I WAS interested to hear Sam Allardyce suggest “issues”

with West Ham fans had a bearing on his decision not to sign El-Hadji Diouf.

The controversial former Wanderers striker signed a short-term deal with Doncaster Rovers on Monday after Big Sam had shown him the door.

“Obviously I had to bear in mind the situation at the club with the fans,”

Allardyce said.

“It was sensible to take everything into consideration and the most important thing is we are going pretty well at the moment and there shouldn’t be any distractions.

“The sensible thing to do always is to consider all the possible consequences and then make the decision.

“He’s a good player and he did well for me at Bolton, but I’m aware of the issue with the fans here at West Ham.”

It’s unusual for the former Reebok boss to let public opinion prevent him taking a particular course of action.

So has he gone soft since moving down south?

Not a bit of it. I reckon he didn’t sign Diouf because he discovered he was out of condition.

As he said: “We’ve had a good look at him over the past few days, but because he’s had no real football for some time his conditioning wasn’t good.”

That’s more like it