Kick transfers to Curbs

Curbs: Too old school for the new school

Those who know how today’s Premier League clubs are run are turning on Alan Curbishley.

What initially looked like a story of West Ham mucking up and messing with a decent manager is revealing itself as a story of a man out of his depth.

Tactically, the former Charlton man got it wrong. For his beloved Hammers, there was just not enough glamour and too much caution.

But it was the transfer market that was his undoing. He honestly but naively admitted last season that his knowledge of foreign football markets left him unqualified to make decent singings.

At Charlton he had a few Danes but the backbone of his team was homegrown.

So advisors were brought in to Upton Park and Curbishley let go of his grip on how the team he was to build would be shaped.

Uber agent and West ham advisor Kia Joorabchian said Curbishley had made life difficult for himself.

‘The board left it in the hands of someone they assumed was capable, things went wrong,’ he told BBC Sport.

Annoyed at the sale of George McCartney and Anton Ferdinand Curbs for £6m and £8m were, ‘tough numbers to reject’, claims Joorabchian.

The wage bill needed trimming and Curbishley was no longer in control.

Joorabchian said: ‘I think from the day Curbishley entered the club, he made most of the decisions with regard to the incomings of Luis Boa Morte, Nigel Quashie, Dyer and Ljungberg.

‘I wasn't deeply involved at that time but it was pretty clear cut that he was very much involved in those.

‘I think the board realised that there were a lot of mistakes made during that period when Mr Magnusson was in charge.

‘Not to put blame on either of them but the salaries that were being given and the players that were being brought in were probably not the board's idea of taking the club forward.

‘You have to succeed in the transfer window; you have to make sure you have a winning side; and - when you're at a club like West Ham - you have to play good football.’

Curbs failed on all three.

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