The knives are out for Hammers boss Alan Curbishley today, especially after such a dismal showing at the City of Manchester Stadium on Sunday. Ironically, the team that beat them now look like they could heap further misery on West Ham by snapping up one of their best players, albeit someone who gets injured rather a lot. [Read the rest of this entry »]
There’s two things to note from this particular news story. Firstly (and most obviously), just how crazy are Sunderland going with their summer spending? Their 2-1 win at White Hart Lane must have been pleasing for manager Roy Keane, especially after many of his new acquisitions played a vital part in ensuring victory, not least Djibril Cisse who scored the winner. [Read the rest of this entry »]
It would be a major surprise if the twenty men currently managing a Premier League team are still in charge by the end of the season. Indeed, it would be something of a shock if only one or two were axed by their respective clubs, with chairmen getting itchy feet after a few bad results these days. But which gaffer will be the first to get the axe next term? The West Ham manager is favourite, but claims not to be bothered in the slightest. [Read the rest of this entry »]
Alan Curbishley appears keen to beef up his goalscoring options for next season, which is understandable when you consider that when you take Dean Ashton out of the equation, last season’s next top scorer only managed four league goals. And hence the latest rumour relating to possible attacking targets.
West Ham are after an attacking £10m rated pair as Curbishley looks to capture Manchester United striker Louis Saha and Bolton winger El-Hadji Diouf. (The Guardian)
Now I think that when he isn’t plagued by injury (which is pretty much all the time at present), Louis Saha is a 15-goal-a-season striker in the Premier League and well worth considering a bid for, especially if the price is right. However I do not see the worth in pursuing Diouf as I can’t see him doing much forWest Ham. What do Hammers think of this pair? Worth buying or better to steer clear?
It looks like West Ham will be as effective as a chocolate teapot against Man Utd atOld Trafford after Hammers gaffer Alan Curbishley claimed that it would be ‘a great injustice’ if Sir Alex’s men didn’t win the title….Hmmm, methinks that West Ham will be crapper than an old sailor’s barnacled arse for this crunch title decider. According to the Daily Mail, Chelsea boss Avram Grant is peeved at Curbishley’s claim that:
‘It would be a great injustice if Manchester United were to lose the Premier League title. I would raise a glass if United win the title. It would be, of course, a toast to Alex Ferguson, the best there is and may ever be.’
So will West Ham drizzle the Champions elect in Champagne when they visit Old Trafford or will they actually put up some semblance of a fight.
And no, we don’t mean Welsh, Swedish or Ghanaian! Alan Curbishley is fed up with his team’s poor league form after they crumbled to a 1-0 home defeat to Portsmouth, who should have really been there for the taking considering Harry Redknapp rested a couple of players and Pompey’s recent FA Cup exertions.
Nevertheless, the Daily Mail has reported that tenth-placed Hammers better shape up if the squad are going to receive any bonuses at the end of the season. Just four points separate them from Spurs and the prospect of missing out on some extra loot, poor lambs.
“This year their bonuses are geared to being in the top 10,” said Curbishley. “They get nothing for not being there. We need to be in that top 10 to take anything from the season.
“I can’t keep complaining about what’s gone on at the club. We’ve fizzled out in games. The opportunities have been there for us to push on, but we haven’t taken them.”
It’s something of a mystery why a top-ten finish should mean so much to any club, apart from the pride at finishing in the upper half of the table. It’s not as if you get to play in Europe, although the higher up the league you finish, the more prize money that’s awarded to the club. Next up for West Ham is a trip to Bolton – will their players be up for it on a cold afternoon up north?
The Hammers are about as mid-table as you can get in the Premier League this season, despite splurging a load of cash on transfers last summer and during the January transfer window. While it’s clear that they have been unfortunate with injuries, perhaps they should have considered that the likes of Craig Bellamy, Scott Parker and Kieron Dyer have always been prone to spells on the sidelines, rather than bleating about it incessantly.
The Times reports that West Ham are planning to largely stick with the squad they’ve got for next season, hoping that the number of players on the treatment table is reduced so that manager Alan Curbishley has a full compliment from which to pick (if he survives until August).
“I think when all our players are fit and we can play Dean Ashton up front with Craig Bellamy or Freddie Sears, when Julien Faubert gets a chance, when we can play Scott Parker and Kieron Dyer in midfield, then we are capable of making the top six, and that is our aim,” chief exec Mike Duxbury said. “I think there will be money for signings, but I am not sure we want to use it.”
“If we bring in big-money signings, then we are not going to see the players who we have already get a chance to show what they can do,” Duxbury said. “What sort of message are we sending out to Sears if we buy another big-money striker? Obviously, we will look to bring in players where we need a bit of cover, but perhaps we will bring in a younger striker and let him learn from the more experienced players.”
It will be interesting to see if West Ham hold true to this policy next January if they’re floundering in the lower reaches of the Premier League. It’s certainly hard to see them achieving their aim of finishing sixth next term, considering the renovation likely to be taking place at White Hart Lane in the summer.
The month of March has been mean to West Ham fans so far. They’ve been on the receiving end of three 4-0 drubbings, albeit against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, three of the best teams in the league. The Independent report that Alan Curbishley is far from a happy bunny, although it’s just as much to do with the way the media are manipulating what he says than the poor performances from his lacklustre team.
“I accept being West Ham manager is high-profile – certainly when you lose three games 4-0, that’s even worse,” Curbishley said. “I talk openly and honestly but it can get twisted and I think it has been twisted in recent weeks.
“I’ve called for one or two people to be realistic, especially the press,” Curbishley said. “I’m not saying I shouldn’t be criticised, let’s not get that wrong, but I’m a West Ham fan so I feel for everybody as much as they feel and I’m desperately trying to do as well as I can.”
He added: “I do think that perhaps there is a little bit of an agenda out there at the moment and it’s directed not just at the team but me personally.”
Surely Curbs has enough experience as a manager to be a bit less sensitive? It’s clear that in this world of fake exclusives and fevered speculation, you often have to take what’s being reported with several pinches of salt. One thing’s for sure, West Ham need a positive result against Blackburn on Saturday which would ward against the perceived ‘media agenda’ continuing, at least in the short-term.
The Guardian reports that West Ham United could sack their manager Alan Curbishley before soon. Three 4-0 defeats to Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur have spurred the conviction that Curbishley is not the right person to take the Hammers to the next level.
The British newspaper quotes a high ranked source at the club as saying:
Curbishley may get until the end of the season, but other candidates are being considered. And he is aware of his situation.
Last season Curbs rescued the Hammers from relegation and last summer there was heavy investment in the club to take it to a higher level. Although for much of the season, West Ham have been in the top half of the table and even now do retain hopes of a UEFA Cup spot, the last couple or so weeks have been hard for the club.
West Ham United manager Alan Curbuishley is lost for words to explain his side’s third successive 4-0 defeat. The Hammers were demolished by Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane in the Premiership on Sunday; they had already lost by the same scoreline to Chelsea last weekend and to Liverpool in midweek.
Curbs laments:
Disastrous. We came into the week knowing we had two Champions League teams and then Spurs, who have picked up considerably in recent months.
So we knew it would be a tough week, but obviously we didn’t expect what has happened to us.
We allowed Berbatov two free headers from two set plays and it’s a long way back from there.
This week has seen our goal difference shot to pieces. It was worth about a point to us and our defensive record was probably the fifth best in the Premier League, but that’s been shot to pieces as well.
Trouble is, the West Ham boardroom is reported to be on the lookout for a new manager since the last three matches have proved (to them at least) that Alan Curbishley wouldn’t be able to take the London club to the next level and may sack him as early as this summer.
Three successive 4-0 defeats in the past one week have shoved West Ham United manager Alan Curbishley into murky waters. Curbishley knows that his job is on the line and has therefore appealed to the West Ham board for more understanding.
Curbishley says:
I think they are realistic about it but we’ll have to see on that score because it’s a results business.
Up until this week we hadn’t been too bad so we’ll have to bounce back.
We’re in football and nothing surprises anybody but I would have thought (they would understand). They are realistic about what has gone on. They get the update every Monday of the injury situation.
Any other team that has had six or seven out every week would find it difficult. You can see the difference in teams with settled sides.
You really have to sympathise with the Hammers boss. Defeats against Chelsea and Liverpool were always guaranteed and although Sunday’s 4-0 demolition at White Hart Lane by Spurs was a bitter pill to swallow, Curbishley has done a good job at Upton Park so far.
A few weeks ago West Ham United were in contention of finishing in the top six of the Premiership and although the Hammers are still in with a chance, the 4-0 hammering by Liverpool in midweek has not gone down too well with a section of the Upton Park hopefuls.
West Ham boss Alan Curbishley though says that the West Ham supporters need to be realistic about their chance and says:
You can’t stop criticism and if West Ham fans are not happy then they let everyone know.
That has been the nature over the years, but I haven’t got to agree with it. Sometimes you have got to be a bit more realistic.
Performances recently have not been what people wanted, but we have never gone out there negative in any game.
I think the criticism of 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 is because people look out there, see one forward, and think it’s negative, but half the Premier League are playing it – that is teams at the top and at the bottom.
On a lot of occasions, certainly since we lost [Craig] Bellamy and [Bobby] Zamora, we have only had one forward left anyway.
So I think you have to take it in context and be a little bit more realistic.
If there is criticism about then we have to take that and change it.
It’s up to us to turn it around so that the fans don’t criticise. The only way we can do that is performances.
However, there are a lot of the fans who are realistic. They have seen the problems we have had – but that still doesn’t stop fans wanting more and we want more.
We have got to get those results now. We can’t just talk about it.
Fair enough for Curbishley since the Hammers have considerably improved since last season when they staved off relegation to the Championship on the last day.
Poor old Alan Curbishley. He must be waking up this morning with nightmares enshrouding him after what his beleagured West Ham United side displayed on Wednesday night against Liverpool in the English Premier League.
The Hammers were hammered 4-0 at Anfield by a rampant Liverpool side for whom Spanish international striker Fernando Torres scored a sensational hat-trick. Hammers boss Curbishley laments:
In the last two games we have played two top,top sides and made no impression against them.
Liverpool deserve their result tonight. We are very disappointed and we have got to pick ourselves up for the next game.
They were too strong, too sharp and better and we have got to get on with it.
We knew it was going to be tought and to let in goals very early it is always going to be very difficult.
We never looked like picking up anything up from the last two games and we have lost our way a little bit.
We weren’t good enough in the last two games and the players need to get back to basics.
We go to Spurs on Sunday and that is another tough game. If we can pick something up there we will be back on track.
West Ham were thrashed 4-0 by Chelsea earlier and now this. The Hammer are actually chasing a UEFA Cup spot but on this sort of performance they deserve to languish in the mediocrity of the mid-table.
West Ham United confront Chelsea in the English Premier League this weekend and Hammers manager Alan Curbishley has also commenced his mind games.
The former Charlton Athletic manager, who took charge of the Upton Park club last season and transformed a relegation candidate to a UEFA Cup hopefuls, says that Chelsea manager Avram Grant faces a tough test from now. He argues that the Blues’ Carling Cup final defeat to Spurs on Sunday has unsettled Grant’s managerial seat at Stamford Bridge and suggests that the pressure will be on Grant when the Hammers face Chelsea.
Curbishley says:
It’s the life we’re in at the moment. Unless you get results and success quickly then you don’t get the same time anymore.
When you get to a high profile club everything you do is going to be looked at – body language, the way you walk onto the pitch, the way you dress, every last detail.
Everything Avram Grant does is going to be analysed and that is something he has to handle. I looked at the cup final and the start was the most important thing and Tottenham made much the better start. If you are lucky enough to be a manager of a top-four club then that comes with the territory.
If it’s not Avram Grant, it’s Rafa Benitez and if Arsenal weren’t doing so well it would be Arsene Wenger.
Being a manager is getting tougher.
That honeymoon period has gone. You even look at someone like Dave Jones at Cardiff who was under pressure and then he turned it around.
I think you get applauded over the top when you win, then you get over castigated when you lose. You have to take it with a pinch of salt.
I’ve never been under too much pressure as a manager, apart from maybe when I was first at Charlton when I wanted to do things and change things.
Even Sir Alex had a period where it wasn’t going so well, but United showed the foresight to stick with it and I don’t know if that is there any more. I managed my last game at Charlton at Old Trafford and I had done 15 years and Alex had done 20 years. I said to him the days of the two managers doing 35 years between them have gone.
Under the guise of speaking about the plight of modern day football managers, Alan Curbishley actually increases the pressure on Grant. The Israeli is already under massive pressure to succeed with Chelsea and Curbishley would be hoping that he buckled under that mounting pressure this weekend.
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