By Ian Palmer
One of the great things about the English Premier League is the wide range of wagering options on most bookmakers’ websites. Not only can you back the winners of games, the scores, individual players and live action etc., you can also lay down your money on the next manager to be sacked. In fact, it’s one of the most popular markets with bettors and soccer fans in Britain.
The next manager likely to get the boot, according to Oddschecker, are John Carver of Newcastle United, Roberto Martinez of Everton, Leicester City’s Nigel Pearson, Sam Allardyce of West Ham, and Sunderland’s Gus Poyet. It looks like the front runner in the ‘Next manager to leave his post’ betting market is Poyet at 2/1, but most of these clubs are in real danger of being relegated at the end of the season. Poyet is now the favorite to be fired next due to last weekend’s results.
Poyet’s Sunderland squad played at home against West Brom, who are also struggling, but came out of the contest with a 0-0 draw. Prior to the match, Poyet had written an open letter to the club’s fans and asked them to get behind and support the team. However, many fans saw this as nothing more than a last-ditch effort to save his job. Fans turned against Poyet following the Premier League side’s embarrassing 2-0 loss to third-tier club Bradford City in the FA Cup two weeks ago. Sixteenth-place Sunderland are winless in their past four matches and head to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United next.
Leicester City earned a 2-2 draw at Everton in their last match after blowing a late 2-1 lead. Leicester fell behind before scoring a pair of goals to go ahead, but blew the win with two minutes remaining. While the team should have earned all three points, the one point taken home with them eased a bit of pressure on manager Pearson. The draw also snapped the squad’s four-game losing streak, but they’re still in last place in the 20-team league. Their next match is an way trip to second-place Manchester City with the odds Pearson losing his job at 7/2.
It may surprise some fans to hear that West Ham’s Allardyce is on this list as the club is in eighth place, but he’s as low as 5/2 to get sacked. However, he blew a 2-0 lead away at White Hart Lane last time out in a London derby against Spurs. The Hammers were ahead 2-0 with just nine minutes to play and squandered the lead. Just a week earlier, West Ham suffered a humiliating 4-0 defeat to West Brom in fifth round of the FA Cup. As for Everton’s Martinez, he has his club in 12th place just six points above the relegation zone. Newcastle’s boss Carver saw his team thumped 5-0 by Man City last weekend and the team sits in 11th place. Carver is 10/1 to be the next manager to lose his job and Martinez is now 16/1.
