West Ham have opened talks with Alan Curbishley about the vacant manager's position.

Hammers chairman Eggert Magnusson met the former Charlton manager today and an announcement could be made as early as later today or tomorrow confirming him as Alan Pardew's successor.

Curbishley, 49, is a former West Ham player and it is understood the
negotiations so far have been extremely positive.

Pardew was sacked yesterday after a string of poor results which saw West Ham slide into the bottom three.

Curbishley has been a free agent since stepping down as Charlton boss last season but his track record made him Magnusson's first choice.

He described the Hammers' interest as "a massive honour".

"Of course I'm interested," he said. "Perhaps having the chance to manage them, five years after they were allegedly seeking me to replace Harry Redknapp, is a massive honour.

"Once you are brought up in a background like West Ham the affection you have for the club never goes away."

League Managers' Association chief executive John Barnwell would be pleased to see a high-profile British manager return to the Premiership.

Barnwell said: "We want British managers to be at the top level. There are plenty of high quality, top managers around and we would hope that would be the way they [West Ham] would go."