ANXIOUS Middlesbrough players last night pleaded with the club to shed more light on the ambitious attempt to bring Terry Venables to the Riverside Stadium.

Only 48 hours before a crucial game against West Ham, Boro's first-team squad were yesterday in the dark over the latest developments in the move to make Venables manager.

They still don't know who they will be playing for in tomorrow's match at Upton Park - Venables or current boss Bryan Robson, who has agreed to step down to first-team coaching duties to accommodate the former England chief.

Last night it looked increasingly likely that it will be Robson who remains in charge as third-bottom Boro desperately seek their first win in nine games in all competitions.

Venables has been involved in drawn-out talks over contractual obligations to ITV and Virgin Radio, which threaten to prevent him taking up Boro's reputed £1.5m-a-year offer.

And the uncertainty surrounding the managerial situation appears to be preying on the minds of Boro's senior pros.

The club's longest-serving player, midfielder Robbie Mustoe, yesterday spoke for his teammates when he admitted: "We know as much as anyone else out there.

"We're looking at the newspapers and teletext like everyone else. We're getting no information from within the club, so it's very frustrating for us.''

Robson, however, maintained that the build-up to tomorrow's game won't be affected by the Venables saga.

"It's not difficult at all for the players to concentrate,'' he said.

"There's a lot of speculation about Terry Venables, but the players are professionals and they'll get on with the job. They get paid to play football.

''There is nothing fresh to report today regarding the negotiations with Terry Venables,'' he admitted. ''There is nothing more we can tell the fans at the moment.

''When there is something concrete we can say, we will say it.''

Meanwhile, striker Hamilton Ricard's Boro career has been thrown into fresh doubt following his sending-off for violent conduct in the Reserves' derby clash with Sunderland on Wednesday night.

Ricard, who has lost his place in the first team after scoring only three goals this season, faces a three-match ban which is scheduled to rule him out of the games against Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool.

The Colombian hitman has already been fined and repeatedly warned by Robson about his lack of discipline.

He was sent off for dissent in a reserve game at Barnsley last season and dismissed again in a pre-season friendly in Spain against Linense for elbowing an opponent.

Now he has stretched Boro's patience to breaking point with his latest misdemeanour and the club could be tempted to cut their losses on their leading scorer of the last two seasons, who arrived from Deportivo Cali in a £2m deal over two-and-a-half years ago.

lBoro midfield duo Noel Whelan and Paul Okon are in contention for the West Ham clash.

Whelan has shaken off a knee injury while Okon, who has been sidelined from senior action at club level for three months after breaking a foot, proved his fitness in the Wear-Tees reserve game