Wednesday was definitely a disappointing day in the history of West Ham United.

I was playing golf when the news broke and there was 16 missed calls and countless text messages on my mobile phone when I got off the course.

The first text I saw said 'Curbs resigns' and even though there have been rumblings about it for some time, I was initially surprised by the news.

Bilic: Cottee's choice

After that there was a feeling of disappointment because Alan was a genuine West Ham man and I think he's done a very good job at the club in difficult circumstances. It's such a shame it has come to this.

The fact that major transfer decisions have been taken out of his hands was obviously the reason for his resignation. If that's the case it's very disappointing because if you have a manager you should let him manage.

He should have been allowed to buy and sell players and if the club's looking to go in a different direction then it was always going to lead to problems.

I fully sympathise with Curbs and if he feels he's been undermined then I admire him for standing by his principles.

It is the right decision for him because he's got to do what's right for his career and make a call in the circumstances. However, it's not a good decision for the club because I felt he was the right man for the job.

I'd like to wish him all the best for the future because I like him as a man and I think he's done a fine job for West Ham.

Stand

I don't think the transfer situation will put other people off taking the job, providing they know where they stand from the very start.

If they know who is in charge of buying and selling players when they take the job then they can get on with it and work with it.

I don't know what the policy is at the club right now, but whoever goes into the manager's position will want to know exactly where they stand so there can't be any arguments about it later.

The roles have to be clear so that both the manager and club know what is expected.

Harry Redknapp and Slaven Bilic appear to have ruled themselves out already and the media will be full of stories, as always happens when a manager leaves a club.

Personally I would love to see Slaven get the job and I think he's be the right man to take it on. However, I don't think anything's going to happen this side of the Croatia v England game.

We may have to be patient and let Kevin Keen get on with things in the meantime. Fortunately, this has happened during an international break and once that game is out of the way I think we might see things start to unravel.

Attractive

People ask me if the next manager needs to play attractive football to please the West Ham fans, but I feel Alan always wanted to do that. He's a West Ham fan and he knows what the supporters want.

Unfortunately he's been hampered by injuries to key players and that's one of the reason's I feel sorry for him.

I hope that the next manager will be somebody with a West Ham connection. Somebody like Redknapp or Bilic would be ideal because they understand what the supporters want.

But you can only play attractive football if you've got your best players on the pitch and sadly for Curbs he never got to play his best team.

He saved the team from relegation which was so important from both a football and a financial point of view and then he took the team to 10th last year.

It might not have been an exciting season, but it was a huge improvement on the year before and the playing staff is better now than it was when he arrived.

I think he'll be remembered as sombody who did a good job for the football club he loved.

back to top