{"id":172281,"date":"2025-10-01T07:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T07:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/172281\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T07:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T07:29:07","slug":"england-international-admits-he-put-in-a-transfer-request-to-force-west-ham-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/172281\/","title":{"rendered":"England international admits he ‘put in a transfer request’ to force West Ham transfer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

James Ward-Prowse would have been forgiven for looking to the skies in disbelief when it emerged that Nuno Espirito Santo would be replacing Graham Potter in the West Ham United dugout.<\/p>\n

A player reunited with a coach who handed him only five Premier League starts during a loan spell at Nottingham Forest the previous season. A loan spell which ended up being terminated halfway through the campaign.<\/p>\n

So, considering that he had hardly been pulling up any trees back at West Ham United<\/a>, the writing appeared to be on the wall for James Ward-Prowse<\/a> when Nuno Espirito Santo<\/a> walked into Rush Green for the first time on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Yet, while his removal from the starting XI came as little surprise, few expected to see him dropped from the team sheet altogether. Ward-Prowse was left at home by Nuno<\/a> during the 1-1 draw at Everton. From first-choice to, what, fourth or fifth in a matter of days?<\/p>\n

Paul Konchesky, the former West Ham left-back who fell out with Alan Curbishley at Charlton Athletic only to end up sharing a dressing room again at Upton Park, presumably understands the awkward situation facing Ward-Prowse better than most.<\/p>\n

\"PaulPhoto by Paul Mcfegan\/Sportsphoto\/Allstar via Getty ImagesPaul Konchesky reflects on leaving Charlton Athletic for West Ham United<\/p>\n

Last week, Konchesky shared his concerns about Nuno\u2019s appointment<\/a>. While more than a safe pair of hands, would the former Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur boss bring about the attractive, attacking football many fans are craving?<\/p>\n

Nuno may not be wedded to a particular style or formation, but one thing the 51-year-old does pride himself on is a sense of togetherness, of trust. If Ward-Prowse does not fit into that, well, at least the January transfer window offers a potential escape route.<\/p>\n

Konchesky knows from experience the situation Ward-Prowse now faces. He was so determined to escape the clutches of Alan Curbishley that he handed in a transfer request back in 2005, forcing through a \u00a31.5 million move across the capital.<\/p>\n

It was just his luck, then, that a certain Newham-born tactician would inherit the Upton Park hotseat just 18 months later. Thus, bringing a premature end to Konchesky\u2019s West Ham career in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I left Charlton to go to West Ham, I put a transfer request in,\u201d Konchesky recalls, speaking on the Under the Cosh<\/a> podcast. \u201cMe and the manager fell out. All I wanted to do was play. I wanted to play regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it was time to move on and try something different with a new manager and a new club.
And the only way it would happen was if I would put a transfer request in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money bit didn\u2019t bother me then. At the time, I just wanted to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Konchesky and Alan Curbishley had a \u2018frosty\u2019 relationship<\/p>\n

Despite picking up his first and only England caps as a Charlton player, Konchesky found minutes increasingly hard to come by under Curbishley. And, by his own admission, the nature of his departure led to a very strained relationship between the two men.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was frosty! We had fallings out. You\u2019d play well and he\u2019d leave you out. I was always knocking on his door, and that\u2019s why I wanted to leave. The transfer request was for that reason,\u201d adds the Barking-born 44-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had 16 months that were quite good at West Ham. I loved it! I got to the FA Cup final. It was my club, [Alan Pardew] Pards took me there. Second season started not great [and they] got rid of the manager. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou get loads of, \u2018Oh he might be the manager\u2019. And I\u2019m going, \u2018I hope [Curbishley] ain\u2019t the manager! All I want to do is play for West Ham\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relationship was frosty. I thought, \u2018I don\u2019t know if I can play for him again. I know how he is and what he did to me!’\u201d<\/p>\n

Former England international spent time at Fulham and Liverpool<\/p>\n

Predictably enough, Konchesky would fall out of favour shortly after a 6-0 obliteration by Reading, with Curbishley promoting George McCartney in his place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went away to Reading and lost 6-0. After that, I didn\u2019t play again. When [Curbishley] came in, we sat down and he said, \u2018it\u2019ss a clean slate\u2019. I thought, \u2018I know it\u2019s not!\u2019 Then, he bought someone else, so I knew then it was game over.<\/p>\n

\u201cI probably didn\u2019t help saying, \u2018I don\u2019t want to play for you, and blah, blah, blah\u2019. But that was at Charlton, not at West Ham! Deep down, I knew my time was over really. I still had two more years there. I could have sat there but I wanted to play again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Konchesky would stay in London, joining Fulham for \u00a33.5 million after an inspired Carlos Tevez saved Mark Noble and co<\/a> from relegation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a couple [of offers],\u201d adds a man who would reach the Europa League final at Fulham before a short-lived spell at Liverpool. \u201cI spoke to Glasgow Rangers. I spoke to Birmingham City, but I ended up going to Fulham.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Scottish one, I think at the time I thought I was too young. And you hear about, you want to end your career there. So I thought at 24-25 years old, I\u2019m probably too young to go up to Scotland and go and play.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, that was that. And then the other one was, yeah, I would rather just go to London rather than to Birmingham and not have to really move my family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Ward-Prowse would have been forgiven for looking to the skies in disbelief when it emerged that Nuno…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77297,8633,11163,59,77298,221,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-172281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alan-curbishley","tag-alan-pardew","tag-fulham","tag-gb","tag-paul-konchesky","tag-premier-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}