West ham player bonuses in doubt after portsmouth defeat

By Simon Hayes on April 9, 2008 3:17 PM |

Tagged with:

IT MAY be bonus time in Canary Wharf but West Ham’s players look set to miss out on theirs unless performances start to improve.

Tuesday’s (April 8) 1-0 defeat by Portsmouth was a distinctly flat affair, with a number of players looking more preoccupied with heading to the beach than trying to secure a top-ten Premier League finish.

Manager Alan Curbishley revealed the club’s bonus structure is based on the Irons finishing in the top ten, with the players – and club officials – set to miss out unless they start picking up points soon.

He said: “Everything this year is geared to being in the top ten. There’s nothing for not being there. So for people to think that we’re switched off, that’s wrong. We need to be in that top ten to take anything from the season. That’s why it’s even more disappointing.”

Harry Redknapp’s Portsmouth, fresh from booking a place in next month’s FA Cup final, looked the more inventive side and deservedly took all three points, thanks to Niko Kranjcar’s classy 61st-minute strike.
And for Curbishley it just wasn’t good enough.

“Considering what we’re trying to fight for it was a massive disappointment,” he said. “One or two of them [the players] looked really tired again. It was a flat performance in the second half. We’re very down and disappointed.”

The Hammers stayed in tenth place but their lead over Tottenham is now just four points, and with a tricky run-in, including Manchester United and relegation-haunted Bolton, those bonuses are not guaranteed yet.

“It’s something we’ve got to think about,” said Curbishley. “We’ve got five games left, with a really tough one away from home on Saturday. [Bolton] are fighting for their lives and we’ve obviously got to do better than we did tonight.

“We’ve been [tenth] for the last five weeks and we haven’t won a game. The opportunity has been there for us to push on and we haven’t. Tonight we ran out of one or two ideas.”

West Ham look to be without the services of both Mark Noble and Lucas Neill on Saturday (April 12) as the injury jinx strikes the club again. Noble is struggling with a hamstring problem sustained last week, while skipper Neill picked up a knock against Portsmouth.

But Curbishley said: “I can’t keep complaining about what’s gone on at the club. We’ve just got to get on with it for the next five games.

“We’ve just played two or three games we thought were winnable. We’ve definitely got to win some of our next five games or the season will fizzle out and we’ll end on a downer and that’s the last thing we want to do.”

Ex-Hammers’ boss Redknapp had sympathy for Curbishley, and defended his record in the face the injury problems.

He said: “Alan’s had a lot of injuries this year, it’s been a problem for West Ham. But it’s still a massive improvement on where they were last year. This year they’ve been in the top half all season and without the injuries they’d be higher still, I’m sure.”

simon.hayes@wharf.co.uk