Pardew: back to business

New Hammers boss Alan Pardew has been speaking about his first two days in charge of the club, as he prepares to make his first ever team selection for tomorrow night's visit of Nottingham Forest.

Pardew - who finally succeeded Glenn Roeder in the Upton Park hotseat yesterday, and gave his first press conference this lunchtime at his official 'unveiling' - has been speaking to whufc.com about the task that lies ahead.

And his immediate objective is to take three points against Nottingham Forest at the Boleyn tomorrow night - although Hammers fans are unlikely to see too much 'tweaking' of the squad.

"I don't think we have got personnel to change, to be honest," said Pardew. "We are short of staff.

"Kevin Horlock is still out, which is a problem, Ian Pearce is struggling so he too is doubtful - it is not ideal.

"And we are up against one of the top teams in the division - although they are in a false position at the moment."

Pardew will, of course, start with one player less than predecessor Trevor Brooking after Everton midfielder Niclas Alexandersson chose to return to Merseyside instead of accepting the Hammers' offer to extend his loan deal by another month.

And it leaves the new manager in something of a dilemma over the troublesome right wing berth.

"Niclas dropped a bit of a bomb on us after we had arranged to extend his loan because he wanted to go home for personal reasons," he said. "So suddenly we have lost a player.

"The loan system brings its own problems and we can't rely on it - if we going to rely on getting up using loan players it is going to be hard."

A comment which suggests that Pardew will be looking to make one or two permanent signings soon - and with a warchest thought to be in the region of £2-3m those signings may be happening sooner rather than later.