It has taken me a while to really come to terms with what we have experienced from West Ham these past few months. I personally was never Curbishley’s biggest fan, I felt that his methods were out-dated and his tactics misguided. I realise that he was a Hammer, but I never really felt he quite understood us fans. Maybe an odd thing to say, but I think Pardew just ‘got’ us. I was reminded of the home-leg of our first play-off semi-final against Ipswich (the year we failed in the final), Pardew organised the bugle player to play the teams out. He excited the crowd, he drummed up the support and got the team playing attractive football that won us games and got us to three finals.
Pardew understood what we expected from a group of people representing West Ham. I know sometimes he got it wrong and when he finally departed we really wasn’t playing our best football….but he was a young manager and will learn from that. I suppose I expected more from Curbishley being that he was vastly more experienced.
I remember the year that we nearly got relegated and for a period of the season (namely the beginning of Curbishley’s employment) I was left wondering why Carlos Tevez was not on the pitch….we had a world-class striker at our disposal and Curbishley wasn’t playing him. When he did finally play him, our seson began to slowly turn around. So to the people, mainly in the press, who always like to remind us ‘fickle’ West Ham fans that Curbishley has done a brilliant job with us, keeping us up and steering us towards 10th, I like to mention that Curbishley was in no rush to field Tevez and was it not for the fans, I’m not sure he would have done. As for finishing 10th, yes it was a respectable position, but the manner in which we achieved it was not encouraging in the slightest. Had the 10 teams below us been of a better standard (as in the year we did actually go down), I really think we would have been in real trouble.
All in all, based on what I knew about Curbishley as a manager, I didn’t want him. Had I known what is now coming out of the wordwork regarding the board decisions and attitude towards our club, I would have been far more sympathetic to his cause. So Curbisley, I apologise. I apologise for the criticisms you have unduly taken for things that were well out of your control.
My mind hasn’t changed with regard to Curbishley not really being the right man for the job, but the manner in which he continually had his legs swiped from beneath him is unacceptable.
Ambition and Eggs
I have mentioned this before, but I will say it again because I think it holds even truer with what we know now. There is currently a lot of cristicism floating about for Eggert Magnusson, but what is so clear now is that he oozed ambition. Eggert wanted Alan Curbishley and West Ham to succeed, so he parted with his (probably BG’s actually!) cash. The problem unfortunately once again lies with Curbishely…he famously said “I only recommend the players”, as if to try and pass the blame onto the board for the signings of players like Dyer, Ljungberg and Quashie. I’m sorry Curbs but those players that were quite frankly awful signings are solely your responsibility….is there any wonder whatsoever that BG didn’t want to give him anymore money?
What we need really is someone like Eggert to be the face (ha!) of the Icelandic board and fro BG to be responsible for handing out sweets. I don’t think BG would have agreed as readily as Eggert did when Curbishley recommended the signing of Quashie. Raw ambition without control is a dangerous as well, something really dangerous. And too much control without any ambition (the situation we find ourselves in now) is equally devastating.
What we need is a manager who actually has a pair. A manager who has ambition and passion. Someone who will get the very best out of a depleted squad. And a manager who adopts a zero tolerance policy towards the board. Someone who’s first priority is West Ham Football Club.
The team we have currently isn’t actually that bad at all, in fact when fully fit is pretty good (on paper). Any team that includes Ashton, Bellamy, Parker, Upson and Green is off to a good start….get someone in who can motivate and inspire these sort of players to perform to their very best. (Dyer is also a pretty decent player too, we just forget that because we have never seen him play!)
It’s Science
Unfortunately, Curbishley was in the dark ages when it come to Sports Science. It is such a major factor in equipping players for performing to their peak. (I know I am a little biased on this!) What Pardew installed at our club was an ethic for hard work alongside the very latest in Sports Science techniques. How many injuries did we have under Pards? Not many at all. In fact this was the main reason I think that we performed so well in our first year back….a stable team.
Curbishley stepped up and took all that away…it’s a real shame he didn’t know what he was destroying. Look at the impact that had on our injury record. Maybe it is just a massive coincidence, but that does not rub well with me at all.
We need to invest in an extremely high quality team of people who work behind the scenes, preparing players each week. So important.
Biscuits
As for the recent behaviour of BG and the gang….disgraceful. Horrendous treatment of the manager and lying to the fans, two things you really don’t want to do at West Ham. I don’t think much more needs to be said than that, and unless their PR skills dramatically improve, I can just say now that BG you should expect to receive a welcome of ‘David Beckham’ (when he came back from the world cup) proportions. We need to see that you are making steps to employing a manager who can take us to the next level, we need to hear truthful reasons for flogging off some of our valuable assets, It is unacceptable and Curbishley I really do feel sorry for you.
And as ‘Mrs. Curbishley’ said in yesterday’s post, I just hope this isn’t the beginning of a demise for our beautiful club.
The latest situation on Di Canio becomming our next boss is that he has said that he would “love to manage West Ham”. He has the relevant coaching badges but no top flight experience. It’s a very interesting possibility, I personally feel he fits the bill I described earlier pretty well….but lack of experience is a big problem. Hhmmmmm.