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| Alan Curbishley |
Alan Curbishley has been out of work for almost two years now since leaving West Ham, and it's almost eight months since his constructive dismissal case was concluded, so there have been plenty of theories as to why he's been unemployed for so long.
Some point to the fact he isn't brilliant at marketing himself, some feel he has acquired a reputation as a boring mid-table man and others believe that chairmen will be put off hiring a man who has taken his employers to court.
The truth is a lot simpler; he's a picky guy who has been happy to wait for the perfect job to present itself, and now that Roy Hodgson is about to leave Fulham, it looks like he's found it.
Curbs has never worked further north than Birmingham and has spent his 17 years as a manager in London with Charlton and West Ham, and as a family man was never likely to up sticks to somewhere like Hull or Newcastle.
He will view Fulham as a perfect fit - they're a stable club that should provide him with the opportunity to push on into Europe that he expected to find at West Ham, and chairman Mohamed Al-Fayed is likely to provide funds without interfering.
Sven-Goran Eriksson also appears interested but would command a higher wage than Curbishley, while six of the seven bosses Al-Fayed has hired at Craven Cottage have been British.
Spare a thought for Paul Konchesky though. The left back reportedly fell out with Curbishley at Charlton, so was sold to boyhood club West Ham, only for Curbs to turn up and swiftly turf him out.