Angry Sam tells Diouf — Shape up or you don’t play
4:57pm Tuesday 18th April 2006 in Sport By Gordon Sharrock
From the Bolton Evening News on April 18, 2006
EL-HADJI Diouf will not play for Bolton Wanderers again this season, unless his attitude improves.
Sam Allardyce has got tough with his £4.5 million record signing, telling him he is in no fit state to play Premiership football and warning him that he will not be selected until he shapes up.
Diouf has started just one game since undergoing surgery for a hernia problem in February, when he returned injured from African Nations Cup duty with Senegal.
Although satisfied the former Liverpool striker has recovered from the injury, Allardyce admitted he has concerns over his fitness and has questioned his dedication to training.
"It is a concern," the Reebok boss said. "He's not at the level of fitness we want him to be at and, until he gets to that level, we can't consider him for the first team.
"It's fitness and a slightly poor attitude, at the moment, as far as I am concerned."
Diouf, who made his first Premiership appearance for three months as a late substitute in the 2-1 defeat by Manchester United on April 1, returned to the starting line up at Birmingham three days later, when Wanderers lost 1-0. But he has not featured at all in the squads for the last three games and, after leaving him out at West Brom last night, when the Whites ended a run of five defeats with a scoreless draw, Allardyce revealed his concerns.
"He's not really dedicated himself to the training as hard and as much as he should have done," the manager added.
"So I've decided to pull him out and get him back on his own to do the sort of training he needs to do to get his strength and power and fitness back to compete in games like last night's.
"While technically it wasn't the best, it was ferocious and the effort, commitment, pace and power were all there, and to deal with that you have to be on top of your fitness, and at the moment, El-Hadji is not that."
Wanderers were relieved to end their losing streak at The Hawthorns, but missed a glorious opportunity to move to within three points of sixth-placed Blackburn when Kevin Nolan squandered a simple chance with just seconds remaining.
It was a game of few scoring chances, high in nervous tension but low in entertainment value, with both teams desperate to win but neither able to produce any attacking fluency.
It was a missed opportunity for Wanderers, who were up against an Albion side in deep relegation trouble. But Allardyce believes that with 49 points now on the board and with the four remaining fixtures home to Charlton, Middlesbrough and Birmingham and away to Spurs all "winnable", a UEFA Cup place is still within their capabilities.
He fears, though, that they may need more than the 58 points they qualified with last season.
"We've stopped the run of losses and, hopefully, with three of the four remaining games at home, we can go undefeated to the end of the season," he said.
"They are all winnable games, but it looks like the 58 points that got us into the UEFA Cup last year won't be enough this time. We'll certainly be looking to win all three home games and that might just be enough.
"First, though, we've got to try and get back on track with a win against Charlton on Saturday and the boys will be a little more confident after last night."
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