West Ham boss Alan Curbishley believes it is time for a reality check in the Premier League, with expectation levels getting out of hand.

Sam Allardyce became the eighth top-flight manager to lose his job this season when he parted company with Newcastle by 'mutual consent' on Wednesday.

He told Sky Sports News: "You look at the Premier League now with eight managers gone in six months and that's a tough situation we're in.

"I know there's been a lot of pressure, but it did surprise me that something happened yesterday to Sam.

"Newcastle are mid-table, they don't look as though they're going to be involved in anything relegation-wise, and a couple of results could possibly push them into the top eight or top six if they have a good run-in.

"Eight managers in six or seven months is too much.

"The expectation levels of everybody is a big problem. People have got to be realistic."

Allardyce was taken on by Freddy Shepherd, but with Mike Ashley then taking control of the club soon after, found himself operating under a hierarchy who did not appoint him.

He added: "When you look at what is happening in the Premier League, when you look at how Sam signed for one chairman and has been taken on by another.

"It is not just players and managers that come under pressure now, the directors and chairman come under pressure when the results aren't what people think they should be.

"If you give a manager a job and he makes wholesale changes; a lot of people have gone into Newcastle, a lot of changes of staff, and perhaps you're not going to see the results of that in six months.

"It's like any business, perhaps it doesn't happen in any other walk of life, where you make a decision and bring a main man in to run the company, and then give him six months.

"I went through a similar situation this time last year and it's not nice, a similar situation to what a lot of managers have been through, and I know what it's like. Every time I see it happen, it's not nice."