MANAGER Alan Curbishley has scotched rumours linking former Charlton midfielder Lee Bowyer with a return to The Valley.

Speculation mounted when the 28-year-old Newcastle midfielder last week paid £2.5 million for a house in Hildenborough near Tonbridge.

It is 40 minutes from The Valley and even less to the club’s Sparrows Lane training ground in New Eltham.

The property, which has between 30 and 40 acres, is situated next to riding stables for the benefit of his fiancee Kathleen Baker who loves show-jumping.

A huge question mark hangs over Bowyer’s Newcastle future following his infamous punch-up with team-mate Kieron Dyer during the 3-0 home defeat by Aston Villa two weeks ago.

Club chairman Freddy Shepherd, who fined him six weeks’ wages, is thought to be keen to move him on at season’s end.

But Curbishley insisted: "There is nothing in these rumours, nothing at all. I know he is engaged to a Kent girl and that probably has something to do with him buying a house in the county.

"Lee has other places in Docklands, which he has kept on since his time at West Ham. People are putting two and two together and coming up with the wrong answers."

The former Charlton trainee made 54 senior appearances for the club before he was sold to Leeds for £2,600,000 in July, 1996.

During his time with the Addicks he was banned by the club for eight weeks in March, 1995 and dropped from the England Under-18 squad after testing positive for marijuana. It is unlikely that the club’s directors would sanction a return.