Curbishley in line for Wolves job
FORMER West Ham and Charlton manager Alan Curbishley has emerged as the early frontrunner to replace Mick McCarthy after Wolves made the Yorkshireman the third Premier League boss to be sacked this season.
McCarthy’s five-and-a-half-year reign was brought to an end yesterday following Sunday’s 5-1 Premier League humiliation at home to West Midlands rivals West Brom, who are also vying with Wolves for top-flight survival.
Curbishley, who has been out of work since resigning from West Ham in September 2008, admitted he would be tempted by a return to management at Molineux.
“If I get a phone call I will talk to them, as I have always said I wanted to go back to the Premier League,” Curbishley said yesterday.
“I have been favourite for things before and nothing really has happened. We will just have to wait and it depends where the people in charge want to go and what they want.”
Former Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, who became the first casualty of the current campaign in November, has also been linked with rescuing Wolves, who slipped into the bottom three at the weekend.
McCarthy – until yesterday the fifth longest serving manager in the division – insisted on Sunday he remained the man for the job but has paid the price for a miserable run of just one win in 13 games.
Wolves, who have placed assistant Terry Connor in caretaker charge, said: “The board took the difficult decision to terminate Mick’s contract after a run of form which has seen Wolves pick up only 14 points in the last 22 League games, after a promising start to the season, culminating in yesterday’s 5-1 defeat.”