, those six teams above us have all spent a lot of money, and it will be difficult to break into that top six without spending serious money.

"But we are obviously going to give it a go."