Roeder to talk of anti-racism stand with Bowyer

GLENN ROEDER will sit down with Lee Bowyer this week and discuss the possibility of the controversial midfielder publicly making a stand against racism in football.

If the West Ham manager is smart and all the signs so far suggest his head and heart are in the right place then he will go further and strongly urge his new signing to make peace with the Asian community around the club's Upton Park home.

Bowyer's transfer last week from Leeds to West Ham the club he supported as he was growing up just a few miles away has upset the Asian community, and a handful of protesters demonstrated against his signing before Saturday's 2-2 draw at home to Newcastle. It has nothing to do with football but stems from Bowyer's two highly-publicised court cases. From a purely football point of view, Roeder was 100% right to sign Bowyer and pulled off a major coup in landing the 26-year-old England midfielder for a token fee until the end of the season.