Pardew urges investment if promoted

Alan Pardew has told the West Ham board to forget their reported £30m (€45m) debt and allow him to sign new players if the club win promotion to the Barclays Premiership.

The Hammers face Preston on Monday in the Coca-Cola Championship play-off final, a match which is as crucial to the Upton Park club off the pitch as it is on it.

They would net about £20m (€30m) if they were to reach the top-flight – and manager Pardew believes the only way to avoid immediate relegation is for the club hierarchy to allow him to spend it on players.

“If we go up I need the maximum of money – and we must not look to finance the debt in any way,” said Pardew.

“Let’s look to do everything we can to survive in that first year. Then we can look to build from there and look at the debt again.”

While Pardew appears bullish about his team’s prospects of beating Preston - who won both matches between the clubs 2-1 during the regular league season - defeat would be extremely worrying for the east London club.

Another season in the Championship – their third in succession – would see West Ham lose the £6m (€9m) parachute payment donated to teams during their first two seasons after relegation from the top flight.

Four of the club’s top earners – Tomas Repka, Don Hutchison, Steve Lomas and Christian Dailly – are virtually certain to leave in the summer, regardless of the division in which the club finds itself.

But failure to win promotion would mean there might have to be more sales to assuage the financial difficulties.

That could see players like winger Matthew Etherington, striker Marlon Harewood, midfielders Nigel Reo-Coker and Mark Noble and defender Elliott Ward all depart.

Such a scenario represents cause for concern and Pardew acknowledged: “I am very much aware of it [the pressure surrounding the Preston game].

“Not only would we miss out on the money that is guaranteed from the TV appearances, but we would also lose the two parachute payments.

“We are still carrying the debt from building a new stand that was meant to be funded by the club staying in the Premiership in 2003.

“Dropping out of the top division meant we still couldn’t find it.

“We have got ourselves in a position where we are almost sustainable in the Championship and I feel we have done a good job of doing that – but we have lost major players.”

Joe Cole, Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe – all England internationals - left West Ham after relegation.

If they are promoted, Pardew will need to improve the quality of his squad, and he warned his players that many of their futures would be in doubt if West Ham beat Preston at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Pardew added: “We are hoping if we win this game and get into the Premiership that we can bring in the players this stage deserves.

“Some who are here will feature, others are going to have to work really hard and others will go away.

“That is the phase we want to move on to.”

Veteran striker Teddy Sheringham has recovered from a hamstring injury, but Bobby Zamora is expected to keep his place up front after scoring three times in the 4-2 aggregate win over Ipswich in the play-off semi-final.