The strange case of Alan Curbishley

Alan Curbsihley has resigned his post at Upton park today and the quoted reasons are differences with the Board over transfer policy. I am very surprised at this and wonder if the potential vacancy at Newcastle United might have influenced his decision.

As we know, Curbs is no quitter. He did wonders at the Valley on limited funds and probably stayed too long in the end. His move to West Ham was written in the stars and he acknowledged it was his "dream" move to his local side and the club he grew up supporting and played for. He has been given significant funds to spend since he took charge, and whilst his balancing of the books makes the deficit less than £20m, he has spent over £50m building his dream team.

He saved West Ham from a potentially fatal relegation in his first season with a get-out-of-jail act that surpassed anything he accomplished at the Valley. Strangely, the West Ham faithful didn't give him as much credit for this as you would think, prefering instead to see the Carlos Tevez influence as the decisive factor. Last year was a disappointment for the Hammers who had high expectations of Europe but they were unfortunate with a string of injuries to key players. However, they still finished a creditable 10th from memory.

So this season, with a fuller squad, Curbs has been ready to confound his media critics as well as the growing voices of Hammers fans who have not been content with results or the manner of many of the performances. After winning their opening game they came through a League Cup encounter with Macclesfield where they left it late and then lost away at Man City. During the Macclesfield game the Upton Park faithless sang "sacked in the morning, you're getting sacked in the morning." The mood darkened after the televised defeat at Man City but they bounced back last week with a 4-1 tonking of Blackburn and found themselves fifth with their best start for 9 years.

He was reportedly upset with the sale of Ferdinand and McCartney but he didn't leave the day after in any act of principle, instead staying on for the weekend home win and choosing to announce his move today? He may well have been upset with the sale of Ferdinand and McCartney but he has a big squad and has dealt with situations like these many times. Neither of those players have been able to agree terms for a while and I suspect both were angling for moves in any event. Let's face it, Anton's probably had his greedy brother whispering in his ear for years.

No it just doesn't stack up for me. West Ham's Icelandic owners might be feeling the financial chill back home but they have invested heavily in West Ham and I don't believe the situation is dramatically different now to a year ago, even if budgets have been trimmed. I also don't believe Curbs has got fed-up with the speculation. He has had it over many years at the Valley what with being linked to west Ham, QPR, Birmingham, England etc etc and always remained very calm and spoke in terms of actualities and long term plans.

The only other thing that can have triggered this for me is opportunism and the chance of being available for another PL job at Newcastle. Whether Kevin Keegan has gone or not and whether the Toon Board can survive the storm, I fancy the reasons given by Curbs might only be half the story. Having left a club impatient for success, Newcastle might not be the best choice, but I can't see a better reason for Curbs jumping ship now.