Only two days from the club announced that they were relieving Alan Pardew of his post. They have installed the bookies and fans favourite Alan Curbishley, in the hope that the former hammer can work his magic and change the fortunes of the club.

Curbishley will be joined by Mervyn Day who has been installed as his assistant. Is this going to be another short lived marriage of convenience as West Ham appoint only their 11th manager in their history. Curbishley will hope that he can last just as long in the Hammers hot seat as he did at Charlton. However his new employers have demonstrated their ruthless streak by dumping Pardew one week after giving him their backing.

The new board may have the pipe dream of becoming a ‘big’ club, but at the moment they are far from being the big club that Curbishley had wanted to move to when he resigned from managing Charlton.

He faces one of the worlds biggest clubs for his first game on Sunday when Manchester United travel to Upton Park.