Betting on who will be appointed the new manager of a club is fraught with danger. That’s because it goes against the very basic principles of gambling. Namely, we only bet if we think we know something the bookmakers do not. Or we have some inside edge that they are unaware of.
It’s also betting blind. We can’t analyze trends. We can’t crunch numbers. We can’t even study the form of the protagonists and decide. Odds a seemingly chalked upon pure speculation.
The problem is, the only person (or people) who know who is actually in the running for a role are those who decide. It’s ordinarily a top-secret process. So most of the money is wagered by fans on who they want to get the job. Or who their mate has spotted in the club car park.
One guarantee is that the betting will include at least one former manager. If he is out of work, then he will make the top five at some prohibitively short prices.
Despite this negativity surrounding the ‘normal’ process, in this context, we are talking about Leicester City who have conducted themselves in anything but a normal way. Their sacking of Claudio Ranieri, who won them the title, was harsh, to say the least.
Unfortunately for those with decent morals, they appear to have got away with it following the demolition of Liverpool on Monday night. In all probability, they will now stay up. Shame.
What we do like about Leicester, however, is that have been extremely open about who they have been approaching to take over from Ranieri.
The latest is Roy Hodgson. Hodgson’s price has collapsed to 2.88 with Paddy Power and it is fair to say that the value has gone. He has shortened up precisely because it is known he’s been approached, rather than him absolutely certainly getting the job.
There are others. Roberto Mancini is 34 with William Hill and Paddy Power. That’s our sort of price. Mancini has been asked whether the role is for him and he would seem to perfectly fit Leicester’s style of appointment.
He wants to wait to see if a Champions League club comes in for him in the summer. But that’s okay. They may not, in which case you’ve got yourself a good bet.
It would seem extremely likely that Leicester will now wait until the summer to have their pick of managers who are out of work or looking for a fresh challenge.
One of those is the Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner. Feelers were also put out to him. But he has a job on at the moment – to get his team promoted. In the summer the 51 that Power currently offer could look very big indeed.
Craig Shakespeare is the current jolly at 2.5 (888Sport) and our hunch is that he will be in caretaker charge until the end of the season. As soon as they are safe, Leicester will up their search and Shakespeare could be forgotten. After all, there’s no sentiment at the King Power is there?
Calculators
