Comments on: Magnusson & Curbs: Cracks Beginning to Show?

By: spooli

spooli — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:01:41 +0000

i definately think curbishly is the right manager for west ham. he done a fantastic job at charlton with no cash to spend, and ok some of his signings here have been shit but any manager needs time to get things sorted – curbishleys biggest achievement has been sorting out the baby bently spoied brats (i wont be sorry if anton goes to villa as well – collins and gabbidon are both better).
i am sure curbishley will do the buisness but FFS lets get these players that we want in now! get a good left-back and a top striker and we’re away.
11th or 12th is bar too low to set the bar – nothing wrong with wanting to be challenging for europe, we need a little more killer instinct.

By: ny hammer

ny hammer — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 07:26:59 +0000

in terms of curbishley , i ve never had a ton of faith in him, though as i ve said before, you can t take away from him what he helped accomplish in the last 9 games last season. in terms of this season , i think it s early to be hanging teh sword of damocles over him, although i can undertsand why fans would be irritated by what looks like a possible poor rapport between him and the players. in terms of players , i think bowyer is clearly unacceptable , and in his place belongs mullins. i m not a true believer in upson, but i think on balance he didn t have a bad game , despite people thinking he was to blame for the first goal . i agree that etherington shud get the nod now over boa morte- boa shdu be a sub only now. i wasn t plaeased with zamora at all, as i m sure nobody was , but after one poor performance i m not prepared to write him off, especially with ashton not fully fit. another stinker like that though, and i d strat losing patience with him. collins should play ahead of ferdinand in my view , and painstil shud be on the subs bench , not bowyer.

By: WestHaMod

WestHaMod — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:12:14 +0000

The problem will persist as long as Curbishley remains in place. He’s stand offish & aloof. He has no regard for team direction & wants players that are passive to his instruction. This is great, but not at West Ham. Sometimes spirit is all we have. Curbishley cannot & is unwilling to interact with the team & relies on tactical instruction; which needs sorting out quickly if Man City is to become a teething problem rather than an unfortunate reality.

Mr Curb your Enthusiasm came into chaos & proceeded to ignore it. His refusal to build a team by interacting with the players is going to cost us dear. With a dispassionate manager, you cannot rely on that rare in modern-football unpurchasable quality that West Ham has allways had; heatfelt commitment to the club & a love for the Claret & Blue.

We are going to lose players who have grown up with the club & whose ambition has always been to be here. That passion enthuses & gels the team. It worked very well on a certain short-arsed south american & has always been what we are about.

I’m afraid you can say goodbye to Mark Noble, Callum Davenport, Bobby Zamora, Matthew Etherington, Lee Bowyer (who is slagged off but wanted this so bad he came back twice & for all you goldfish out there played injured to try & keep the team up) & Anton Ferdinand. The only reason I do not include Chris dailly in this list is that he will be leaving by the January window for his own career; he has been a loyal servant to this club.

There are others such as Hayden Mullins who are now despondant at the idea of remaining at this set up.

I think that Paul Koncheskey’s rumblings when Curbishley arrived were sadly prophetic.

To freeze out the likes of Teddy Sheringham purely to demonstrate your authority is bad, to then dissassociate yourself from the daily team interaction is appalling.

Basically I am of the opinion that Alan Curbishley is a spurs fan.

By: MichaelC

MichaelC — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:01:20 +0000

I always thought it difficult to imagine Curbishley’s apparent dour approach appealing to Magnusson who seems to be all about ambition and passion. At Charlton, Curbishley never managed any “big name” players and one wonders how a player such as Ljunberg for instance genuinely feels about life at Chadwell Heath. I agree with a number of comments made here. I think the loss of Benayoun cannot be underestimated because whatever his shortcomings, he did give us something different.

By: hammer

hammer — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:49:33 +0000

Let’s not panic guys. It is only one game. OK the problems in that game were glaring and unacceptable but to be fair to Curbs. he said as much. I for one am glad if Curbs. & Eggert are not in total agreement over players, there’s no point in a manager getting the bullet because he can’t get the chairmans players playing. Players do need to be dropped but the Man.C. game showed we lack quality behind our strongest 11, when our top players are out we are going to struggle. It’s going to take time and a bit of success to build a strong squad. The one thing we do need to do though is get behind the manager and team. Be fair they all dug deep when all seemed lost last season and the future is brighter than it has been for years. Success won’t come overnight but we have waited this long. Come on u IRONS.

By: Plaistow54

Plaistow54 — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:12:35 +0000

As Bob Paisley once said, “Football is not life & death…it is more than that.” Football is 50% ability & 50% what is in your heart or thereabouts. You can be the greatest player in the world but if the desire is not there, you are rubbish. How many lower division clubs have beaten Premier league sides in the F.A. Cup simply because it was in their heart to go out & win. West Ham is a working class area where on the weekends they go to the football to watch their team & come away feeling good for a few hours. After last year & the publicity regarding that certain player, the expectations & the desire to move forward is high. Most people when they buy a lottery ticket dream that they will win it & plan how to spend the money because for a few moments it makes them feel good, like a winner. When they are at the ground & their team is winning they feel like gods. I am neither a psychologist nor a psychic but what i do know is that given 100% effort & will to win, on paper we have a side, as it stands, that should & will win games. Curbs needs to dig deep into that heart of his & find the key to unlocking the passion in the players & the motivation to cream Birmingham so we can all feel like gods again. The season starts at Birmingham. I still believe my ticket will win the lottery.

By: west ham johnny

west ham johnny — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 23:13:29 +0000

brooking you do know best mate, its 1 game lets get behind our club like the great fans we r and if its the same 8-10 games time then lets start the negativaty. look at everton a team with players like carsley, stubbs, hibbert, osman, neville all avarage players yet as a team they played very well tonight and beat the spurms all them players done there job thats all we have to start doin we have the players its up to them to do there jobs and us to do ours and support them. c’mon u rip roarin irons lets show this league we mean business. irons irons irons irons

By: Mike - Hornchurch

Mike - Hornchurch — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:35:22 +0000

Amazing!

Unbelievably we stayed up last season despite all the shananagans that were going on all over the place. I don’t know anyone who gave us even a 1 in 100 chance with 5 games to go! I certainly thought we were done for. And here we are with one game gone and a lot of you seem to be doing a pretty good impersonation of “don’t panic Captain Manering” Dads Army style!

I’m not AC’s biggest fan to say the least but give the man a chance – he has had some gigantic issues to address and its nothing short of a miracle that we are still around!!! So far so good.

Also it must be really tough trying to recruit into our set up at the moment with the PR we have had over the last year – why come to the “jinxed” club – its not the easy answer to wannabe superstars is it?

Don’t forget some of our best seasons have started off badly! Also, not that i am superstitious, the way i figure it we have had so much bad luck over the last 12 months the law of averages say things must get better!

Come on lads – hold steady there!

By: geedoubleu

geedoubleu — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:00:20 +0000

I think you are wrong about Egg and Curbs and I think you are stirring up trouble where there isn’t any.

Egg will be relaistic, 11th or 12th would be great. So far we haven’t spent any extra money we have just replaced players going out.

There seems to be two types of west ham fans. Those living with the fairies that expect world domination and the rest of us normal fans who will be happy to avoid the relegation scrap.

Once we start signing world class players then I will expect pushing for europe, until then 10th would be brilliant.

By: Westhammike

Westhammike — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:13:36 +0000

For me we lack a playmaker and that is the priority. Not really sure if Eidur is the man. Freddie showed glimpses on Saturday but he was blunted out of the game by one of those anonymous new signings. City were difficult to break down – remember Sven’s England teams? When England lost in a meaningful game it was 1-0, never much worse. When England won, with the exception of the 5-1 Germany game, it was typically 1 or 2 nil. However City are not a good side and I think that surprised the players and their heads dropped. Losing Yossi in the summer was in my opinion the biggest blow, alongside Faubert’s injury. We all knew Tev would leave, but we thought Yossi had his head together with us. Curbs should sit down with Freddie and understand where and how he wants to play – first half Saturday we had no width as Freddie kept abandoning the right to sit upfront with Bobby and Bellamy. He did not create at all. At the back Shorey would be good, but lower priority, although we have no reserve left back should McCartney be injured. Finally we have to get Lucas back and find a way of getting Gabbs back – both calm players and remember how well we do with a fit Gabbs, and how badly without?