FULHAM must get back to winning ways against Cardiff City at Craven Cottage next weekend.

Being at home we must really attack Cardiff, no disrespect to the visitors but it’s one of those games we must win to get our season back on track.

The squad will want the next game to come along very quickly. The players will be working hard ahead of next weekend to put things right on the pitch.

I feel sorry for any player who leaves a football club. This sport is an opinions game. One man’s opinion - the managers. But that doesn’t mean his right. You’ve two options as a player. You either prove yourself around the squad, or you move to a club where the manager can get the best out of your abilities.

Mladen Petric has left the club recently to join West Ham United. I was told after Kevin Keegan left Fulham that I wasn’t apart of the caretaker managers plans, which really knocks your confidence as a player. However, I decided the best approach was to prove him wrong.

Darren Bent once he starts banging in the goals will go on a real run for Fulham. I would have loved to have played alongside Darren at Fulham. He’s a similar sort of player to Louis Boa Morte, who enjoyed playing on the shoulder and beating people. However, I imagine our partnership would be me as the battering ram creating lots of chances, while he gets in behind and bags the credit and the goals!

England are perfectly poised to qualify for next year’s World Cup in Brazil at the top of Group H ahead of their final qualifiers against Montenegro and Poland.

FA chairman Greg Dyke is right that the proportion of English players in the Premier League must increase. I personally would favour a ratio of 60-40. But it’s unfair to target or blame the foreign players.
Foreign managers are the issue, because they tend to back foreign players. It will be tough to get that change in the top division, because of the lack of British managers. Foreign managers will bring in the players that they known. There are 3,500 British coaches in the country, the solution is to give these coaches a chance that is what we need to do in Britain.

For example Ian Holloway is a man, who would buy British players, play them and not look abroad for foreign recruits. I remember at Plymouth he signed Scott Sinclair on loan and he signed Tom Cleverly on loan when I was at Leicester.

They’re both players, who have proved themselves in the lower leagues, and they’re now making an impact in the Premier League.

Barry Hayles was talking to Lewis Deakin