By: Tom Williams

The match for which Cole was unfit was at home to Sunderland. Severin marked his second start with a goal, but that was the only bright spot in the game, as we went from 2-1 up to 3-2 down after Stimac was sent off. In addition, Freddy Kanoute strained ligaments in his right ankle, and was in the treatment rooms for the best part of a month. This resulted in a promotion to the first team squad for the 17-year-old Finnish international Sjolund. I was still having little luck in the transfer-market. I tried for Stevie Gerrard, one of my favourite players in the modern game, but my offer of ú10m plus Frank Lampard was rejected, as were my bids for Argentinian wonderkids Saviola and Aimar. A dismal performance in my next match, away to Arsenal, resulted in a 3-2 defeat and an extension to my losing streak in the league, which now stood at 4 matches. Before the run began, we were third. Now we were 11th. Our tendency to lose by the odd goal, combined with only two clean sheets in the league, in 9 matches, led me to decide that the defence was the problem. Hislop was performing reasonably well, as were Ferdinand and, ignoring his dismissal, Stimac. The problem was with the two Pearces in the full-back positions. This was where I needed to focus in the transfer market. I placed bids for Tieme Klombe (ú6m) and Mario Melchiot (ú10m). I could only afford one of these, however, unless a club came in for Frank Lampard, who had had several scouts watching him recently. Even then, it would not be prudent to splash out ú16m,  so I had to consider my options. I also had an eye of Olof Mellberg, as a cheaper alternative at right-back.

My League Cup home tie against Second Division Stoke City went smoothly, as we cruised to a 5-0 victory. My next match in the Premier Division was at home to Chelsea, who had rejected my ú10m bid for Mario Melchiot. There was no way that I could offer any more, so I reluctantly gave up on him. Frank Lampard finally moved to Leeds for the same sum that week. Despite Stimac's suspension and Kanoute's injury, we managed to hold on for a 1-1 draw against the League leaders, to end our losing streak However, acting captain Stuart Pearce was sent off late on to add to  my worries at full-back. My bid for Tieme Klombe was also rejected, so I had to once again look elsewhere. I was having very little luck in the transfer market so far - I had sold 8 experienced players for ú20.5m, and bought 2 rookies for almost ú6m. My scouts were working overtime, jetting off all over the world watching dozens of possibilities.

The same depleted team that had drawn with Chelsea beat Aston Villa at home to claim our first league win in almost two months. The brilliant 3-1 win was tempered slightly by Michael Carrick's dismissal for violent behaviour. Although we were only 11th in the League, we were much higher than that in the red cards table. I had indentified my next pair of targets for the full back position - Pablo Paz, of Tenerife, and Ajax Amsterdam's Christian Chivu. However, my first bid for Chivu was rejected and although my bid for Paz was accepted, so were those of numerous big European clubs including Schalke 04, Benfica and my local rivals Chelsea.

Our next match in the League Cup was our hardest cup tie yet. Away to Ipswich, Stimac was serving the final match of his suspension, and Kanoute was still not quite fit for action. Ipswich attacked from the start, and I would have been happy to be going into half-time at 0-0. This was looking likely, thanks to a superb performance by Hislop, until Marcus Stewart headed into the my net with the last touch of the first half. My half-time team talk really shook the team up, and we managed 3 shots on target in the second half, compared to none in the first. Our reward came in the 73rd minute, with Di Canio's equaliser. This took the game into extra time, and with no more goals scored, into penalties. The first penalty, for Ipswich, went over the bar, then Suker scored his to give us the advantage. Both sides scored their next three, with ex-Hammer Scott Minto, Herman Hreidarsson and Richard Naylor scoring for Ipswich, whilst man-of-the-match Hislop, Di Canio and Stuart Pearce scored for West Ham. Stewart, scorer of Ipswich's first goal, stepped up needing to score to avoid defeat. He hit it well, but Hislop pulled off a stunning save to win the tie

Stimac was back for the next match, a League game in the cramped arena of The Dell. However, Stuart Pearce was suspended and Tommy Williams was forced into service down the left-hand side. My tired team still managed to build a commanding 4-1 lead by half-time. We sat back more in the second half, and the match ended 5-2 in our favour. This pushed us back up into 7th place.Once again, a first-team player, this time Carrick, was suspended for my next match. At home to Ipswich in the Premiership, we squandered a 2-0 lead to end up drawing 2-2. Craig Forrest departed to the Turkish side Denizlispor for ú1.4m, leaving me with ú17m to spend. However, with Melchiot not interested, and Ajax steadfgastedly refusing to sell Chivu for any price, I only had an interest in one player, Pablo Paz. The bidding war was still going on, with clubs including Lazio and Porto getting involved.

Our next match was a League visit to Anfield. Once again, my full-backs let me down, as the Liverpool wingers dominated the game, which ended in a 3-1 home win. This game was followed by the League Cup quarter-finals, with West Ham drawn at home to Newcastle. Going into half-time 1-0 down, I decided to replace the exhausted Kanoute with Daniel Sjolund. This gave an extra spark to the team, and resulted in Suker scoring a brace, with the winner set up by Sjolund. Our match at home to relegation-threatened Man City ended in an easy 2-0 victory, despite unconvicing performances by the full-backs. Even the media were beginning to debate Stuart Pearce's ability at this late stage in his career. The rest of my team were winning plaudits right, left and centre, especially Michael Carrick whose form was giving us a real sharpness in attack. A 2-1 win at White Hart Lane brought us back up to 8th in the Premiership, with a game in hand over three of the teams ahead of me. However, we were still not playing as well as we could. My attempts to bring in players were sill failing, with Pablo Paz finally deciding, a month and a half after I first bid for him, that he would move to Barcelona. This left Melchiot and Jaime, of Deportivo, as my two choices for right-back, with Olof Mellberg as a possible, and Silvinho and Klombe as my realistic choices at left-back,as there seemed to be no way that I was going to get Chivu, my number one choice. I was soon forced to give up on Klombe and Silvinho also, so I had to look elsewhere. I focused on a pair of South Americans - Dede and Juan Pablo Sorin. Both were of high quality, but I was a little worried about whether or not Dede would get a work permit.

I also went along to Chelsea to watch the young England international Jon Harley, but decided that I wanted someone with a little more experience at the top level. Sorin fitted the bill perfectly, so I placed a ú5.25m bid. I also placed bids worth ú13m for Melchiot, and ú4.1m for Jaime. Both were accepted. The return match against Leicester wasn't quite as easy as the first match against them, but we got the same number of points as we won 2-1. This put us back up into 5th, with a realistic chance of European qualification. And with the Melchiot deal going ahead, we now had a much more solid defence. All that was required was a left-back. I cancelled the deal for Jaime, as with Melchiot in place there was no need for him. Melchiot made his derbut at Valley Parade. He put in a solid, though not spectacular, performance as a Suker hat-trick gave us a 3-1 win, our fifth victory in a row. His performance in his second match was better, as he set up the opener in a 3-2 win at home to the Magpies. At the half-way point in the season, I was 5th, with a game in hand over Tottenham, who were one point ahead in fourth place. My next game, at home to the bottom side in the Premiership,  Charlton Athletic, was won for me by my midfield, as Carrick set up Keller for the first, who in turn set up Severin for the second. Diawara grabbed a third to push me up ahead of Spurs in the table.

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