The chaos unfolding at Upton Park has been so unrelenting, and the slide towards the Championship so inexorable, that when a player suggests “the only way is up for West Ham” you tend to wonder whether he is deluded or in denial.

Yet that is what defender Lucas Neill tried to claim yesterday after months in which depressing results on the pitch have been accompanied by equally depressing reports off it.

Dressing room unrest, card schools, players breaking curfew - the list of charges is endless, and new owner Eggert Magnusson and manager Alan Curbishley are obviously having to fight tooth and nail to steady the sinking ship. Neill, however, believes the future for West Ham is rosy.

 ”A line has been drawn under everything in the past and the only way is up for West Ham,” he insisted. “The club are very professional and there is no rift in the dressing room. We are very much together and you saw that on Sunday [in the 4-3 loss to Tottenham].”