Alan Curbishley is under increasing pressure at West Ham United, with the Croatia coach, Slaven Bilic, understood to be interested in succeeding him at Upton Park should he be sacked. No final decision has been taken on whether to dispense with Curbishley, and he may yet salvage his career with a string of positive results, but there is a growing sense of frustration over what is perceived to be his negative attitude, given the apparent strength of his squad.
Part of the reason for the growing scrutiny over Curbishley is a lack of knowledge of the foreign transfer market. He has himself admitted to a weakness in this area in the past, which helps to explain why West Ham have employed the Italian Gianluca Nani as the club's technical director.
The squad should be enhanced further today with another Nani recruit as West Ham hope to announce the signing of the powerful midfielder Stephen Appiah from Fenerbahce for £5m, although they were last night dealing with late interest from the Ghanaian's former club Juventus. Two more Nani signings are expected before the transfer window closes at midnight on Monday – a striker and a defender – with the leading candidates including Henrik Larsson and Pegguy Luyindula for the attacking role and Gaël Givet in defence. The latter two would be season-long loans with an option to buy.
West Ham believe the arrivals would complete one of the most impressive squads in the Premier League, including a strong spine to the team and several experienced internationals, and would take the number of players with first-team squad numbers to 35. That includes eight young players but, with an accent on youth, all such as Freddie Sears and James Tomkins have bright first-team futures. Despite that there is a hysteria now surrounding the club and fans are chanting that they want Curbishley out while bookmakers have made him the favourite to be the first Premier League manager sacked. Those chants reached a crescendo on Wednesday evening during the Carling Cup encounter with Macclesfield Town.
The League Two club were beaten only after being reduced to 10 men and the tie going into extra time at Upton Park, which was barely a third full for the fixture. After the match Curbishley was in defiant mood, declaring that he had the full backing of the board and said he was "disappointed" over the speculation surrounding his future.
Much of the hysteria has been blamed on Curbishley and his own behaviour – not least the way he handled the £7m departure of Anton Ferdinand to Sunderland, suggesting the sale was beyond his control. However, it appears he accepted that losing the defender, who had turned down the offer of a five-year contract, would not hurt the first team. Beyond that there is the questioning of tactics, his coaching methods and, also, his demeanour. It has been a difficult summer at West Ham which, given that they have appointed Nani, and overhauled their infra-structure should not have been the case. The medical department has been revamped to deal with the chronic injury crisis at the club while plans for a new training ground are progressing. Curbishley, who has one more season after this one on his contract having succeeded Alan Pardew in 2006, would be eligible for a pay-off of around £1m if he is sacked.
If West Ham were to lose against Blackburn Rovers at home tomorrow, and produce another poor performance, then Curbishley's position could become untenable even this early into the season. Curbishley will be relieved to know that Craig Bellamy, who has been the subject of a rebuffed bid by Manchester City, is fit and is expected to partner Dean Ashton in attack which increases the chances of securing a victory. West Ham's next match after tomorrow is away to newly promoted West Bromwich Albion and, at present, Curbishley should be in charge for that game, although the situation is now, according to sources, being reviewed on a match-by-match basis.
West Ham have made no secret that, after the spending spree overseen by the former chairman Eggert Magnusson, and wages he offered to players, they have to be more fiscally aware. The owner and chairman, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, has demanded more financial accountability and a balancing of the books.
If Curbishley is sacked, Bilic would be the outstanding candidate to replace him, although West Ham would undoubtedly consider other options as they search for a more charismatic, dynamic manager. According to sources in Croatia, the 39-year-old is closely following developments at West Ham and would want to take the job if it was offered to him even though, before this summer's European Championship, he signed a new two-year deal to coach his country for the World Cup campaign.
There are, however, believed to be get-out clauses in his contract and the compensation payable to the Croatian Football Association would be minimal for the former defender, who became a cult hero at West Ham even though he only made 48 appearances, in 1996-97, before joining Everton. Bilic insisted, however, that he did not move before West Ham were safe from relegation.
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