Charlton Athletic Online

Alan Curbishley was once more linked with a new managerial role today, this time with top-of-the-league Scottish Premier League side Heart of Midlothian. The Charlton manager is constantly put forward by the media as a potential replacement whenever any supposedly "bigger" club than Charlton need someone new to take the helm. Hearts have said publicly that they want an experienced person who has managed at the highest level to take them forward in terms of European competition, but does Curbs fit this bill? The names put forward so far to replace the departed George Burley and Hearts incumbent temporary John McGlynn have included Sir Bobby Robson, Claudio Ranieri, and Otmar Hitzfeld, all of whom are much older and therefore more experienced than Curbs.

Normally, a club such as Hearts would not be considered larger than a succesful Premiership team (like Charlton), but with major shareholder and potential full owner Vladimir Romanov implying he will pour considerable sums of money into the team (in a similar way to Roman Abramovich at Chelsea), the potential for success is obvious.

I doubt very much if Curbs will be tempted by this vacancy, even if Chairman Richard Murray would allow Hearts to speak with Curbs. Curbishley has brought a whole raft of new players to The Valley this season and results have been pretty good (if you ignore the general home form); he also may want to talk to Burley about why he left Hearts (allegedly due to Romanov insisting on his involvment in team selection!) before committing himself to any hasty decision to move north.

In the end, this speculation may just add value to Curbs negotiations with Murray, as an improved and extended contract has been discussed very recently between the pair.