Trevor: Don't Focus On Frank

Trevor Brooking says that the main focus of the penultimate day of the season has to be on the team effort - and not individuals.

Much of the attention is surrounding, as well as the return of Paolo Di Canio to the squad, Frank Lampard coming back to Upton Park in a Chelsea shirt.

He has said his piece, of course, but Trevor says: "Frank will know that ex-players returning have to take it but he has got to be professional as we all do, and I am sure deep down, he wouldn't want West Ham to go out of the Premiership.

"In the situation Chelsea is in, he has got to get his priorities right; we all accept that, and even deep down the fans will, and it is just a case of focusing on the result and not just individual situations like that.

"You are conscious of him and what he can do running from midfield but wherever you look there are those type of players."

What Trevor wants more than anything is for the fans to lift the players from the off, and he adds: "I think more than anything we want the lift from their support and whether we give a few balls away, miss chances, or make a mistake, it is just one of those days where we have to give everything to lift the players to give us that win to take us into the final week, if possible.

"The home form in recent weeks has been much better and it is important they get behind us but I don't think that is an issue really, and I think it will be a terrific day."

The Chelsea game is stage two of Trevor's stewardship on a temporary basis, though he is keen to reiterate the fact that it is a team effort.

"It is really as we were. Glenn had mapped most things out for the run-in of the last few games, so it is really just a case of trying to keep everything in place for the last home game of the season," he says.

"That, in itself, is an occasion, but with us having got the win last Sunday I know the crowd will give us every inch of support that we need.

"It is a tough game and I should think the atmosphere will be special."

As for plans beyond the summer, Trevor says: "It is nice to know you have just got that short period because it does get time consuming. Naturally you want to give as much time as you possibly can to it - but it is also nice to see on that horizon of the three week spell when the last game will be played."

Trevor is keen to thank those who have let him out of appointments - amongst them, the BBC, to whom he is contracted - to become caretaker manager, and he adds: "Because of the circumstances people have been really good, so I could get everything out of the diary to try for this short period of time to concentrate and give us every opportunity to do as well as we can.

"Fortunately, with the progress Glenn is making, we hope to sit down with Paul Aldridge, Roger Cross, and Paul Goddard and get Glenn's thoughts before he needs the surgery.

"At the moment, the progress he has made in the last week has been terrific compared to what we were looking at towards the end of last week.

"So we take each stage gradually, first of all try and get a result against Chelsea - and then see how Glenn is next week."

The main issue is which out of contract players to release and which to make new offers for, and Trevor concludes: "Even in normal circumstances, because of the uncertainty of where we will be it is not easy anyway to give a steer. When next season is sorted out that can happen, and if it had already you could have talked to players - but that is not the case with us."