NEXT LIVERPOOL MANAGER BETTING ODDS SHOW MARTIN O’NEILL AS BIG FAVOURITE

With the Spanish Waiter’s exit from Liverpool looking more likely by the day, either by Rafa Benitez being sacked or a mutual termination, the odds markets are really starting to shift around in anticipation of who’s going to take the reigns next. While Jose Mourinho’s name had been bandied about over the past year, many have written him off as a potential successor to Benitez.

From my knowledge, Mourinho is extremely lukewarm about managing Liverpool and will likely take another year at Inter before succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United- can you really think of anybody else with enough stature to step into Fergie’s shadow? Victor Chandler has Mourinho’s odds to be next Liverpool manager at 5/2, but I feel that’s far too short a price and they may be looking to make some cash off of hopeful, albeit deluded, Liverpool supporters.
The big surprise for me is that Martin O’Neill is now putting distance between himself and the rest of the pack- he was listed at high single digits several months ago, but he is now trading at a very short 7/4 to be named Next Liverpool Manager.
There was an instance a few months back when the bookmakers stopped taking bets on the next Premier League manager to leave as it looked like Martin O’Neill was ready to walk out of Aston Villa. Could that have had something to do with this? I’m not going to come out and make wild allusions, but you could certainly see O’Neill looking to take a step up with Villa having trouble attracting world-class players.
Guus Hiddink has always been in contention and he’s listed at 5/1 to do so. The other big story about this betting market is the fact that Roy Hodgson is now sitting alongside Hiddink at a 5/1 price to be named the next Liverpool Manager. He got Fulham to the Europa League Final (Fulham!) and you wonder what he could do with the resources he would have at his disposal when the new ownership structure takes over at Anfield.
Liverpool hero Kenny Dalglish is priced at 8/1 while former manager Gerard Houllier is trading at 10/1, but that would be a rather uninspired selection. Bert Van Marwijk is priced at 12/1 alongside Louis van Gaal. Alex McLeish is trading at 14/1, the same price as Laurent Blanc) while Frank Rijkaard is listed at 20/1. That one may be more plausible than it sounds.
How’s this for an outside bet? Steve McClaren at 25/1- he just managed FC Twente to the Eredivisie title.