Varney talks about how Cubs came to leave

 

And this is what we got instead

Richard Cawley is continuing his fascinating interviews with former chief executive Peter Varney.

Varney recalls: 'In terms of Curbs leaving, I had no inkling that was on the cards, at all. I did know that Alan was concerned about having a clause in his contract that was about compensation - and he saw signing that new deal as preventing him from going for any top jobs.

The first I knew about it was sitting in my office a day before the Blackburn game at the end of April 2006. Richard Murray called and asked me to go down to the boardroom. I went down there and Richard said: ‘Alan’s leaving us’.

We had a very close relationship and in some way I felt myself getting emotional. I’d worked with Alan the whole time and we spoke every day. Suddenly just to be told he was leaving was a shock. And it was a done deal: ‘We’ve agreed everything and Alan’s going’.

I said: ‘He can’t just go, after what he’s achieved. The fans have to get the opportunity to thank him. He can’t just go and that is it. That’s not appropriate’. That was my only input to it, really, which led to the announcement being made the following day.

It became clear there had been conversations going on about a new contract but Alan not wanting the clause, which I totally understand. It was so he had options. It wasn’t necessarily a case that he wanted to leave, it wasn’t that at all. But it led to the departure.  It then became a case of ‘where do we go from here?’

It was agreed there would be a series of informal interviews which Richard and I would conduct. Then it would go back, principally, to Bob Whitehand and Derek Chappell, as the main shareholders,

It became clear, and I sort of get it, what a tough act it is to follow - Alan Curbishley. You could be forgiven for thinking ‘is there any upside?’ or that sort of thing. But then again it is a Premier League job. Shortly after that Billy joined Derby County.'

The ultimate answer was, of course, Iain Dowie.  Subscribe to  Richard Cawley’s Substack page to find out how he came to make his move north.

I wasn't able to say goodbye to Curbs myself.   But a few years later (after he had left West Ham) he was sitting next to a colleague at a dinner in London and asked how I was and to be remembered to me.