PLENTY has been said and written about Bilel Mohsni again this week but for me it’s quite simple and easy — he’s a Southend United player and he will be here at least until the end of the season.

I’ve read how he’s done this and that and how he might be leaving but, as far as I’m concerned, he’s an asset to us and is of benefit to the team and our push for promotion.

There is a conversation to be had between Bilel and myself and then the rest of the players as well.

But over the years in my own career I played with several players who I didn’t personally like but I realised I was part of a team and that’s what mattered most.

We need there to be harmony here and there will be.

All the players need to be up and ready for the challenge ahead and it’s brilliant we’ve again been able to add to the squad this week with the permanent addition of Michael Timlin (pictured top) and the signing of David Martin (pictured right).

Everybody already knows all about the quality Tims brings to the team and I’m also very pleased to have brought in David.

He didn’t play as much as he would’ve liked at Derby and I don’t think the system they played there suited him.

But he showed at Millwall where he did very, very well that he’s a capable player and we want him to run the left hand side for us and excite the fans.

I will continue to look at other areas where I think we can strengthen the team and bring in a certain style of player to boost us. However, I will also have chats to players about them maybe moving on and finding clubs where they will play more regularly.

I’ve always found it’s best to be honest with players and that’s exactly what I will do again in this situation because the essence of football is to be playing on a Saturday.

The new signings give me food for thought for tomorrow’s game with Port Vale and that’s good because we’ve had a problem lately where players have been jumping off the treatment table to play without training.

That means they’re not 100 per cent fit and I think that’s showed.

We cannot have performances like we did against Dagenham and we actually view that draw as if it was a defeat.

We were all disappointed with the result but if you look at the bigger picture and group the festive games together like people do, then it’s not too bad.

I firmly believe had the lights not gone out at Aldershot then we would’ve won and that would’ve seen us take seven points out of nine.

As it stands, we took four from six which still isn’t bad but it would be nice to improve our home form.

We haven’t won in five games at Roots Hall and teams are showing us the respect we’ve earned by sitting back against us.

We’ve struggled to get goals at home but hopefully our new signings can help with that and we can get back to winning ways against Port Vale tomorrow.