Roeder faces hardest week of his career

Glenn Roeder proudly and defiantly insists he is not a quitter.

However, by this time next week, he may find he simply has no other choice than to resign from his post as manager of West Ham – unless the board of directors take matters into their own hands and sack him instead.

Roeder is now, quite simply, facing the most important week of his life.

Rock-bottom of the Barclaycard Premiership without a home win in the league all season, and now red-faced following yesterday’s 6-0 hiding at Manchester United in the FA Cup, the Hammers face Blackburn on Wednesday and then Liverpool on Sunday – both at Upton Park.

If they lose both matches, it is hard to see how Roeder will still be in a job on Monday morning.

So far, West Ham fans have been very tolerant of the manager who guided their club to seventh place last season, his first in charge after succeeding Harry Redknapp.

Most of their anger has been vented at chairman Terence Brown and the board, criticising the lack of investment in the team, but the tide began to turn at Old Trafford and will continue if the result goes the wrong way on Wednesday.

Roeder has had to wheel and deal on the cheap this season, but has pulled off two very good signings this month in attracting Lee Bowyer from Leeds and Les Ferdinand from Tottenham – he can only hope they have not arrived too late to save his job.

Apart from those two signings, Roeder has two other factors which may help save his job and, more importantly, keep the club in the top flight.

They are that skipper Paolo di Canio and fellow striker Frederic Kanoute are both due back from injury this week, hopefully for the manager against Blackburn.

However, as much as goals win matches, it is the defence which has caused most of the embarrassment.

A manager’s credentials are often determined by his signings, and Roeder’s are a mixed bag, aside from the two players he has brought in until the end of the season.

David James was a good signing, but has not shown the kind of form which demands he becomes the successor to David Seaman for England.

Gary Breen was one of the outstanding players of the World Cup in the battling Republic of Ireland team, but has so far been surprisingly slow to get to grips with the Premiership.

Tomas Repka is not cut out for English football, and his hot-headed temperament has got him into trouble more often than it is worth, while Laurent Courtois and Vladimir Labant were two other foreign signings who flopped.

Edouard Cisse looks a useful midfielder, although he is not as good as either Joe Cole or Michael Carrick, two players who could probably walk into any other team in the Premiership.

Finally there is Don Hutchison, a solid player who has not yet made a full return from a cruciate ligament injury.

West Ham have too many talented players to be in the position they are in. Apart from Cole and Carrick, Jermain Defoe is a future senior England international, while di Canio has been sorely missed.

Roeder is busy working hard today trying to bring in two new defenders, although he knows he has his work cut out and admitted on Friday he was not as close as he had hoped to pulling off the double swoop.

In any case, they will have to be inspired signings if they are to help save his job and the club’s Premiership status, although with more than 40 points still up for grabs it is not impossible.

West Ham were bottom of the Premiership on Christmas Day, and history tells us that since the new league was formed no club has ever bounced back from that position and avoided relegation by the end of the season.

History also tells us that West Ham change managers on average about once every 12 years. Roeder is an honest and likeable man but, unless his team secures at least four points in the next week, he may become yet another soccer statistic.