He certainly appears to be the 4th choice striker as far as Harry Redknapp is concerned and now Roman Pavlychenko has decided 4th place isn’t good enough and he wants to leave Tottenham because of his lack of first team chances.

‘No footballer likes being on the bench game after game,’ said the 27-year-old.

‘I could lose my place in the Russian squad for the 2010 World Cup.

‘I’m ready now to listen to offers from other clubs. But I can’t say anything concrete right now.’

I’m not surprised by the fact he wants to move on but I am a little surprised at the timing of his decision. Surely it would have made more sense to try and get a move before the season started and not after just three games and on the eve of a Carling Cup tie he is likely to start against Doncaster.

Pavlyuchenko must have realised he would be spending a significant amount of time on the bench this season, especially after the arrival of Peter Crouch, but he has a chance to impress tonight and put some pressure on the manager. If he didn’t start tonight, then I would have understood a decision of this nature after the game but to come out publicly beforehand makes little sense to me. He would have been far better off waiting until January. It only needs one of our other strikers to pick up an injury, and things could change completely for the Russian.

In other news, West Ham fans have likely ruined our chances of hosting a World Cup in the near future. Some of their comments on my post from Monday speak for themselves but their actions last night were a disgrace. Hopefully they get the punishment they deserve but I can’t think of a punishment severe enough for taking away the 2018 World Cup.

Well done West Ham, I hope you are proud of yourselves.