Alan Devonshire is getting back down to club business after a busy week in the sporting spotlight and also cannot wait to see West Ham United flying again next season.
The club legend, now the manager of ambitious non-league outfit Hampton and Richmond Borough, was the talk of the national press and TV over the weekend with a namesake horse running in the Derby. Devonshire was joined by Ray Winstone and Tony Cottee amongst others at Epsom racecourse as the guest of owner Russell Trew and described having a horse named after him as a "right privilege". Although outsider Alan Devonshire failed to make a sustained impact in the race, Dev the man is still on track in football circles.
He just missed out on guiding Hampton to the Conference - the top tier of non-league football - at the end of last season with the team going down 2-0 to Eastbourne Borough in the 2007/08 play-off final. "I was bitterly disappointed for the team," Devonshire said. "We played really well but missed a few chances and to win games you have got to score." The 52-year-old was also rueful about the referee's failure to award what seemed a certain penalty. "It would have changed the game but at the end of the day they have scored two goals. We just have to take it on the chin and go again next year."
Unbowed by the experience, the former England international has been busy this summer strengthening his squad and is confident the team can compete for automatic promotion next season, claiming "it is looking rosy for the club". He feels similarly about West Ham United, suggesting that all concerned "would have taken tenth place before the start of the season". That said he, along with everyone else connected to the club, expects more next time around. "Now they will try and progress and finish fifth or sixth next season. That will probably be the target."
Devonshire is still a frequent visitor to the Boleyn Ground and has enjoyed seeing more players coming through the academy as he believed the club "needs younger legs in certain areas". As a winger of old though, who made 446 appearances in claret and blue between 1976 and 1990, he naturally expects the key to success though to be the form of flair players like Craig Bellamy and Kieron Dyer. "They need to get the players fit - especially the pace players. Bellamy and Dyer haven't been fit and you need that pace to make a difference in the side. They can make a difference."
* West Ham United will kick off their 2008/09 pre-season programme away to Hampton and Richmond Borough on Thursday 17 July. Click here for more information about the summer schedule.