Tried and tested Curbishley best man to replace McCarthy at Wolves

Alan Curbishley gets linked with virtually every managerial vacancy in England, but 4/1 could be a big price in the Premier League odds that he is appointed the next manager of Wolves.

Mick McCarthy did a fine job at Wolves, guiding them to promotion to the Premier League and then securing their top-flight survival in each of the last two seasons.

However, the 5-1 home defeat to rivals West Brom was the final straw and the difficult decision has been made to look for a replacement to get them out of the relegation places.

A bit like the England national team, a manager with good man-to-man skills and the ability to get the best out of players is what is largely required by Wolves, particularly with the transfer window now closed.

Steve Bruce is the other favourite to take over and although he has strong Premier League managerial experience, the troubles he had at Sunderland earlier in the campaign must be off putting.

Martin O’Neill has since proven that Sunderland had the players to be battling for a top-half finish, but under Bruce the club were toiling around the relegation places and seemingly way short of confidence.

If he was unable to boost morale at Sunderland, it is hard to anticipate while he could manage this at Wolves.

Neil Warnock is 5/1 and would be a reasonable appointment, especially if Wolves are relegated given his positive track record in the Championship.

But Curbishley worked wonders for numerous years with a similar budget to Wolves when at Charlton and the club has continually gone downhill since his departure.

He then went to West Ham and helped them escape relegation, even though they looked certainties for relegation when he took over midway through the 2006/07 campaign.

It is hard to fault Curbishley’s managerial record and even though he has been out of the game for a few seasons, it is unlikely that he would have fallen behind the times.