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Alan Curbishley always appeared to be number one target but he was more than happy to stay with Charlton and suddenly the new season was on the horizon with no manager in place. But suddenly the Prince of Darkness, The Sinister One Glenn Roeder appeared out of the shadows and incredibly the man who should have been out of the game altogether found himself as a Premiership manager.
Needless to say they were soon bottom and looked a good bet for relegation but they rallied bringing about a false sense of security and the West Ham board stuck with him for last season. There was to be no respite this time and they were down in the relegation places all season.
They were fortunate to have Sunderland and West Brom around to keep them off bottom place but so bad were they that it took a visit from Blackburn Rovers in late January for them to win their first home game of the season.
With things looking bleak Roeder found himself in hospital seriously ill, and we make no jokes about that and are delighted that he has made a full recovery. By that time, and under the temporary stewardship of Trevor Brooking they almost survived but found themselves in Division One.
Amazingly they stuck with him and allowed him to make changes to his squad as the new season approached. But all was not right and after scoring the winner on the opening day of the season new signing David Connolly blasted Roeder for not playing him from the start.
That appeared to be smoothed over but yesterday they found themselves further embarrassed when they deemed the facilities at Rotherham’s Millmoor to be substandard and insulted their hosts by choosing to change at a hotel. Who the hell do they think they are?
It was all too much even for the inept West Ham board and today they issued a statement revealing that they had sacked Glenn Roeder. The statement says that the board feels that following relegation the club’s best chances of returning to the Premiership at the first attempt would be enhanced by a change of manager.
That being the case it does seem rather strange that this decision was not made some months ago and certainly before preparations were made for the new season.
Today though I’m sure the Sinister One is somewhat disappointed with the verdict but that’s tough because we haven’t forgotten his contribution to Burnley Football Club. We will celebrate and delight in his departure from the game.
Maybe this time it will be for good although we do hear that Paul Gascoigne could be looking for a minder in the United Arab Emirates.