Di Canio blasts 'weak' Hammers Simon Burnton Tuesday October 16, 2001 The Guardian The aftershock from West Ham's 7-1 weekend mauling at the hands of Blackburn Rovers continued yesterday when Paolo di Canio used the club's official website to launch a swinging attack on his team's performance. The Italian has never been known for diplomacy, but even by his standards the holds were particularly unbarred. "You have to look at your face in the mirror and ask if you are a true professional, a true footballer, or the opposite," he said. "I don't want to blame my team-mates but there are players who didn't show their quality and commitment. This is not possible in the Premiership, especially at a glorious team like West Ham. "The manager is intelligent and I think he will now be tougher with the players. Now we have the time to change, but if we carry on this way we will have a big, big problem. We have to commit 100% because only in this way can you get out from our position. "I have played for 16 years at the top level and I run for 90 minutes," he continued. "Some players who haven't shown their quality yet play for 20 or 30 minutes. Either they are not ready for the Premiership or they don't have strong characters. In both cases we have to change. Only if we realise how shit we are can we improve. "Maybe people will say I have to shut my mouth and play better and work hard, but even if I had scored three goals we would still have lost." The only player to avoid Di Canio's wrath was Tomas Repka, the Czech defender who was sent off in the second half. "Repka was the only good player on the pitch for us," he said. "The referee was happy to send him off." The outburst will have done little to ease the mind of West Ham's under-fire manager Glenn Roeder, who yesterday also saw the manager of his first club, Leyton Orient, resign after a run of four consecutive defeats. Tommy Taylor had been at Brisbane Road for five years, reaching two Third Division play-off finals in that time, but has decided to let someone else handle the pressure. "Obviously recent results have not gone well and I thought it was time to bring in a new manager," he said. Taylor blamed his players' attitude for the slump. "A few of them can't hack it when things go wrong. I've said to them that if someone else does come in he'd ship most of them out because they're too young, too small or not giving 100%." The first team coach Paul Brush has been appointed caretaker. Dundee have signed Crystal Palace's Chinese international defender Fan Zhiyi for a fee in the region of £300,000 following talks in China over the weekend. Zhiyi has not played for Palace since August because of his country's World Cup qualifiers, the last of which is scheduled for Friday.