I understand that details about bonus payments have also been in the public domain. I’m certainly not going to comment on that — financial details of a player’s contract are between him and the club.

I don’t know where these allegations originated but certainly I wasn’t aware of any of it until it was brought to my attention.”

And the manager repeated he has one aim -helping them to continually improve their performances and results.

 He added: “The boys up front have done well up to now and Diafra has played his part in that. We like his mobility and he weighed in with an important goal at Stoke last Saturday.

The decision to start with Chicharito and Andre Ayew, rather than Diafra, on Tuesday, was based purely on football considerations and nothing else.

We have at least six offensive players who can play up front for us and we need to give them all game time and match practice.”