But, after Frenchman Frederic Kanoute had rescued West Ham’s FA Cup ambitions with an equaliser seven minutes from time to earn the Hammers a replay with a battling 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, Roeder welcomed the fact that the uncertainty would soon be over.

Thursday is the deadline for transfers which would be eligible for the Champions League, which begins again next month, and Roeder said: ‘‘It will end on Thursday one way or the other.

‘‘The last few days have been unsettling for everyone at the club, none more so than for Paolo. It has become a saga.

‘‘I have said all along that it was too difficult to call which way it would go. I’m only guessing about what could hold it up. I don’t think it’s anything to do with money.

‘‘We’ve been kept in the dark since we turned down the official offer three weeks ago and we have had no more official offers.

‘‘We don’t know what’s going on but I feel confident that by Thursday it will be laid to rest one way or another.’’

Kanoute salvaged a fourth round replay when he swivelled expertly to blast a 12-yard shot past Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had given Chelsea the lead with his 20th goal of the season in the 21st minute, a spectacular left-foot curler which arced its way into the West Ham net from the edge of the penalty area.

‘‘Over the 90 minutes I think we were worth a replay,’’ said Roeder. ‘‘It was a rip-roaring second-half but now we have got them back at Upton Park with home advantage we might be able to do it.

‘‘This is not an easy place to come to as we found out last Sunday. We went behind to an excellent Hasselbaink goal. People say he has only got a right foot but he answered that today. His left-foot is more than useful too.’’

Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri, however, was rueing a series of missed chances in a first-half when their superiority should have proved decisive.

‘‘After the first goal we made a lot of chances to close the game but today Chelsea were not very lucky,’’ said Ranieri.

‘‘We had chances with Hasselbaink, Zola, Gudjohnsen and Lampard but that’s football. They only shot at the goal twice and the second time they scored.’’

Ranieri confirmed Hasselbaink, who was substituted in the 75th minute, had a slight leg injury, which he had been carrying for a week.

‘‘We have been playing a lot of games these past two months, once every three days is very hard,’’ said Ranieri.

‘‘Eidur Gudjohnsen also had a little problem today and he hasn’t trained a lot.

‘‘Ideally I wanted him to recover but I decided to put him on for Mikael Forssell to try to close the game.’’