curbishley

[Revo]

remember how he was linked with us? thank **** we never got him. just look at some of the **** he has bought, upson, Luis Boa Morte, Lucas Neill, Calum Davenport, Nigel Quashie and Kepa Blanco and cant find a position for maschareno

[thesilverfoxlfc]

He's a **** manager with limited ideas. I never rated him no ambition. He was just happy to keep Charlton in the Prem and always at the end of the season just gave up and were happy with above the drop zone.

I hope Ice Ham Utd go down

[Bob]

remember how he was linked with us? thank **** we never got him. just look at some of the **** he has bought, upson, Luis Boa Morte, Lucas Neill, Calum Davenport, Nigel Quashie and Kepa Blanco and cant find a position for maschareno

He's a desperate ****er!!!!

'arry was in the same pos. as them last year

... i perdict him to prosper!

[Ron_Mexico]

remember how he was linked with us? thank **** we never got him. just look at some of the **** he has bought, upson, Luis Boa Morte, Lucas Neill, Calum Davenport, Nigel Quashie and Kepa Blanco and cant find a position for maschareno

aye, panic buying **** players that wont make a difference at all

hes so smug i cant stand him, england manager my arse, you know your **** if you lose out to mcclaren

[Red_Polo]

I used to quite respect West Ham but the last year or so that has all changed. I actually really hope they get relegated again and have to flog half their overpriced new players.

[lfc4ever]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8305-2575232,00.html

Don’t cry for the Argentinians. Weep for the insularity of English managers

Martin Samuel

There is a lot riding on Javier Mascherano’s proposed loan transfer to Liverpool; far more than the Premiership career of one player. There is the judgment of Alan Pardew, the reputation of Alan Curbishley, indeed the general ability of what we would style the bread-and-butter English managers to be at home at the high end of the modern game.

For if Mascherano thrives at Anfield, if he holds the midfield, uses the ball with brio, goes the 90-minute distance, as he did for Argentina during the World Cup, and regains his standing as one of the most promising young players from South America, what will that say about us? What will it say when two of our most highly regarded coaches refused to give him as much as a second look?

Mascherano’s failure to make any impression on the first team at West Ham United is a riddle. Had there been rumours of misbehaviour or poor attitude, it would have been explicable; had there been suggestions that he enjoyed the London nightlife or was excessively morose and homesick, no questions would have been asked. Yet whenever inquiries were made into his commitment or mental state, the response was the same. Nice, quiet lad, does his work, goes home, never complains; no trouble at all.

Then the team sheet would go up and in Mascherano’s place in the heart of midfield would be the usual journeymen suspects: Hayden Mullins and, latterly, Nigel Quashie, a player whose arrival at a football club tends to have roughly the same impact as the promotion of John Reid to a government department.

Under Pardew, Mascherano would watch from the bench, undisturbed, and Curbishley’s arrival served to move him even farther down the pecking order. The former Charlton Athletic manager revived the career of Shaun Newton after suspension for using recreational drugs, reintroduced the calamitous Roy Carroll in goal and took Mark Noble back from loan at Ipswich Town. But the 22-year-old who played every minute of every game for what many insist was the best team at the 2006 World Cup? He remained a spectator.

At which point, Rafael Benítez stepped in. And while opinion may be divided about his consistency in the transfer market, as a Champions League winner and Spanish league champion, the Liverpool manager deserves the benefit of the doubt. Benítez clearly thinks that Mascherano is a player, so much so that his club have fought to overturn Fifa rules to make him available this season. As few like to make enemies of those who run the game, this would suggest that Benítez considers Mascherano worth it.

It would also imply something more: that Benítez, who has monitored the player since his early career with River Plate in Argentina, believes that Mascherano’s previous managers in England did him a disservice. If he is proven right and a world-class performer lay wasted in the reserves of a club who were sinking deeper into relegation quicksand because his managers lacked the invention to make use of him, the shortcomings of certain English traditionalists will have been exposed. This is much more than the average transfer deal.

In recent years, without doubt, English managers have had a raw deal from FA Premier League chairmen. In any other country, a coach with the record of Sam Allardyce at Bolton Wanderers would have been headhunted by a leading club by now. As it is, Allardyce’s name is not even mentioned in the shake-up. Through all the speculation about José Mourinho’s future at Chelsea, there has been no hint that his successor would come from these shores.

Yet Allardyce is no different to Benítez or the Seville coach, Juande Ramos, in that before getting a tilt at the big time, their reputations were for overachieving with smaller clubs. But while Spain will give its coaches a break, to earn respect from the biggest clubs in England a manager must be imported.

It does not appear to matter that Allardyce has frequently chosen to work with foreign players of pedigree and has extracted surprising levels of performance from them, plus a fervent commitment to unfashionable Bolton. His career will remain on hold and the glass ceiling for English managers sits above the fifth Premiership place.

Might Allardyce be the exception, though? Looking at the players he buys — Nicolas Anelka, El-Hadji Diouf, Youri Djorkaeff, Iván Campo, Jay-Jay Okocha, Tal Ben Haim, Stelios Giannakopoulos — Allardyce would appear to have an imagination and appetite for the unconventional that sets him apart from many contemporaries. Certainly, the way Pardew and Curbishley handled Mascherano and his compatriot, Carlos Tévez, does not indicate great empathy with a world outside the lower reaches of the Premiership.

Mascherano, in particular, seems to have been harshly neglected. With Pardew in charge, he made his debut on September 14, 2006, in a 1-0 home defeat by Palermo in the Uefa Cup, in which he was the best passer in the West Ham team. He then took his Premiership bow at home to Newcastle United. West Ham lost 2-0 and he was taken off after 67 minutes. The next weekend he played in the 2-0 defeat away to Manchester City, the last time he was on for a whole game.

He featured on four other occasions, twice taken off with 22 minutes to go and twice brought on as a substitute, in the 84th and 86th minutes. He did not feature under Curbishley. In all, Mascherano played 393 minutes of football for West Ham in five months, compared with 510 minutes for Argentina in five matches during the World Cup. Had José Pekerman, the coach, not contrived to knock out his own team with negative substitutions against Germany, he might even have come to England with a winner’s medal.

If there is mitigation for his treatment at Upton Park, it is that he was finding it hard to adapt to the pace and physical demands of English football. Pardew feared this from the start, which is why he gave him his first game against Italian opponents, thinking that the pace would be more familiar to him.

Unfortunately, Palermo were a huge, brutish team, very English in approach, who stole an away goal and shut up shop. Mascherano was still the pick of it for West Ham, but against Manchester City and, most particularly, Newcastle, when he let Scott Parker run off him for much of the match, he did not seem attuned to the domestic game. As he was allowed just one more start from there, he was hardly given much opportunity to learn.

[Ron_Mexico]

i read somewhere that mascheranos transfer fee may have been based appearances, hence his position on the bench. that is hte only thing that could bail out pardew and curbishley. quashie over mascherano? carlton cole and harewood over tevez? buying davenport to shore up the back line? the lad was a waste of space at spurs. now add the mediocre upson to the mix. theyre certain to go down

curbishleys going to be begging for that charlton job after this

[cobain]

He's ****! And it's funny that some pundits call him BIG Alan Curbishley. It looks like everyone can be "big" these days. OK call Rafa Benitez BIG (though I'd like it if he is called "The biggest" or "Empire state building" or sth like that), you can even call Fergie big... But FFS, Alan Curbishley?! What has he won in the past? Beside a lolipop at the county fair...

[jonesie]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...575232,00.html

Nigel Quashie, a player whose arrival at a football club tends to have roughly the same impact as the promotion of John Reid to a government department.

It was ****ing stupid the way Pardew and Curbishley treated Mascherano. I've got a lot of time for Pardew though, he shouldn't have been sacked.

Curbishley is ****. I remember my mate saying that we should get him when Houllier left. I've never let him forget it!

How cloggers like Quashie, Carlton Cole, Harewood, Dailly and Spector get in that team is beyond me. And when you've got geniune world class players like Tevez and Mascherano to pick?

I'm actually a bit gutted we didn't try for Tevez as well.

[Shaggy]

**** Curbishley, he's wildly overrated.

[dww]

How cloggers like Quashie, Carlton Cole, Harewood, Dailly and Spector get in that team is beyond me. And when you've got geniune world class players like Tevez and Mascherano to pick?

I think Quashie is a good signing. He did a very good defensive job for them against us in the first half. Dailly and Spector play because all the other defenders are injured (not to mention the fact that Ferdinand has been **** this season). Harewood was great last season and you can only play the players you have, to be fair Curbs started with Tevez and Cole when he went but Tevez showed a few flashes but produced **** all.

I still suspect there is more to Mascherano not playing than football. But most people would admit he isn't the ideal CM for a relegation fight in the PL.

Curbishley may have had an inflated reputation but he is a very decent manager. He came into a **** situiation at West Ham. He has been reasonably lucky with results around him though. I'm going to predict they will survive.

[Shaggy]

I think Quashie is a good signing. He did a very good defensive job for them against us in the first half.

Quashie did indeed have a bafflingly good first half, but really he’s woeful. Truly woeful.

Somehow he’s become a kind of Red Adair for relegation threatened Premiership clubs ("CALL FOR QUASHIE!") – a bit like Neil Redfearn used to be. He gets relegated almost every season, and I’m sure this year will be no different

[dww]

Quashie did indeed have a bafflingly good first half, but really he’s woeful. Truly woeful.

Somehow he’s become a kind of Red Adair for relegation threatened Premiership clubs ("CALL FOR QUASHIE!") – a bit like Neil Redfearn used to be. He gets relegated almost every season, and I’m sure this year will be no different

At memories of Redfearn.

I still think Quashie while not a great player is decent enough and brings the experience and attitude they need in midfield. There aren't that many obviously talented players who will join a relegation threatened side, so you have to settle for people who can do a job for you. I think at the end of the season he will be seen as a good buy, but he will probably not be in th team next year if they stay up.