Glenn: Let's Win For Paolo

  • 40/1 on Joe Cole to open the scoring in a 2-0 win -
    Click here for full odds with Sky Bet

Glenn Roeder hopes that by the time Paolo Di Canio returns to England next week the side will have the first win of the season behind them - and, in his continued absence, will decide who will take a penalty if one is awarded against Charlton.

Paolo is, of course, currently back in Italy doing rehab, but he is in touch with Glenn and various other people at the club, hoping that West Ham get off the mark on Saturday.

Says Glenn:

"Hopefully we will achieve the result that we want, which is that first win of the season; it is in the minds of everybody who has not got that under their belts, the three or four teams looking for their first victory.

"We have had only two games and we have had a difficult start, but if you look at last season's fixtures we didn't take anything at St.James' Park and we got a point at home to Arsenal, which we have just done again, so like for like the results have been the same.

"We feel overall we got what we deserved at Newcastle by having a poor 30 minutes, that is nothing, and on Saturday we let two points slip out of our pocket.

"But we have got to live with that, forget about it, and make sure we are in the right frame of mind to put on a performance, come 3 o'clock, that is good enough to win the match."

That outcome would certainly please Paolo, currently recovering from a foot problem in Bologna.

Explaining Paolo's injury, and the way it is being treated, Glenn says:

"It was out on the training ground, and it has gone on for about a month now; we were having a practice and he came to receive the ball, then he dropped his shoulder and turned to his right to come back up the field.

"As he has turned he felt pain in his foot, he carried on for a few more seconds, but it turned out he has got a little bit of a tear in his muscle.

"He has had so many scans, and at one point they showed that it was completely healed, so he went out and did quite a hard day's training, and it just disturbed it again, so now we are being extra careful to make sure that the next time he comes back, he will stay fit.

"We expect him to be fully okay late next week, but in the mean time he has just gone back to Italy for seven to 10 days to a rehabilitation centre in Bologna.

"As it stands at the moment, we expect Paolo to be back here next week if everything goes to plan; he will do some training out there, and I have basically said to him 'don't come back until you are fit, until you are ready to step on the training ground and get involved,' - and I think that he appreciated that.

"He went there immediately after he hurt his knee against Charlton last season, and that is where he spent his summer in Bologna; a lot of Serie A players go to this centre, so he is in good company."

"He speaks to John Green on a regular basis and also Ges Steinbergs, and, as we understand it, he is progressing nicely.

"He is not on his own as such; the whole point of allowing him to go to Bologna is that he is not isolated there, he will have the services of three or four physios running around him.

"He will be going from one exercise to another exercise and that will be bringing him back to full fitness."

Letting a player recuperate in his homeland is nothing new, and Glenn adds:

"I think that you will find that Perez is in the South of France, and he is not coming back until he is fully fit to play, and I have got a feeling that Ljungberg is back in Sweden.

"It is no reflection on John Green; John is up there with the very best in physiotherapy, make no mistake about it, and he is good enough to work for England.

"But it is a very well known centre in Bologna where a lot of the Serie A clubs send their players for that last bit of rehabilitation; they actually get very personal attention and they do like that.

"Paolo, like a lot of good professionals, do not make good patients; they like to play and that's what they are paid to do.

"Nobody enjoys their training more than Paolo and being here every day with the lads; for the first couple of weeks after he had done his rehab work here he would come and sit on the side of the pitch and watch us train and you could see how frustrated he was getting - he does like being out on the training ground.

"One of his big strengths is his dedication and professionalism.

"He would like to be fit for the West Brom game, but the big problem that I would have for him is that he has had 65 minutes of football at Southend in four months.

"But he is obviously one of those players who won't need too many games to get back into the full swing of things because he has got such a natural touch.

"I expect him to play a big part in our season in the same way that he did last year."

When he is fully fit, Paolo will compete with Fredi Kanoute and Jermain Defoe for a place up front, and Glenn adds:

"Fredi and Jermain gave Sol Campbell and Martin Keown one hell of a game on Saturday and it is nice to have the sort of problem, knowing that you have got three strikers like that competing for two places."

Paolo is, of course, West Ham's regular penalty taker, but should a penalty be awarded in his absence at the weekend, it remains to be seen who will take it.

"I think that Fredi wouldn't want to take the next penalty," says Glenn.

"I think that he still feels that way, though I haven't spoken to him about it since Saturday.

"After the game he said that he would rather leave the next penalty to Trevor or to Jermain, and since I have been here Christian Dailly has taken two penalties and murdered both of them.

"But there are three or four others who can take a penalty, and we will decide at about a minute to three on Saturday I would have thought!

"Seriously, though, we will talk about it on Friday - it is one of the things we have to talk about, and I will make sure that they go to bed on Friday night knowing which player is going to take the next one."