Curbs not worried by Hammers appointment

Alan Curbishley has insisted the proposed appointment of a technical director at West Ham United will have no adverse effect on his position as manager.

The Hammers' board is considering bringing in someone with "a football background" to oversee their potential move away from Upton Park to a new stadium.

And Curbishley, who has been involved in the talks, is confident that any arrangement will not interfere with matters on the pitch and that he will remain in sole charge of transfer activity and team selection.

He said: "We're looking at a new stadium and a new training ground and with everything else going on here the workload will be immense, so it makes sense to bring someone in to oversee the changes.

"I've been filled in and I'm onside with it. We've been talking about it for some months. It's a big club and the structure of it is going to get bigger so we need someone who can spend more time on that than the manager can.

"A lot of clubs have people with different titles but it's the job description, and what we want from the person we bring in, that we're formulating at the moment. We need to push on. We're looking at everything in the club and we need a bit of help with that."

Curbishley added: "Obviously there's a lot of confusion over the role and perhaps other people at other clubs have a different brief. But our brief is someone will come in to oversee the changes that we envisage.

"Arsene Wenger at Arsenal took on board the new stadium and the training ground, but he must have had some help there, and if we're looking to push on we'll need that manpower.

"It will be someone with a football background to oversee what we see as the future of the club. It's not something that will happen above me. I'm whole-heartedly involved in it. (Recruitment) will still be down to me and the scouts."

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