Alan Curbishley

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Alan Curbishley
Personal information
Full name	Llewellyn Charles Curbishley
Date of birth	November 8, 1957 (1957-11-08) (age 50)
Place of birth	Forest Gate, East London, England
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	West Ham United (Manager)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1975–1979 1979–1983 1983–1984 1984–1987 1987–1990 1990–1993	West Ham United Birmingham City Aston Villa Charlton Athletic Brighton & Hove Albion Charlton Athletic Total	085 0(5) 130 (11) 036 0(1) 063 0(6) 116 (13) 028 0(0) 458 (36)
National team
1978	England U21	001 0(0)
Teams managed
1991–2006 2006–	Charlton Athletic West Ham United
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Llewellyn Charles 'Alan' Curbishley (born 8 November 1957 in Forest Gate, East London), is a former professional footballer and the manager of West Ham United.^[1].

Contents 1 Background 2 Playing career 2.1 Club career 2.2 International career 3 Management career 3.1 Charlton Athletic 3.2 West Ham United 4 Managerial stats 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Background

Alan Curbishley was born in Forest Gate, London, in 1957, one of a total of five children born to a London docker and his wife. He grew up a mile from West Ham Station.^[2][3] He was educated at South West Ham Technical School.^[2] Curbishley is married^[2] and lives in Abridge, Essex.^[4] He is the younger brother of the rock promoter Bill Curbishley, whose clients include The Who.^[5][6]

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Club career

He began his football playing career with West Ham United, joining them as an apprentice on leaving school in the summer of 1974.^[7] After impressing in West Ham's South East Counties League side and owing to an injury crisis following pre-season training, he was named as substitute against Everton in August 1974 at the age of 16 and became the youngest ever West Ham player to be named on the teamsheet, although he did not play.^[7] He made his first team debut in a 1-0 home defeat against Chelsea in March 1975, coming into the team for Billy Bonds who was out with an injury,^[7] and in the summer, he was a member of the West Ham youth team, alongside Alvin Martin, Geoff Pike, and Paul Brush, that was beaten by Ipswich Town 5-1 on aggregate in the final of the FA Youth Cup.^[7] His first win with the club and first goal came in a 2-1 home win over Newcastle in October 1975, in which he had replaced an injured Trevor Brooking in the starting line.^[7] His arrival in the first team was so impressive that he was given the nickname "Whizz" by team-mate Pat Holland.^[7] He appeared in both legs of the West Ham's European Cup Winners' Cup 3rd round tie against Den Haag in March 1976, aged 18, although he did not play in the semi-final games against Eintracht Frankfurt nor in the final against Anderlecht.^[8] He made two league and cup appearances in 1974-75, 18 appearances in 1975-76, 12 appearances in 1976-77 and 36 appearances in 1977-78,^[8] while competing for a midfield position with Trevor Brooking, Alan Devonshire, Pat Holland, Geoff Pike and Billy Bonds.^[7] After West Ham were relegated at the end of the 1977-78 season, he fell out with manager, John Lyall, and although he made a further 28 appearances for West Ham in 1978-79,^[8] he subsequently transferred to Birmingham City^[2] in April 1979 for a fee of £225,000.^[7] He joined local rivals Aston Villa in 1983 but a change of managers saw him transferred again to Charlton Athletic in the following year.^[2] He began his first period at Charlton Athletic in 1984, moving to Brighton & Hove Albion in 1987. He helped them win promotion to the Second Division as Third Division runners-up in his first season.

He returned to Charlton as player/coach under the management of Lennie Lawrence in 1990 and would stay there for 16 years.

[edit] International career

Curbishley was capped at schoolboy level for England and was a regular in the England youth team.^[2] While at Birmingham City, he won his only England U-21 cap against Switzerland in 1980.^[2] He was selected for the England B squad in 1981 but a fractured kneecap ended his involvement with England.^[2]

[edit] Management career

[edit] Charlton Athletic

When Lawrence left in July 1991, Curbishley became joint manager of the club with Steve Gritt. He took sole command from June 1995 and masterminded the revival of the club's fortunes with two promotions and consolidation into the Premier League.^[9] He gained a reputation for signing good players for low prices, such as John Robinson, Dean Kiely, Mark Kinsella, Chris Powell, Danny Mills, Andy Hunt and Darren Bent and also proved adept at bringing young players through the ranks, such as Lee Bowyer, Richard Rufus, Scott Parker and Paul Konchesky. He celebrated his 600th game in charge of the team with a 1-0 victory at one of his old clubs, Birmingham, in September 2005.^[10]

Curbishley was named by the media as amongst the favourites to succeed Sven-Göran Eriksson when it was announced in January 2006 that Eriksson would step down as England manager after the 2006 FIFA World Cup.^[11] Several British Sunday newspapers reported in March 2006 that Curbishley had been interviewed for the job of England manager by the Football Association. The post however eventually went to Steve McClaren.^[12]

Richard Murray, chairman of Charlton Athletic, announced in April 2006 that Curbishley would leave the club at the end of the 2005/06 season.^[9] Curbishley denied that this had anything to do with being interviewed for the England manager post^[9] and speculation that this was so later proven false when Steve McClaren was announced as England's head coach. Curbishley managed his 729th and final game as manager of Charlton away to Manchester United on 7 May 2006, which Charlton lost 4-0. Overall, he managed 729 games for the Addicks, just one less than the record held by Jimmy Seed.

[edit] West Ham United

After a short spell away from the game, which was augmented by work as a television pundit, Curbishley returned to management in December 2006 when he was appointed as manager of West Ham United.^[13] After looking certain for relegation, Curbishley led West Ham to seven wins out of their last nine games, including a last-day 1-0 win at Manchester United, to keep the West Ham in the Premiership.^[14]

[edit] Managerial stats

As of 17 May 2008.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Charlton Athletic		24 July 1991	8 May 2006	720	274	259	187	38.05
West Ham United		13 December 2006	Present	67	25	28	14	37.31

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Alan Curbishley management career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Charlton Athletic F.C. – Managers Rayner (1920–25) • MacFarlane (1925–28) • Lindon (1928) • MacFarlane (1928–32) • Lindon (1932–33) • Seed (1933–56) • Trotter (1956–61) • Hill (1961–65) • Stokoe (1965–67) • Firmani (1967–70) • Foley (1970–74) • Nelson (1974–80) • Bailey (1980–81) • Mullery (1981–82) • Craggs (1982) • Lawrence (1982–91) • Curbishley and Gritt (1991–95) • Curbishley (1995–2006) • Dowie (2006) • Reed (2006) • Pardew (2006–)

v • d • e West Ham United F.C. – Managers King (1901–32) • Paynter (1932–50) • Fenton (1950–61) • Greenwood (1961–74) • Lyall (1974–1989) • Macari (1989–1990) • Bonds (1990–94) • Redknapp (1994–2001) • Roeder (2001–03) • Pardew (2003–06) • Curbishley (2006–)

v • d • e West Ham United F.C. – current squad 1 Green • 2 Neill • 3 McCartney • 4 Gabbidon • 5 Ferdinand • 6 Upson • 7 Ljungberg • 8 Parker • 9 Ashton • 10 Bellamy • 11 Etherington • 12 Cole • 14 Paintsil • 15 Solano • 16 Noble • 17 Mullins • 18 Spector • 19 Collins • 20 Faubert • 21 Wright • 23 Walker • 25 Zamora • 26 Quashie • 27 Davenport • 29 Bowyer • 30 Tomkins • 32 Dyer • 34 Boa Morte • 35 Štěch • 39 Collison • 40 Sears • Manager: Curbishley