West Ham United v Blackburn Rovers - Peter White's big match preview

SOME familiar faces could well come back to haunt Blackburn Rovers against West Ham at Upton Park tomorrow, not least tricky little Portuguese forward Hugo Porfirio.

Remember him?

Porfirio had a short trial period at Ewood in August 1994, playing 50 minutes in a reserve game before being substituted.

And he eventually returned to Sporting Lisbon amid mutterings of not liking Rovers' style of play.

It was, of course, a style which led them to the championship at the end of that particular season.

But it was clearly out of keeping with what Porfirio, now on extended loan to West Ham from Sporting, expected.

Now he is part of the kaleidoscopic Upton Park squad where manager Harry Redknapp must conduct his team talks in Esperanto, such is the depth of foreign imports at the club.

Once a club which leaned heavily on local talent, the Hammers have gone Continental in a big, big way.

Czech keeper Ludek Miklosko has been long-established in the heart of London's East End and he has been joined by colleagues from all over Europe. Romanians Florin Raducioiu and Ilie Dumitrescu stand in one corner, then there's the odd Irish, Welsh and Slav accent, mixed in with the cultured Aussie tones of Stan Lazarides.

And that's just for starters.

Like Porfirio, the Hammers boast another man who could have ended up at Ewood if things had worked out differently.

Giant Danish central defender Marc Rieper was steadfastly tracked during his Brondby days by Rovers who, eventually, decided to look elsewhere, leaving Redknapp to add him to his rapidly-expanding Foreign Legion.

And Rieper repaid Rovers' lack of interest by scoring what could have been a crucial goal against them on the championship run-in.

Redknapp believes he can buy cheaper and equally successfully abroad, rather than in the greatly-inflated doestic market and has had a certain degree of success. Though players like Raducioiu have yet to make a real impact.

The Romanian was clearly grateful to be given the chance to escape from a spell in Spain with Espanol, though he didn't want to talk about it!

"It is the present and the future that is important," he said.

"I am here to score goals and to help West Ham finish as high as possible in the League."

That has yet to happen and, at the moment, there is the new name of Porfirio on everyone's lips.

He made his first appearance at Everton, winning a penalty which Julian Dicks duly tucked away, then set up John Moncur's winner in his home bow against Leicester last Saturday.

In midweek, the supremely skilful player scored his first goal for the Hammers in a runaway Coca-Cola Cup victory over Nottingham Forest to give Redknapp more food for thought.

Porfirio can stay at Upton Park until the end of the season, but the sooner they decide they want to keep him, the lower the price! One regular West Ham observer, commenting on how times had changed, said: "It used to be all East End lads here.

"But, in the last game, there were only three players qualified for England!

"Porfirio has terrific skills and he's a very individual type of player.

"He looked better in the away game at Everton, where he had more room, but he has also done well at home."

The player introduced himself to Hammers fans by setting up Moncur's matchwinner and, via the Upton Park programme, where he exuded confidence, saying: "The game here is very fast. It is also very physical but the contact is legal and is not intended to injure players.

"That is extremely important for players like me who prefer to run with the ball and go into one-on-one situations with defenders. "The atmosphere is good and inspires you to play well.

"I think West Ham have the capacity to win all our games. We have to work on our concentration in certain situations and the results will come."

Unfortunately for Rovers, the timing could hardly be worse, with West Ham and a certain Hugo Porfirio running slap bang into form.

There won't be any Tony Cottee to tease them tomorrow, as he is set to move to Malaysia, but West Ham's Portuguese Man o' War will, hopefully, not have them chasing more shadows.

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