The Observer:
A culture of reckless high-stakes gambling is causing division within West Ham and rupturing morale to such an extent that the first-team squad, already riven by cliques, is 'spiralling out of control' - and the players, manager and directors already know that they can do nothing to stop the club being relegated. That is the damning view from inside the dressing room at the Premiership's most troubled club.
Players are haemorrhaging vast amounts of money to each other at the card table, as much as £50,000 in one sitting. They have won and lost these staggering sums on the team coach to matches. 'How can they be in a good frame of mind for a match after that?' says one first-team player, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The player said: 'I've never seen anything like it in my career. It's one big mess here, the atmosphere is terrible, people don't talk to each other. Players are losing 30, 40 and 50 thousand pounds sometimes. By the time we arrive one player owes another and it's terrible for the team and morale. They are always playing cards.'
One senior player, an established international, is said to have won £38,000 from two of his team-mates in one afternoon recently. The losers had to pay up and manager Alan Curbishley is no longer speaking to the player who won the money. Two members of the squad have undertaken counselling and treatment for gambling addiction, and a third player is also believed to be seeking professional help.
The disillusioned player also identified a catalogue of other problems. These include spats between rival cliques within the dressing room over territory and wages; divisive tension between Curbishley and his players; doubts over the decision-making of new chairman Eggert Magnusson; and the widespread admission, privately, that the club will be relegated. He also said that one recent signing was amazed when he was asked to a meeting to discuss club affairs with senior management in a lap-dancing club, though the club strongly deny that any such meeting took place.
It is believed that Curbishley's first attempt to stop the card schools some weeks ago failed, but gambling is now banned in situations where he is responsible for the team, such as on journeys to matches. But he has been unable to stop the poker sessions when training is over, and one recent session is said to have continued until 4am.
According to a well-placed source at Upton Park, the players are 'certainly not a unit and haven't been for a long time. It began at the end of last season during Pardew's time. There is a huge division. Nigel Reo-Coker, Bobby Zamora, Marlon Harewood and Shaun Newton all hang out together. And Reo-Coker is constantly saying he is too good for the club, that he should be at Man United or Arsenal.' Team spirit is also damaged, according to the representative of one long-serving player, by the level of resentment about the wages paid to Matthew Upson and Lucas Neil, who were signed by Curbishley in the transfer window and are being paid big money. Neil is thought to have turned down Liverpool to keep a £60,000-a-week salary.