Hiddink would provide the experience and continental flair

Guus Hiddink, the PSV Eindhoven coach who led South Korea to fourth place at the 2002 World Cup finals, is believed to be who Tottenham Hotspur want to take charge next season.

Chairman Daniel Levy said recently that Spurs had identified the man they would like as their new chief coach and Hiddink would provide the experience and continental flair to help the club out of their present predicament.

Hiddink, who speaks excellent English, has also been with Real Madrid and Valencia. Now in his second spell with PSV, he led the Dutch club to European Cup success in 1988 while he has also been coach of Holland.

His contract with PSV ends next summer, but the long-term successor to Glenn Hoddle will have a huge task in taking the underachieving club back to the top.

While Charlton will have the happiest of New Years in fourth place, Tottenham’s fourth consecutive defeat (as reported briefly in Monday’s late city edition) sees them fall into the bottom three with the worst record of any Premiership team during 2003.

Their tally of 36 points from 36 matches underlines Spurs’ decline over the past 12 months. “We can see the danger, make no mistake about that,” said the caretaker-manager, David Pleat.

Carlton Cole’s loan period from Chelsea has been interrupted by injuries but the striker scored his first goal for Charlton to make it a festive six points from two London derbies following the Boxing Day knock-out of Chelsea at the Valley.

Alan Curbishley had been heavily tipped to be the next Tottenham manager and his stock continues to rise as Charlton maintain their push for a European place.

If Sven-Goran Eriksson makes the rumours of his summer switch to Chelsea a reality, rest assured Curbishley’s name would be high on any Football Association shortlist for the next England manager.

More immediately, Curbishley is busy keeping Charlton’s feet firmly on the ground and said: “We’ve been up here before but tailed off. Two years ago we beat Spurs to go sixth with about eight games to go and finished nowhere. This league punishes you if you get carried away.”

Curbishley freshened up the side from the team who defeated Chelsea, bringing in Mark Fish, who had a magnificent game at the back and Paul Konchesky, whose loan period with Spurs ended after their match against Manchester United the previous Sunday.