WEST HAM BLAME CURBS FOR £13M LJUNGBERG DEBACLE

The chances of Alan Curbishley completing the forthcoming season as West Ham manager have receded further after the Upton Park hierarchy blamed him for the Freddie Ljungberg debacle.

The 31-year-old Swedish midfielder was given a £6m pay-off earlier this week to rip up the remaining two years of his contract and leave the club. Having paid Arsenal £3m for Ljungberg last summer and then paid him in the region of £80,000-a-week, his 25 games for the club came at a cost of nearly £400,00 per match.

How Curbishley must rue his statement at Ljungberg's unveiling last July when he proudly boasted, "We spoke to Freddie over the last week and we tried to sell him the club." Few at the time realised that Curbishley, already the favourite to be the first top-flight manager sacked this season, was speaking literally, but, for the West Ham board, the expensive debacle is no laughing matter.

"It's the manager and his management team who are responsible for paying out the player's salary," complained co-owner Asgeir Fridgeirsson. "It is their judgment about how to use the money they paid to Ljungberg in a wiser way.

"We all have our personal opinion about Freddie and his efforts for this club."