Was West Ham manager wrong to sign these players? It seems they contributed to his downfall

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There are an increasing number of Premier League clubs where the board decide which players to sign and the manager just gets on with coaching the team. This has been in evidence at Newcastle since Kevin Keegan took over, while Phil Scolari leaves the bulk of transfer dealings to Peter Kenyon and Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. It also seemed to lead to the resignation of Alan Curbishley at West Ham, although it’s transpired that the board lost confidence in the manager’s ability to sign players.

The BBC today carry the words of agent Kia Joorabchian (remember him?), who has been heavily involved in transfers at West Ham. According to him, Curbs made a number of dodgy signings which convinved the powers-that-be that he couldn’t be trusted in the transfer market.

“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,” added Joorabchian.

“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.”

It was well-known that Curbishley performed admirably at Charlton for several seasons, without having much money to spend at The Valley. Therefore, while he joined West Ham as an experienced manager in most departments, perhaps he was culpable when it came down to the players brought in?

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