Alan Curbishley - Saint or Sinner?

The subject of the current demise of West Ham United FC (and let’s face it, there have been a few over the years) being attributed single-handedly to Alan Curbishley has been done to death and belongs in the realms of The Mysterious World of Arthur C Clarke. But the subject has reared its ugly head again because he [Alan Curbishley, not Arthur Clarke LOL] has quite rightly “and unequivocally” won his court case and subsequent claim for ‘constructive dismissal’.

In a nut shell; the plain truth of the matter is that Alan Pardew ran the West Ham train into the buffers and the demise was worsened catastrophically still further when the clowns Magnusson & Gudmundsson took over without a clue what to do with a premiership football club; they never even really knew what they bought it for in the first place.


When Curbishley came in he had been employed by incompetent bosses with Monopoly money to spend and he was faced with clearing up the Pardew wreckage (a ruin which prompted Magnusson to refer to Pardew as a cancer that needed cutting out) relegation threatened we were too, at the time, and he [AC] was somehow to pull us back from the brink by buying-in for us world class internationals eager to come to a club that was dropping like a stone and heading for the Chumpionship but they were all to miraculously rocket us to stardom & CHAMPIONS league football within five years, that was the plan. Sounds laughable now doesn't it and yet there are still some West Ham fans who believe the 'five year plan' is still in place and on track?

People sight his buys and the money he spent as the reason the club is in the position it is now UTTER 80ll0X – NO F@#K%R wanted to come to this piss poor club (that’s not me that is how others saw us at the time and some still do, let’s be honest) who were heading for league one and beyond unless they were offered stupid money. Lucas Neill is proof of being torn between Champions league football or a relegated West Ham, no contest there then, West Ham of course. Darren Bent saw what was coming and said no to our wooing, the result, every man jack of a West Ham supporter now believes that Bent is a “cee you next Tuesday” because he spurned our advances.

Curbishley like Bent is now a scapegoat, we human beings – especially the West Ham supporter’s variety - need to hook the blame on someone. We always look for them, Ince, Lampard, Defoe, NRC, to an extent even Yossi & Bellamy, the list could go on, Roeder, Macari etc – Tevez is a legend here at West Ham but a scapegoat for the booing Manure fans, we all do it

COLLINS WAS SOLD TO SERVICE THE DEBT ACCUMULATED BECAUSE OF THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE PREVIOUS OWNERS, we all know that but we all want to blame Curbishley now and his compensation award, it’s easier than the alternative. He did what ANY ONE OF US WOULD HAVE DONE when a contract of employment is treated with contempt and used for toilet paper – stood up for his self and refused to be crapped on any more.

I suppose there are a few who would not have done what he did & they would have walked away from the millions they were rightly due, of course they would have. And there are still more that would have whimpered away hurt, feeling sorry for themselves, lain in a corner somewhere, licked their wounds and let the rest of the world pass them by whilst they disappeared into oblivion – GET REAL PEOPLE. Don’t be blinded by your desperate need for a scapegoat.

‘Scapegoating’ is a hostile social - psychological discrediting routine by which people move blame and responsibility away from themselves and towards a target person or group. It is also a practice by which angry feelings and feelings of hostility may be projected, via inappropriate accusation, towards others.