Alan Curbishley came through the ranks at West Ham as a player
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Alan Curbishley is best known for his spells in charge of the Addicks and the Hammers during the 1990s and 2000s.
‘Curbs’ as he is known by football fans led Charlton for 15 years between 1991 and 2006 before moving across London to take the West Ham job.
Alan Curbishley was given a lift home by a West Ham legend after his Hammers debut as a teenager
Alan Curbishley battles for the ball whilst representing West Ham in 1977 (Image credit: Getty Images)Curbishley began his playing career at West Ham in the 1970s after finishing runner-up in the 1975 FA Youth Cup.
He represented Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Brighton and Hove Albion and Charlton Athletic before moving into coaching full-time with the Addicks, for whom he earned promotion to the Premier League in 1998 and again in 2000.
Alan Curbishley in charge at The Valley in 2005 (Image credit: Getty Images)Whilst still a teenager, Curbishley rubbed shoulders with some real West Ham greats and the story behind making his Hammers debut is as old-school as it gets.
“When I played my first game for West Ham, I went there on the train, on the Tube,” Curbishley told All Out Football’s ‘In the Mixer’ podcast, produced by Sky Bet. “I lived near West Ham station, so I got the Tube from West Ham to Upton Park, walked down to the ground. I didn’t know I was playing – I’d just been pulled out of the youth team and told to turn up to watch the first team. So, I turned up to watch the first team and ended up starting.
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“They wanted to tell me on the Friday that I was playing. They said, ‘Just turn up and watch the first team’. I still didn’t know I was playing. There was only one sub then. So, I’ve gone in there, sitting there – there were no names on shirts and John Lyall was the manager. He said, ‘Trev [Sir Trevor Brooking] is out so you’re next to Bonzo [Billy Bonds]. I think you’re going to do all right’.”
“Then after the game, I was thinking, ‘How am I going to get home?’ Frank Lampard Snr. said, ‘Wait for me in the players’ bar.’ I didn’t even know where the players’ bar was!
“I went in the players’ bar, and suddenly Bobby Moore was standing there. He was going out for a drink with Frank afterwards – he’d come to watch the game. So, they took me home. Frank drove me to my house in Canning Town, Bobby Moore in the front, I’m sitting in the back – and I was 17, just played my first game.”
Moore had left Upton Park a year earier after almost 650 appearances for the club, while Lampard Snr. had been a regular in the Hammers’ defence for almost a decade.
“Frank said, ‘What are you going to do tonight?’ I said, ‘Watch Match of the Day’. He said, ‘Hold on’, so he went to the boot, got a case of Skol lager, gave it to me and said, ‘Have a drink tonight – you did well today’. So that’s how I made my debut.”
That wasn’t Curbishley’s only run-in with the rich-and-famous of 1970s sporting and entertainment culture, though as Curbs’ brother Bill was manager of iconic British rock band ‘The Who’, as well as Judas Priest, Robert Plant and UB40.
Alan Curbishley’s elder brother Bill, music executive and manager of ‘The Who’ (Image credit: Getty Images)In the summer of 1975, prior to making his West Ham debut, The Who played Charlton’s ground ‘The Valley’ where Curbishley was enlisted by his elder brother as a badge seller.
“I was 16 and was about to join West Ham as an apprentice,” Curbishley said in an interview with The Guardian back in 2005. “Bill, who has been The Who’s manager since 1972, had asked me and my younger brother Paul to go and sell Who badges.
“We had this badge-punching machine and had to keep going back to the room in The Valley where we had left it to make up more badges because there were so many people there.”
Joe joined FourFourTwo as senior digital writer in July 2025 after five years covering Leeds United in the Championship and Premier League. Joe’s ‘Mastermind’ specialist subject is 2000s-era Newcastle United having had a season ticket at St. James’ Park for 10 years before relocating to Leeds and later London. Joe takes a keen interest in youth football, covering PL2, U21 Euros, as well as U20 and U17 World Cups in the past, in addition to hosting the industry-leading football recruitment-focused SCOUTED podcast. He is also one of the lucky few to have ‘hit top bins’ as a contestant on Soccer AM. It wasn’t a shin-roller.
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