Hibernian set to suffer if Davies joins Hearts

Davies spoke yesterday after being linked with the Hearts job and admitted that “you can’t stop progress for anyone”. However, the Preston North End manager is also, along with Mowbray, one of the principal candidates for the vacancy at Ipswich Town.

*
If Davies should choose the Champions League over the Championship and move to Hearts, that seems certain to see Mowbray elevated in the list of contenders to replace Joe Royle at the Suffolk club. Mowbray worked for five years at Portman Road as a coach before moving to Hibernian in 2004, where he has constructed one of the most entertaining sides in the Bank of Scotland Premierleague.

Davies, 37, is in demand in England after just missing out on promotion to the Barclays Premiership with Preston for the second season running. Derby County and Charlton Athletic are also interested in him for their respective vacancies. However, the former Motherwell manager has never hidden his desire to return to Scotland and has recently bought a house here.

Davies is at present on holiday in Portugal with his family and is expected to announce a decision about his future when he returns. Vladimir Romanov, the Hearts owner, has yet to confirm that Valdas Ivanauskas, the caretaker coach appointed after Graham Rix was sacked in April, will be in permanent control despite leading the club to the Champions League qualifiers and to the Tennent’s Scottish Cup. The former FBK Kaunas coach is back in Lithuania but still seeking assurances on his future and is expected to meet with Romanov late this week.

“I will only leave if myself and the board of directors feel it is the right thing for the club and for me,” Davies said. “If that happens then I’ll look at it. It’s like anything else — who knows? All I can say is I have had a wonderful time at this football club. It’s been a tremendous memory for me and I am not in any rush to leave the place but you can’t stop progress for anyone.

“When you take a club this size with these resources to the play-offs then it is going to be special. I’m sure there will be lots of speculation during the summer.”

Davies held discussions with Hearts regarding the head coach’s position last year, prior to the appointment of George Burley at Tynecastle. Derek Shaw, the Preston chairman, insisted yesterday that no official approaches have been made for his manager.

“We have had no contact from anyone,” he said. “There have been no approaches from any club for permission to speak Billy. I have a feeling this speculation is going to go on all through the summer, and already it’s boring.”

Davies and his assistant David Kelly signed open-ended contract extensions with Preston last June, so the club would therefore be entitled to compensation should Davies depart.

Across Edinburgh, Hibernian know that Mowbray, also in the frame for the vacant manager’s job at Middlesbrough, is becoming an equally attractive proposition to other clubs after his work at Easter Road. Indeed, Ipswich already looked towards the Premierleague for a replacement for Royle only to find their timing was out, with Terry Butcher, their former captain, just about to accept a lucrative offer to move from Motherwell to Sydney FC.

“I will not discuss individual candidates,” the Ipswich chairman David Sheepshanks said. “It’s understandable that people link Tony with the job, but I will not discuss the process.”

European football could win Hearts the signature of Albert Meyong, the Cameroon forward. Meyong wants a move from the Portuguese side Belenenses. “The prospect of Champions League football could play a big part in where he plays next season,” said the player’s agent, Paulo Teixeira.

Taken from timesonline.co.uk