Lee Bowyer is unlikely to take up Clyde Best's offer of a face to face meeting following his move to West Ham United, the player's agent said yesterday.

Bowyer became the biggest name to switch clubs since the English Premiership transfer window opened at the beginning of the month, leaving Leeds United behind to join the Hammers for an undisclosed fee earlier this week.

The move for the midfield `bad boy' was heavily criticised by former West Ham star Best, one of the first black players to bridge the racial divide in English football when he joined the London club in 1969.

Bowyer and Leeds team-mate Jonathan Woodgate were involved in a highly publicised trial involving an allegation of assault on an Asian student in 2001.

Bowyer was subsequently cleared after a second trial - the first one being declared a mistrial because the student's father gave an interview to a newspaper while the jury was out considering its verdict - and Woodgate was found guilty of affray.

"There is no place for racism in football - and no place for racists," Best told the British tabloid The Daily Mirror, in a veiled reference to Bowyer. "He should have no place at West Ham or in football."

"What happened at Leeds was wrong and everybody in their right mind knows that," Best went on. "I know Bowyer was found not guilty, but he was involved in the incident and fined by the club for his part.

"What happened was horrible and I think he and Jonathan Woodgate should have been suspended longer. Certainly they shouldn't have been allowed to play until the end of the trial, even though it took so long."

Best offered his services to West Ham in light of the transfer saying: "I wish I could sit down with him, talk to him and look him in the eye to see what he really feels.

"He needs to have someone look him in the eye and make sure he's sincere about the statements he's made - that he really doesn't have any malice or bad feelings towards people of colour.

"If he has racist thoughts, then he needs counselling to get rid of them because he would need help.

"I hope he's forgotten the attitudes that got him into trouble and that he has changed. If he has, then he should be allowed to go on and play his football."

Yesterday, Bowyer's agent David Giess told The Royal Gazette that he did not want to add any fuel to the fire.

"I am unlikely to comment on someone like Clyde Best because he was one of my heroes as a youngster," said Giess when initially asked for his response to the article.

However, the agent then went on to politely turn down Best's offer of counselling.

"The player doesn't need crisis management. He just needs the Press to realise that he is not a racist, he is not a thug - he is a very gifted footballer and a winner more than anything," Giess said.

The agent said matters involving his client were "getting completely misconstrued".

"Lee does not need that. He knows what he has got to do," Giess said. "He has been given this by the Press because he is their whipping boy. Just because we don't respond to the challenge they think they can go ahead and put anything in (the newspaper).

"Lee is a very talented footballer, hence the reason there was a lot of interest and is a lot of interest in him."

Bowyer is expected to play his first game for West Ham today when the bottom-of-the-table side face Newcastle United.