Totally agree with the Parker comments, that deal alone was the beginning of the end
Murphy throwing a strop and then Smertin being sold to the Russians without being able to replace him which broke up Curbs midfield think that was the final straw for him, I don't think he had the enthusiasm to do it all over yet again though I do think if Murray had kept Curbs on for that final season we would have still struggled it was a tough Premier League that year possibly the toughest ever but we would have stayed up and would have still been there today I have no doubt.
The problem with Murray was Curbs was running the club top to bottom all Murray and the board did was turn up and organise community events and I think Murray wanted to 'enjoy' the Premiership more ie have more of a say in running things hence allowing Curbs to leave early.
I also think the board didn't aim high enough for a new manager, some might say we are a small club or we're at our level but we were a mid-table Premier League London club which was usually pushing for Europe until our usual end of season slumps (heavy home defeats to the likes of Leeds, Birmingham, West Brom etc)
I always felt a manager like Ranieri could have been brought in or Hodgson even the likes of Laudrup. Dowie at the time was the equivalent of Avram Grant or Paul Hart - knowing your onto a loser from Day 1 and what didn't help were the poor signings Dowie made too.
It all stems from poor decision making at the top, just about every single decision made post-Curbs was a bad one with the consequences increasing each time to where we find ourselves now - a squad deprived of any quality contracted players apart from BWP and Jackson yet still contains McCormack.
