Cureton on shopping list

Cureton was the league's leading scorer last season, forming a partnership with Chris Iwelumo that kept Colchester high in the table for much of the season, and their chances of reaching the play offs only came to an end a week before the end of the season.

Iwelumo has since moved on. He was out of contract and accepted an offer from Charlton. This has prompted Cureton, who has one year remaining on his contract, to ask for a move in the hope that he can find himself a bigger club.

There was immediate interest from his former club Norwich and their East Anglian neighbours Ipswich, whilst Charlton were understood to be keen on pairing him again with Iwelumo. Other clubs have enquired and Hull's Phil Brown tabled an offer of £250,000 but that fell way short of Colchester's £500,000 valuation for a player they are desperate to keep.

In the last couple of days, with Steve Cotterill out of the country completing the signing of Besart Berisha, interest in Cureton has appeared in the national press, with suggestions that we, like Hull, have made a quarter of a million pound offer.

It is all a big turnaround for Cureton, who along with Jason Roberts came to prominence at Bristol Rovers in the second half of the 1990s. That got him a move to Reading but he struggled at this level for them and was allowed to move on to Swindon. He was struggling there and moved on loan to Colchester during the 2005/06 season on loan. They made it permanent and that led to his goal haul last season for the Layer Road club.

Despite their eagerness to keep him he will probably move on in the summer. The player said: "I will be 33-years-old when my contract runs out next summer so I would like to be given the opportunity now to talk to the bigger teams who are interested in me."

Hull are certainly one club preparing to increase their offer, but they will definitely have competition to land the Bristol born player who will celebrate his 32^nd birthday in August.