Looks like the Curbishley to W Ham, Pardew to Charlton story is now gathering storm. Its been mentioned in the Mail this morning, and is being discussed over on the reading site. All I will say is you know where you heard it first
2 great articles in the paper this morning which I'll copy and paste from the Mail's website here,
Firstly "Did he believe the hype" Pardew a millionaire, "changed by success"
When Alan Pardew left West Ham's players scratching their heads before they boarded the team bus to Bolton last Friday, some of the squad began to openly question how much longer he could remain in charge of the club.
They were stunned when he announced before training that the inexperienced left-back George McCartney and rookie defender James Collins would be marking Bolton's muscular strikeforce of El Hadji Diouf and Kevin Davies, their fate was sealed before they even arrived at the Reebok.
With Javier Mashcerano left behind in London with a mysterious ankle injury, their experienced centre half Christian Dailly was told he would be playing alongside captain Nigel Reo-Coker and Hayden Mullins as the holding midfielder.
It was a disaster waiting to happen and after nine defeats on the road, the team rolled over and it made it ten.
All three of Bolton's forwards scored - Diouf, Davies and Anelka - in their 4-0 victory, but some of West Ham's senior players confided in friends that "it could easily have been seven or eight".
The manner of that defeat was certainly alien to a club that rolled their sleeves up, finished ninth in the Premiership and came within a whisker of winning the FA Cup final against Liverpool last year.
Those were the days when Pardew's planning was meticulous, but senior players noticed a change in the manager when they reported back for pre-season training.
Flushed with success, some of the squad felt that he was operating the team by remote control. He earned a basic salary of £1m last season, but that was inflated - along with his ego - to £1.6m after their extraordinary success story.
At the time, the former Reading manager was the man with the midas touch, but when results on the pitch took a turn for the worse, the power struggle in the boardroom provided Pardew with an alibi for their failings on the field.
He was hounded on his mobile phone by their prospective new owner Kia Joorabchian, a man whose disastrous business ventures have already been highlighted in this newspaper, but to his credit, Pardew kept his cool.
After hailing Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez as "world class players" when they signed, he told friends he "wasn't sure if they are for us" within days of their full debuts in the 1-0 defeat against Palermo in the UEFA Cup.
Pardew has undoubtedly missed the injured Dean Ashton, the focal point of his attack last season, but the players must also shoulder some of the blame for his demise.
When the results did not go their way, the backbiting started. The players were upset that Marlon Harewood, the club's leading goalscorer last season, had been forced to make way for Tevez and Mullins, who is the most dependable player at the club, had been axed in favour of Mascherano.
Reo-Coker, the club's captain, threw his shirt at the bench after he was substituted against Liverpool, but Pardew never once carried out his private threat to drop him.
The influential members of the team - captain Nigel Reo-Coker, Anton Ferdinand, Bobby Zamora and Harewood - strongly lobbied assistant manager Peter Grant, who has since left for Norwich, for their return to the team.
After they were beaten 2-0 at home by Newcastle, the players felt Pardew had made the lines of demarcation clear. Some of the players were still squabbling among themselves in the dressing room when the manager walked in and told them to "Shut up and listen to what I have to say".
Pardew told them that he was already a millionaire and didn't need to work, but told the players that they "earned £30,000 a week and were only in it for the money".
He meant that he was only in football because he loved the game, but his comments were misinterpreted and taken by some of the influential players as a sign of arrogance.
A week later, Pardew axed Tevez before their 2-0 defeat at Manchester City and he was clinging on to his job when they lost 2-1 at Chesterfield in the Carling Cup.
After the game, chairman Terrence Brown stormed down to the dressing room and claimed that their performance had been worse than a Sunday pub side, but they staged a mini-revival the following weekend.
Pardew vowed to go back to basics the following weekend against Blackburn and it was Teddy Sheringham, who had waited to patiently for his chance on the sidelines, who inspired their first victory since they beat Charlton on the opening day of the season.
A week later, Pardew appeared to have turned the corner when they beat Arsenal with a last minute winner, but three successive defeats - against Everton, Wigan and Bolton - were the final nails in the coffin.
With new owners to impress, Pardew appeared to have lost his motivational skills with the team and behind the scenes, he was already losing credit with the new chairman Eggert Magnusson.
He explained that the arrival of Tevez and Mascherano had upset the club's rhythm and also told the board that he was disappointed that the previous regime had not backed him in the transfer market in the summer.
Although the move for the Argentinians was done without Pardew's knowledge, he personally sanctioned the transfers on August 31 and he also bought England keeper Robert Green, signed Lee Bowyer from Newcastle and Chelsea striker Carlton Cole during the summer.
Magnusson pledged to make significant investment in the team in the January transfer window, but that will be someone else's responsibility after that battering at Bolton.
The Icelandic business tycoon felt the team had folded and after that, Pardew was finished.
Secondly
"I am impressed with Alan Pardew, even though we haven't had the results we hoped for. I have faith in him. He is an important part of this club moving forward." - Eggert Magnusson, exactly eight days ago. And so the cold blast from Scandinavia arrives just two games later. Two defeats, admittedly, two poor performances, certainly, but does the Egg-head and his mate with the money have any idea what West Ham and their manager have gone through to get here?
West Ham fans are said to be planning a mass demonstration on Sunday. Instead of coming together to join forces and support the team as Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo roll into town, they will once again unite against the board. Bright move, Eggert.
A new board, but another short-sighted, panic-riddled mess. A bright, brilliant manager has been sacked. It's chaos at Upton Park again, the bubbles have burst. The manager who, eventually, restored respect, direction and discipline has been fired.
If Magnusson says one thing and then does the other, how can he be trusted? If bad decisions get their just rewards, West Ham will be playing at Hull next season.
Pardew overcame a vicious, dissenting support who needed to blame someone for the betrayal of their loyalty and the sale of their stars. He restored faith and belief in the club.
His players cannot escape so easily. They will continue on new, fat, long contracts - and it should be noted some were given longer deals than recommended by the manager.
Second Season Syndrome, they call it: Nigel Reo Coker, the over-rated captain, Marlon Harewood, Yossi Benayoun, Anton Ferdinand and Paul Konchesky have all suffered a dose. Only Hayden Mullins, Pardew's first signing, can hold up his head.
A walk around the club and you can see the change since Pardew swept it in. Ice baths have been installed in the changing rooms. This was a club whose players once responded to a change of menu and diet under a previous manager by taking it in turns to sneak around the corner and load up with McDonald's. Pardew's modern methods have been embraced.
It's true, West Ham fans, traditionally suspicious of outsiders, took their time to warm to the new manager. But he stood up for every game, never sat down to hide from the abuse, and used a tight budget to rebuild a team.
Once I was a fierce critic too, until he summoned me to his office for a private chat during the dark days of the Championship. Tape recorder off, cards on the table. We spoke at length about the club, his ambitions, his difficulties. It changed my opinion. I had been too quick to judge - now the new owners have been guilty of a similar act of hasty foolishness.
Pardew reached two play off finals and an FA Cup Final in three seasons and signed players such as Dean Ashton and Danny Gabbidon. The club that sold it's stars were buying them once more. How the club have missed Ashton, injured on England duty before the start of the season.
Then the arrogance kicked in. One player was overheard telling his team-mates: "I should be at Manchester United or Arsenal."
A senior colleague mockingly replied: "Do you know what it takes to play for Manchester United, son? You want to take a look at yourself."
Such has been the growing friction emerging all season. Pardew tried to create more competition for places in the summer. As deadline day approached, he wanted Steed Malbranque, Pascal Chimbonda and James Milner. Instead, he was told he could sign Damien Johnson from Birmingham.
Senior members of the coaching staff were impressed with Pardew's attention to detail when signing a new player. Yet when Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano were forced on the manager by the board and their new mate Kia Joorabchian, he had 12 hours' notice.
Despite their promise and ability, it clearly unsettled a tight group, but the fragile mentality of the players meant it provided them with an excuse to down tools. They still beat Arsenal 1-0 only four games ago and Pardew was ultimately judged by Magnusson in a game when the influential Gabbidon and Ferdinand were both injured.
Pardew never hid from the decline in standards. "I won't disguise it and say we've been unlucky. Yes, there have been two or three good performances but, ultimately, defeat, defeat, defeat, defeat. No goals. No clean sheets. That's where we're at," he told me the last time we met.
Frozen out by the Icemen, he will thaw and return soon, possibly at Charlton. But how will West Ham's new owners be able to handle the good old East End heat that is coming their way?
"...or did arrogant players let him down
I was going to post about W Ham last week, as I thought that unless things changed, W Ham were going down imo, something that I find pretty shocking. There were rumours earlier in the season that he'd become quite cocky and got carried away with last seasons success. This doesnt surprise me, his comments last week between the Wigan and Bolton games just reminded me of his pre match comments before our 2001 playoff final. He was going to "learn from the mistakes of 1995" (when we lost to Bolton at Wembley). Quite frankly we didnt, couldnt hold a lead and the rest is history. Daz makes some excellent points, I'll add some myself.
There were one or 2 other infamous matches as well, but I don't want to sidetrack this thread too much 
