Rumours are circulating that veteran striker Jamie Cureton could be on the verge of a move to City on January 1st, meaning a happy new year for all Imps fans.
Cureton has been rumoured to be training with Lincoln this last week with a view to a loan move in January as Chris Sutton looks to use the window to pull City away from a relegation dogfight. He see’s a man with 190 career goals to his name as the perfect weapon in the battle against not only relegation, but also the regular doom and gloom merchants currently circling Sincil Bank.
Chris Sutton spent the years of 1993 and 1994 at Norwich with Cureton before he moved on to Blackburn Rovers, so knows all too well the ability the striker has.
Cureton began his professional career with Norwich City before moving on to Bristol Rovers. At Norwich he became an England youth international with a massive future lying ahead of him. Although things didn’t pan out for him in the top flight, he still became a cult figure among the Norwich faithful by bleaching his hair in yellow and green colours in a derby game against Ipswich.
In 1996 he moved to Bristol Rovers and enjoyed a prolific spell at his hometown club. In 1999/2000 his partnership with Jason Roberts almost led to a Pirates promotion. Sadly for Rovers fans after the club dipped out of the play-off places on the final day of the season he decided his future lay with pastures new, and signed for Reading.
The best spell of football in his career since leaving Norwich came with The Royals. He played at Reading for three years. Enjoying another good relationship with the fans, with the Royals Supporters naming a star after him! In 2003 he decided his future lay abroad and he headed to South Korea (that’s the good one not the one where the short guy who sings on Team America). Cureton then signed for K-League side Busan I'cons (now Busan I'Park). He failed to settle in the Far East however, and after being released from his contract, he returned to England and joined QPR. After an unsettled season at Loftus Road, he joined Swindon Town in June 2005. He failed to make his mark in his first spell at the club and subsequently joined Colchester United on loan.
He then briefly returned to Swindon as they failed to avoid relegation. After Swindon's relegation, Cureton activated a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave Swindon on a free transfer, and rejoined Colchester on a permanent basis.
Cureton had another period of good goal-scoring form following his transfer, including two hat tricks. His 23 goals in the 2006–07 season gave him the Championship Golden Boot as the league's top scorer. However the fairytale soured on 5 June, 2007, Cureton handed in a transfer request to Colchester United. He cited Colchester's ambitions that were differing from his own, underlined when the club failed to re-sign several key players.
Colchester initially rejected the transfer request, saying that Cureton was an important part of the club's future and that they wanted to keep him. However Norwich City manager Peter Grant confirmed that he would like to sign Cureton and subsequently did so for £825,000 in June, 2007.
By November 2008 he was out on loan again, this time at Barnsley but three months later he was recalled to Norwich City after Glenn Roeder's dismissal as manager. When Norwich played Barnsley on the following weekend, The Canaries were 4–0 victors with Cureton scoring one.
This season Cureton has been a peripheral figure at Carrow Road, and speculation mounted he was due to sign for City back in the first transfer window. However he was recalled to the Norwich team, and scored that weekend scuppering a move to City.
A player of Cureton’s calibre, 34 or not would signal a massive coup should City be able to pull it off. However his estimated £6,000 a week wages would really trouble City – unless we can arrange a 25% deal until the end of the season.
Rest assured LCM will keep you bang up to date with the latest developments.