Irons Rumors

I've decided to keep the GSE up with all the latest gossip effecting the Irons (considering they are our parent club) so here we go:

-West Ham United boss Alan Curbishley will fly to Italy this week to meet Gianluca Nani, who will become technical director in the summer. (Any chance that he'll go to Italy and just stay there?)

Curbishley was part of the selection panel that appointed the general manager of Brescia to the new post. (The reason why the Irons want this guy so bad is because he was meant to be responsible for bringing Marek Hamsik to Brescia from Slovakia. Hamsik, who now plays for Napoli, is now probably the best young player in Serie A. Better than Pato I reckon)

-West Ham United legend Julian Dicks has slammed the club's current players.
The Hammers have suffered three successive 4-0 defeats piling pressure on boss Alan Curbishley.

But Dicks told BBC London 94.9 that the blame lies elsewhere: "I think Alan is the right man for the job.

"These are all professional footballers, they are earning fortunes, but a lot of them are just going through the motions."

Dicks added: "At the end of the day the manager gets the blame which I think that is wrong. It's down to the players, they're the ones out on the pitch.

"Nowadays people give them (managers) eight months or a year and if they don't do anything then they get rid of them which for me is wrong.

-West Ham United are set to land Chelsea midfielder Steve Sidwell at the end of the season.
Sidwell will be shown the door by Chelsea in the summer, says the Mirror, with West Ham eager to take him to Upton Park.

And Finally Allan Curbishly making F365's good week/bad week. Let me guess was it under good week?

Alan Curbishley
Last week's column stated that Tottenham were the only Premier League team with nothing left to play for this season. After their third successive 4-0 defeat in eight days, West Ham can be added to that group of one. They will not be relegated and they will not qualify for Europe. The season still matters to Alan Curbishley as he attempts to cling on to his job but the reality is that it is already too late. And if it isn't, it should be.

A small-time manager even out of his depth at a mid-sized club, Curbishley's narrow limits have been exposed at West Ham. He may have spent £50m in little over a year, but still his ambitions did not stretch beyond stability. Europe, he revealed in August, was the target set by the board instead.

It is frightening as well as staggering that such a limited manager was seriously considered by the FA as they sought Sven-Goran Eriksson's successor. Just as his tactical acumen was summed up by his admission after the draw with Tottenham that "I don't know what he did there" when Juande Ramos switched systems, his powers of inspiration were revealed in full last week. "Whether we win or lose we won't move up or down," are the words that reputedly prompted boardroom realisation that a new manager is required if West Ham are not to drift into mediocrity. Otherwise, as the away support observed at Anfield in midweek, West Ham will continue to look like an overpaid version of Charlton.