J'Accuse Jeff Vetere

Another Sunday tabloid round-up and another round of spurious rumours. It is the People's turn this week to feature a negative story about the Irons, this time concerning the club being hit with a £7million writ for unpaid fees pertaining to Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. Kia Joorabchian, the man who took the Argentinian stars to Upton Park last season, has launched the lawsuit in the High Court. The People 'understand' Joorabchian has written and taped evidence which will support his claim, which covers insurance and loan fees, plus other services. According to the article, the writ is another 'massive' blow to the Hammers, who are also facing a claim for damages from Sheffield United, who were relegated from the Premier League last term. The Blades launched their own action after the decision by an independent commission to issue a £5.5m fine - instead of a points penalty - against West Ham United for irregularities over the signing of Tevez and Mascherano.

In the same paper, Robert Green has insisted that he will not let his England disappointments get him down. Once again the West Ham United goalkeeper was left out of the international set up after hoping that the situation might change under the new England manager Fabio Capello. After missing out he says he is ready to put his focus on performing at the domestic level. He said: "You can let it get you down if you want to but I know I can not do anything about it so I just try to play the best I can for West Ham United every week. If that is not enough then so be it. There are plenty of people who think that they should be in the England squad and are not. I believe that I am good enough to play for England. The situation is, though, that I have never played a game in the Champions League or in the Uefa Cup. If I could say that I had played 50 Champions League games then maybe the situation would be different but that does not mean I do not have the belief that I can do well for England."

While Green contemplates life in the international wilderness, Matthew Upson has been confirmed in Fabio Capello's final 23-man England squad for next Wednesday's friendly against Switzerland at Wembley Stadium. Speaking to whufc.com about his chances of playing again for England before the squad was confirmed, he said: "That is something that I am desperate to do. All I can keep doing is playing well. I am looking to improve all the time and I am really enjoying being at West Ham. We are playing some good football here. I will keep working at it and see how far it takes me."

Elsewhere, forgotten man Bobby Zamora is on the verge of a return to competitive action, some five months after he last pulled on a claret-and-blue jersey. Zamora has been recovering from a knee injury and will join Craig Bellamy and Julian Faubert in a friendly against QPR on Monday. "We have got an arranged friendly against QPR on Monday. We are hopeful we will get that out of the way and that we are much further forward," Curbishley explained on the club’s website. "I just want Bellamy and Faubert to get through this week and if Zamora can also do that, then he'll be that little bit nearer too. The little chance Bellamy had, he perhaps would have taken if he was 100 per cent right. That is where we are at the moment, I am hoping some fresh legs, some fresh minds will come back into the squad for the long run-in. Some of the players have been playing week in, week out without a break." Curbishley also reiterated that Scott Parker is not too far from a return. "Contrary to stories this week, Scotty Parker is about a month or six weeks away."

Lastly, could this picture finally solve the riddle of one of the enduring mysteries of 2007? It shows (from left) Jeff Vetere alongside new Newcastle United signings Fabio Zamblera and Ole Soderberg with Denis Wise and Tony Jimenez. Now, on June 1st last year a blurred snapshot showing Alan Curbishley in deep conversation with an unknown person appeared on all the major West Ham United forums. Speculation was rife at the time that the man in question was an imminent new signing, although no one could put a name to the face. Some were convinced that the mystery figure was Mikel Arteta, others that it was Joao Moutinho or Harry Kewell. In reality, none of these people quite so perfectly match the man in the original photo quite so well as Jeff Vetere (arrowed). When you then discover, as I did through an article in the Guardian dated a few months ago, that Vetere has definite links to our manager then the pieces fall into place. He was formally at Charlton Athletic where his official role was overseas coordinator although his day-to-day involvement included working with the youth team. Then he followed Curbishley to Upton park in January last year to work as a part-time overseas scout before being lured away by Real Madrid.