WITCOOP MEETS... ALAN CURBISHLEY
‘I’m big in Albania and you’ll see me a lot in Africa now’
ALAN CURBISHLEY has looked on in envy as British bosses of his generation return to the Premier League dugout.
Sam Allardyce, Alan Pardew and David Moyes – survivors of Curbishley’s time – have, once again, landed top-flight jobs.
But he is resigned to never rejoining them – after stepping off the managerial merry-goround too early.
A little over a decade ago, Curbishley was hot property and was even interviewed by the FA about succeeding SvenGoran Eriksson for the England job.
But since leaving West Ham in 2008, Curbishley has been in the managerial wilderness.
The 60-year- old said: “I think my time may now be up as a manager. I’ve been out for too long and that ship has now sailed.
“The role I see for myself now is perhaps in an advisory capacity or on the coaching side.
“Don’t get me wrong, if a Premier League club wanted to speak to me, I’d jump at the chance.
“I’m realistic and just think that’s a long way off.
“Football moves at such a pace and, with so many foreign owners here, you are quickly forgotten.”
Curbishley’s career might have peaked in the mid-Noughties, but his exile is still hard is fathom.
In 15 years at Charlton, he helped establish the south Londoners as the yardstick for middleranking Premier League clubs bidding to prosper. But it was an ugly end to his troubled two years at boyhood club West Ham.
He won a £2.2million payout, following a court case, but his time out also took him out of the frame for leading jobs.
Curbishley added: “My problem at West Ham took about a year, in the end, to sort out.
“After that, then maybe I was too picky and I was waiting for a job that was the right one for me.
“You need to get back in as soon as possible.
“Even with close to 800 games on your CV, you’re easily forgotten.
“For a while, young coaches were in vogue. “Now, we are seeing Premier League clubs going after the managers who are out of work because they have got experience. I’m looking at it and thinking, ‘If I had left West Ham right now, would I have been in the running for the West Brom or Everton jobs?’. I’d think so.”
Besides a short-lived technical director job at Fulham – before returning in an advisory role – it’s turned into one, long sabbatical for Curbishley.
He said: “I do a lot of TV work and I enjoy it.
“At least I’m quite big in Albania now! And, if you are living in Africa, you’ll certainly see me.”
Alan Curbishley is supporting Prostate Cancer UK’s Football to Amsterdam bike ride on June 1-3, 2018. For information about the biggest ride in football visit www.prostatecanceruk. org/amsterdam