Robert Green has future at West Ham, insists co-owner David Sullivan

The West Ham United co-owner David Sullivan believes Robert Green has a long-term future at the club and is confident the goalkeeper has the strength of character to recover from the calamitous mistake that gifted the United States an equaliser against England in the World Cup last month. Green has two years remaining on his current deal and there has been speculation for some time that he will leave West Ham after becoming frustrated at the club's failure to reward him with an improved contract to bring him in line with other senior players at Upton Park. Sullivan, however, has insisted that West Ham want to retain Green's services and, subject to the player's form, will open talks in January with him over a new deal. "All the players with two years to go – we will look at them in January, when there is 18 months to go," said Sullivan. "We will see how they're playing and how the club is doing and we'll see what offers we can put to them. "I hope [Robert] does have a long-term future at West Ham. We've got a fantastic new goalkeeping coach [David Coles, who has joined from Portsmouth] who I think will improve him dramatically. You're never too old to learn and I think he'll learn a lot." Sullivan claimed that West Ham's stance would not in any way be influenced by the events at the World Cup, when Green allowed Clint Dempsey's shot to slip through his grasp after Steven Gerrard had given England the lead. "No, [nothing has changed in the wake of the World Cup]," said Sullivan, who has backed Green to recover from the setback. "You judge any player over a season, not one incident in one match. "I'm sure he's got the character [to bounce back from the World Cup] and absolutely he'll get the support from West Ham. I still can't quite work out what happened. The ball probably swerved off the bounce, because that ball did bounce about very strangely, and that's why his body wasn't behind it. It came off at an angle. But that said and done, the whole England team didn't play well. I'm sure you wouldn't buy a single England player on the basis of what went on out there."