I’ve come on here this morning for the first time since the Charlton game and as I expected emotion has run high and people have some very strong opinions on what should be done. With this in mind I’d like to bring a little objectivity to the table.

Looking at statistics alone it suggests Curbishley has done little to deserve holding on to a job that has proved a safe seat for most over the last one hundred years. But has he really had a fair crack of the whip? If he were to go; what then? I’m all ears for reasonable suggestions but thus far I’ve only heard ridiculous ramblings of Ranieri/Vialli, El Tel and Super Slaven Bilic. We have to face facts we are now a Championship team and in Curbishley we have a manager who is surely better than the likes of Dennis Wise, Mick McCarthy and Billy Davies. We are not Barcelona – nobody of any kind of calibre is going to take our manager’s job at this particular junction of our illustrious history.

Curbs has inherited a team that were not doing particularly well. Whilst he has done little to improve the situation he has not exactly had optimum conditions in which to do so. In January we looked like we were going to have to field a youth team defence due to the incredible injury crisis we had in our back line. So Curbs and Eggy decide to spend big on proven defenders – Upson, Neill & Davenport. The former two lasted just twenty odd minutes into their debuts whilst the later started off with a bang but now seems the West Ham despair has intoxicated him.

I can almost guarantee those who are now calling for Curbishley’s head were calling for Pardew’s earlier in the season. I stated at the time that my patience with Pardew was running thin but I did not know whether getting rid was the solution or not. I feel I am at a similar junction now but to me there seems to be no back up plan so we have to give the man a chance to do his own thing. Curbishley has done little to endear himself to me. The signings of Boa Morte and Quashie seem blind and rumours of player squabbles and grudges if true seem infantile and suggest an ego beyond his achievements.

The team seem to currently have no idea what to do – maybe that is the manager’s fault. But when Pardew was in charge the team this season looked less than ordinary – does this not suggest that maybe the manager is not to blame? The owners have changed, the manager has changed and still we are playing shite! The only remaining constant are the players and the fans.

Is it our fault? Maybe. Tell me how you think you would work if every time you made a decision in the work place that didn’t have the desired effect, people demanded you were sacked, called you a useless cunt and painted you up in the media as a clown? Managers say the West Ham job is a high pressure job and the demands and expectation of the fans can be a heavy burden – clubs like Charlton & Bolton are teams of equal standing yet their managers do not carry the same demands as we enforce on ours.

Is it the players fault? Definitely! The same group of players who lead us to an FA Cup final last year have been consistently underperforming all season, failing to reach their peak performance and confidence levels we have had the privilege to watch and call our team. Some have become complacent, some outspoken and disrespectful to their peers.

So with relegation now a certainty and many players who have let us down sure to be demanding a transfer in May, it is time for West Ham to get rid of the dead wood and build a new team capable of winning automatic promotion at the first attempt. I think we have little choice but to give Curbishley a season to attempt that role.