Former Charlton and West Ham manager Alan Curbishley hopes to use his experience to help Fulham head coach Rene Meulensteen steer the club to Premier League safety.
Curbishley’s first public comments after his surprise appointment as the new first team technical director at Craven Cottage came on Sky Sports’ Match Choice programme on Saturday night after he had watched his new employers record a valuable away win at Norwich. The 56 year-old has been out of football for five years since resigning as manager of West Ham in September 2008.
He told Sky Sports:
I’m in there to help Rene, who has just taken over from Martin Jol. I think he wanted an older head, someone with a bit of Premier League experience, just to bounce things off off and to talk to about to things. I was asked if I would go in there in and I was delighted to accept.
I’m looking forward to it and we got off to a great start today. I didn’t have much to do with it, but I’ll take a bit of the credit! I was really impressed with the performance – for a team in the bottom three to play with as much confidence as we did was great.
Speaking after Fulham’s 2-1 win at Carrow Road, where Curbishley watched from the directors’ box alongside chief executive Alistair Mackintosh and coach Kit Symons, Meulensteen said:
Alan is going to provide fantastic support with his experience and I’m happy he saw the performance and the team spirit. I hope he can add to it and we have an even better chance of staying in the Premier League.
My main job is to concentrate on training. It’s one of my main strengths. I always say whatever happens on the training pitch will manifest itself in games. Alan is there as a sort of extra opinion, to offer advice on whatever he sees and thinks in relation to strategy and tactics, that sort of thing. I think it’s going to be a good combination.
