PETER Reid ignored the hysteria, cut through the clamour and, with an unrivalled knowledge of the man he has known all his working life, predicted that Sam Allardyce was not about to turn his back on El-Hadji Diouf.

"Sam will never give up on players," Reid told the BBC's Match of the Day viewers.

"Sam uses everything and will try as hard as anyone in football to get the best out of him."

Famed for breathing new life into the so-called lost souls of football, Allardyce knew from the start that the 24-year-old Senegal striker presented him with one of his toughest challenges.

He knew the two-time African Player of the Year came with baggage, lots of it. But he could not pass up on a chance to take a £10 million player on loan - especially with Liverpool prepared to pay part of his wages.

They call it taking the rough with the smooth. And that, it appears, is how it has been and probably always will be with El-Hadji Diouf.

Wanderers fans have seen it all - the good, the bad and the downright ugly - and they are divided in their opinions.

And, although Allardyce will defend the player publicly, privately he must be tearing out his hair in frustration.

What does a manager do with a player who, through his undoubted talent, wins you three valuable Premiership points and puts you in the UEFA Cup frame and five days later, through sheer stupidity, gets himself sent off, costs you a place in the FA Cup semi-finals and is banned for the next three games?

More anger management sessions? They tried that after he was banned for three games for spitting in the face of Portsmouth captain, Arjen De Zeeuw.

Allardyce warned him then that, having become public enemy number one, he would face more intimidation than ever from rival fans and players and how it was imperative he kept his cool. But a previous Bolton manager, Stan Anderson, discovered the futility of trying to change the spots of a leopard when he signed Brian Kidd in 1980.

Knowing the former Manchester United European Cup winner's reputation for being hot-headed, he suggested he "Count to 10" when he felt his temper rise.

Kidd took the point but admitted: "I've tried that before but I never get past five." He was never able to mend his ways.

Nor, it appears, will Diouf.

Allardyce offered mitigating evidence to explain why Diouf had reacted as he did when he cuffed Jens Lehmann and cost Wanderers what they felt was a glorious opportunity to knock Arsenal out of the FA Cup on Saturday.

He felt he had been intimidated by the German keeper and that Lehmann had "made a meal of it".

But that was precisely what Diouf, such an obvious target for the wind-up merchants, had been told to expect.

Arsene Wenger reckons he "always plays on the edge" and his players must surely have been aware of that.

Whatever the excuses, Wanderers were already a goal down when Diouf lashed out, costing them any realistic chance of reaching the semi-final.

Allardyce said so, the 10 team-mates he left with an almost impossible task said so and you just wonder whether the supporters who applauded him off the field might, now that the dust has settled, just think again about what one player's recklessness cost them and their club. They will see Diouf again in Bolton colours, of that they can be assured, but they should not expect him to return from his second suspension of the season a reformed character.

"El-Hadji shouldn't have done it," Allardyce said. "As usual he's disappointed but you've got to put up with intimidation that comes your way - particularly him, because he leaves himself wide open to it because people know he reacts if they intimidate him.

"If he was going to push Lehmann away he should have pushed him in the chest and got out of the way, or just turned round, imposed his ability on the game and put the ball in the back of the net, then laughed at Lehmann after that.

"It's very difficult in split second incidents in a game as big as this but, in the end, he's cost us any chance of going through to the next round."

Maybe Allardyce is coming round to thinking it is pointless trying to re-educate Diouf, but, as his old mate Reidy suggested, that does not mean he will turn his back on a player who, before Saturday, had scored seven goals in 21 Bolton appearances.