In the latest instalment of our series commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1974/75 FA Cup-winning campaign, we catch-up with former Hammers midfielder ALAN CURBISHLEY, who enjoyed an exciting and eventful first season down West Ham way…
August 1974. School’s out for summer. And having already thrown his blazer to the floor for one last time, 16-year-old Alan Curbishley is about to embark upon a fantastical first campaign of a playing and managerial career that would span more than three decades.
“For a first-year apprentice at West Ham United, I couldn’t have asked for anything more from 1974/75,” smiles Curbs, half-a-century after taking the short jog along the Barking Road from Trinity School to the Boleyn Ground. “As a youngster, I’d always headed to Green Street for Tuesday training on the stadium forecourt and, on Thursdays, Frank Lampard took the coaching at Pretoria Road school.”
The highly-coveted kid nicknamed ‘Whizz’ had long been earmarked to achieve great things in Claret & Blue but the speed at which the associate schoolboy-turned-apprentice came knocking on the first-team door took everyone by surprise down West Ham way.
Just three games into the season, aged 16 years and 289 days, the mercurial midfielder became the youngest-ever Hammer to be named on a first XI team-sheet.
“The first-team were playing Everton at the weekend, while the reserves faced Norwich City and our two South-East counties sides were up against Charlton Athletic and Leyton Orient,” recalls Curbs. “But after Friday’s training at Chadwell Heath, Youth Team manager Ronnie Boyce said: ‘You’re not involved here tomorrow. Just make sure that you’re at Upton Park for one o’clock.’ I thought: ‘That’s unusual?’
“With time on my hands, on Saturday morning I still got the bus to the training ground, where Boycie sprinted over with a face like thunder. ‘What are you doing here?’ he shouted. ‘You’re with the first-team today!’ I’d no idea John Lyall was making me his substitute against Everton (2-3) so got a bus straight back to the Boleyn Ground, where I warmed-up in front of 22,486 supporters who’d never heard of me!
“When the ball rolled into Everton’s half, I jogged across to collect it from their centre-forward, Bob Latchford. I looked up. And up. And up. He was massive. ‘Blimey, this is proper,’ I thought.
“John told me that, if necessary, Billy Bonds and Trevor Brooking would look out for me. I was itching to get on but ended-up disappointed not to play.
“I then travelled to Luton Town (0-0) and Newcastle United (0-2) and only earning £8 per week, the players told me I’d be getting the first-team squad’s £60 bonus for the goalless draw at Kenilworth Road. I spent that sixty-quid several times over but then I got my payslip. Nothing!
“I went to see Ron Greenwood, who explained I was only an apprentice and didn’t qualify under the rules. ‘Leave it with me…’ he promised.
“Like John, Ron was a fantastic coach. ‘We’ll give you the best possible education to become a footballer at West Ham United,’ he’d tell us. ‘And if you don’t make it here, you’ll still become a footballer somewhere else.’
“I’d compare John and Ron to Terry Venables or Bobby Robson – they could’ve coached at a massive European club like Barcelona, all day long,” insists Curbs, who took charge of 71 Hammers matches himself after returning to the Club in December 2006.
Subsequently saving us from relegation during a nail-biting ‘Great Escape’ first season he later departed at the beginning of 2008/09 with his side sitting in fourth.
“The Youth Team all looked up to Boycie, too, and personally, as a former midfielder I think he appreciated what I could do. Equally, I also appreciated what he’d achieved during his career.
“We’d a good bunch of youngsters and, 50 years on, still meet up,” he continues. “Having been involved with the first-team squad so quickly, I think the other apprentices could see a chance to follow me?”
A one-time schoolboy international, too, Curbs was also excelling for England U18s, lining up alongside the likes of future Three Lions, Bryan Robson, Ray Wilkins, Glenn Hoddle and Peter Barnes.
While only 200 or so diehards would congregate along the Chadwell Heath touchlines on Saturday mornings, in the warmer climes of Madrid’s Vincente Calderón Stadium, Alan starred in front of 50,000 people as the young Lions beat Spain (1-0) in the 1975 UEFA European U18 Championship qualifiers.
“I never suffered with nerves and had already played at Wembley for England Schoolboys,” he says. “Big crowds never bothered me. Those names speak for themselves and, with progression, we knew our journey might lead to a full England cap.”
Meanwhile, domestically, the Hammers youngsters were mounting their FA Youth Cup challenge starting with a 3-1 victory at The Valley, where Curbishley would later make 98 appearances as a Charlton Athletic player before managing the Addicks for 729 matches.
After beating both Watford (2-0) and Liverpool (2-0) at Upton Park, Alan came up against England U18s team-mate, Tommy Langley, whose two goals for Chelsea (2-2) forced a Stamford Bridge replay.
Although Langley was on target again, Paul Brush and Geoff Pike replied in a 2-1 victory that secured a two-legged semi-final against Middlesbrough.
Meanwhile, Lyall’s first-teamers had progressed to the FA Cup quarter-finals and Curbishley found himself making the tricky trip to Arsenal with the senior squad.
“I couldn’t believe they got to eat fillet steaks. I certainly tucked into one of those!” he says still drooling over the pre-match cuisine that lined the underdogs’ stomachs ahead of a shock, Alan Taylor-inspired 2-0 victory. “True to his word, Ron had found a way to get me that bonus. Despite being in the squad, I was never playing but with those apprenticeship rules not applying to the FA Cup, I finally got my pay-out!”
The Whizz kid’s senior debut was surely looming and, on Easter Saturday, he duly started against Chelsea (0-1) at Upton Park.
“Played out on a horrible, sandy, end-of-season pitch it wasn’t the best London derby but I was desperate to play for West Ham’s first-team, especially against Tommy Langley,” declares Curbs. “I had great mentors in Frank and Bonzo and it was good that our youth players could now see that pathway into the First XI - that’s exactly what happened with Alvin Martin, ‘Brushy’ and ‘Pikey’, who all broke through, too.
“Nowadays, kids don’t get many first-team call-ups because there’s so much financial pressure in the Premier League to take risks with youngsters. You just can’t afford to lose, say, three matches on the spin.
“As a manager, if I wanted to throw in 19-year-old Mark Noble then I could but times have changed. West Ham won the FA Youth Cup two seasons ago but sadly nobody in that squad has managed to come in and hold down a place. That’s such a shame but it’s the same almost everywhere.
“In 1974/75, we’d a very good youth team and did really well against some decent sides to reach the last-four,” continues the 67-year-old, who was the chief architect as the Claret & Blue colts overcame a semi-final, first-leg deficit at Ayresome Park (0-1) to beat Boro (2-0) on home turf. “I bumped into Bonzo and Trevor on their way to see Ron about negotiating FA Cup final bonuses for the first-team. ‘Sort one out for us lot, too?’ I joked.
“We met Ipswich Town in the final and with Russell Osman, John Wark, David Geddes plus my England U18, team-mate, Keith Bertschin, they were a very good team, too. Losing 1-3 at the Boleyn Ground, we’d already blown it in the first leg and it was all over by the time we headed to Portman Road (0-2) for the return. It was a pity for everyone involved.”
While Curbs and company had fallen at the final hurdle, Lyall’s first-team made it all the way to Wembley, where they famously beat Fulham (2-0) in the FA Cup final.
“Although I was in the squad, the midfield of Trevor, Bonzo and Graham Paddon picked itself,” he concedes. “John’s only decision was whether to start with Patsy Holland and put Bobby Gould on the bench or go the opposite way. If there’d been five substitutes in those days, I might’ve had chances of getting in and getting on, who knows?
“That night, I went to the post-match reception in the West End and then stood with my mates in the crowd for the trophy parade through the East End on the Sunday morning.”
Curbishley’s remarkable campaign was still not Finn-ished and, Switzerland-bound, he helped the nation’s Young Lions to UEFA European U18 Championship glory over Finland (1-0), who fell to Wilkins’ extra-time, golden goal in Bern.
Back on the domestic front, though, a frustrated Alan just could not dislodge Lyall’s tried and tested midfield trident of Brooking, Bonds and Paddon and a cocktail of footballing frustration and inquisitive impatience saw him opt for pastures new in April 1979.
“By now, if John had said two-plus-two equals four, I would’ve argued it was five. Aged 21, I’d played 96 games but still didn’t consider myself a ‘regular’ and just couldn’t see any way in,” sighs Alan, who went on to play for Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Charlton Athletic and Brighton & Hove Albion. “I thought: ‘I’ve got to get out and play.’ I ended up at St Andrew’s enjoying some of the best football of my career under Jim Smith.
“A year later, I had a lovely chat with John at Aberdeen, where Ray Stewart was captaining Scotland U21s against England U21s and I so pleased that we now agreed two-plus-two equalled four.
“Looking back on my time at West Ham, I left too early as a player and too early as a manager,” concludes Curbs. “But, as I say, I couldn’t have asked for anything more from that first 1974/75 season…”
