'Moaner' Pardew gets Lee's backing

Alan Pardew's reign as West Ham manager begins in earnest tonight with the visit of Nottingham Forest and veteran midfielder Rob Lee is not expecting everything to be sweetness and light.

Pardew and Lee were Charlton team- mates when the South London team played at Upton Park while The Valley was being rebuilt and Lee said today: "He was a right old moaner. Alan took his football very seriously, still does, and he enjoyed a good moan.

"There's nothing wrong with that though and I'm really looking forward to working with him and for him. The way he turned things around at Reading in the time he had was impressive and now he has a new challenge here.

"If he's as good a manager as he was a moaner as a player, then I'll be well pleased."

Pardew wants to put his own stamp on things and underlined his stance on discipline when he talked about players' timekeeping during his first two days in charge.

"We had problems with players getting in because of the traffic," he said. "We'll have to do something on that disciplinewise. I have to make sure they get in at a time when they can start improving themselves so we aren't waiting for people.

"I'm not against them spending time with their children before they come to work so we may have to opt for a later start time."

Pardew also admitted he needed to get to the bottom of allegations of a rift between Jermain Defoe and David Connolly, the two main strikers.

"The fans want to know if there is a problem so I asked the two players," he said. "They assured me there wasn't. There is some naivety in Jermain's play, certainly, because he's so young and eager to do well, and that can be misconstrued as not passing to David."