Grant vows to fight on

Under-pressure West Ham manager Avram Grant has denied that defeat against fellow strugglers Wigan will effectively seal the Hammers’ fate.

Grant’s side are bottom of the table, five points short of clearing the relegation zone, but he claims that even if they lose and fall further behind, their fight for Premier League survival would be far from over.

The match has been billed by the club’s board as a ‘save our season’ game, but Grant believes the board are simply trying to gain support from fans.

“They are trying in every way to encourage the supporters. I think for me it is not the case,” Grant said.

“This is what is important to me – what happens on the pitch. Not what people have said or not said.”

“We have no intention to give up, because in any situation we have a chance to do it.”

“After 14 games there is a long way. Nobody needs to tell us how important the game is. How people describe it will not change the fact we are playing at home against a good team and we need to do everything to win.””We need to win because that is very important for us. If people say it is save our season or not save our season, for us it is less important.”

West Ham striker Carlton Cole publicly criticised Grant’s tactics in their 3-0 defeat at Liverpool last week, but Grant refused to bite back.

“What I have to say, I will say to the players. I am not dealing with the players through the media.”

“I encourage them to be honest in my office. I have said to my players many times that I’m not going to the Press and say I don’t like the defence because they have conceded a lot of goals or this striker because he has scored only two goals.””So I expect them if they have something to say to say it in my office. I haven’t told them they can’t do interviews for the media, they can do that, but I like it more when they think about what they say.”

Grant also spoke about the recent departure of his former assistant Zeljko Petrovic and denied that that he had been sacked.

The Israeli coach also suggested that any future appointments to the assistant manager role might be foreign.

“I still believe that in every club in England you need one assistant who is a foreigner, because there are a lot of foreign players.”

However, the West Ham manager would not confirm or deny speculation that club legend Paolo Di Canio is being lined up for a backroom role.

“It was a list of many names but I don’t want to speak about one particular, only the people that will come.”

Midfielders Scott Parker and Valon Behrami are expected to return to the starting line-up but Mark Noble has been ruled out for five weeks with a hip injury.