What has provoked Curbishley into leaving West Ham?

The final straw was the sale of George McCartney to Sunderland after Curbishley had been told that no other players would be sold. He was OK with Anton Ferdinand leaving but McCartney's departure effectively left the club with no left back. His relationship with the board had been on-and-off for ages and he was angry that there was no money to spend.

Did Curbishley pay the price for some poor signings in the past?

Diffiicult to know whether it was him or former chairman Eggert Magnusson who sanctioned buying Kieron Dyer, Freddie Ljungberg etc. But it was also the style of football being played that concerned the board. Having 10,000 people booing the manager affects the money generated by the club and for the first time in years West Ham didn't sell their season ticket allocation and had to offer them for general sale.

The writing has been on the wall for a while - last season Curbishley got the dreaded vote of confidence after a succession of 3-0 defeats. To be fair to him he did have a lot of injuries to contend with and never was able to field a full strength team. The board always said they'd wait and see to give him that opportunity to prove himself for nine or ten games this season but obviously have run out of patience.

Is it strange timing given West Ham's bright start to the season?

Points wise it's their best start for nine years but they could have lost against Wigan and Blackburn and were dire against Manchester City. It was very feisty in the press room following the Blackburn game with suggestions that the players and Curbishley had clashed again.

The relationship between Curbishley and the players had deteriorated quite considerably over time - in person he's quite a negative character, unmotivational and seemed unable to get to grips with the size of the club. There were rumours on Saturday that if they had lost he may have been sacked anyway.

Who will replace him?

Slaven Bilic, being a former West Ham player, is the obvious choice, if they can prise him away from Croatia. Knowing the way the Icelandics work they will want to have a detailed look at three or four candidates before making a decision and they had already been scouting around for a replacement last season.

They will want someone who can play the West Ham brand of football, something Curbishley has conspicuously failed to deliver in the last two seasons. He seemed happy to grind out results and was afflicted by small-club syndrome after staying at Charlton for far too long.

Are there parallels with Kevin Keegan's predicament at Newcastle?

Well Newcastle's situation is rather different because Keegan felt undermined by Dennis Wise and Tony Jiminez taking transfer decisions without him whereas Curbishley simply wasn't given the money to spend.

He was very close to Magnusson who acted as a buffer between him and the owners. When Magnusson left in December 2007 that whole dynamic changed, and although he had kept West Ham up the previous season he was very much alone especially after falling out with the players. It would have made more sense to sack Curbishley over the summer and give a new man the money to spend.