So who’ll be the next Premier League boss to go?
A few short weeks ago, it looked like Alan Pardew at Newcastle United was just hours away from the boot thanks to a woeful start to the season – and the fans’ campaign for him to be sacked. We all know what’s happened since then of course; The Magpies have put an incredible and completely unexpected run of four straight wins together and stand in 8th place in the Premier League at the time of writing. Love him or hate him – Mike Ashley the Newcastle owner stuck to his guns and Alan Pardew worked a small miracle. Now – there’s a distinct absence of fans at St James’s Park campaigning for his removal and attention has turned elsewhere.
Unfortunately for Paul Lambert – the spotlight is now very much on the Villa Park hot seat where Aston Vila’s start to the season has been completely the inverse of Newcastle’s. After a fine start, Villa suffered 6 defeats in a row before drawing at West Ham and now stand in 16th position at the time of writing – and panic seems to have set in firmly.
Now Paul Lambert may well be the first Premier League boss to get the boot this season – but if you’re looking for a little betting value in this market – how about Alan Irvine – occupant of the hot seat at West Brom?
No one wants this to happen of course; Alan Irvine is a nice guy and a great manager no doubt. But this is the unforgiving Premier League and West Brom have begun to show a few wobbles on the pitch of late.
Currently, Alan Irvine is 10th favourite to be the next Premier League boss to go with bookmakers including Unibet, 32 Red, Skybet and others at 14/1 or even better in some cases. Managers closer in in the market include the afore-mentioned Paul Lambert along with Harry Redknapp, Mauricio Pochettino, Neil Warnock, Manuel Pellegrini, Steve Bruce, Gus Poyet, Nigel Pearson and even Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool after their poor start.
But value is value and we’ll come to that in a moment. But there may be a good way of having a punt on this market for nothing. If you go to the afore-mentioned 32 Red’s site at 32red.com online roulette, for example, you’ll see that you can pocket up to £250 as a matched bonus.
Now with roulette, the house edge is about as narrow as it gets and you have a good chance of retaining the free cash. What’s even more interesting is that the same 32 Red site runs a sports-book – so you should be able to transfer a decent amount of cash after playing through a few games. And sadly for Baggies fans, Alan Irvine may be the man for a punt on the next guy to go.
So why pick on poor old Alan Irvine and West Brom? After all, there have been times this season when the Baggies have looked a really potent threat – and played some very impressive football. Well unfortunately – history has often shown us that those teams playing the most open and attacking and free-flowing football, but who haven’t got the strength in depth and are generally regarded as potential relegation fodder – tend to struggle as the season wears on. And this might just be the role West Brom are falling into this season.
The same has happened to sides such as Wigan Athletic, Blackpool, and others in recent years. The trouble seems to come when the team realises it’s in trouble and the manager tries to change the play by shoring things up and playing more doggedly ad defensively – which doesn’t’ seems to work and the fans don’t like it. The team then enters something of a downward spiral and the manager almost always pays the price.
And after the woeful performance at home to Newcastle United – it seems that the Baggies’ league position belies their true current mettle; sorry West Brom fans, but there it is. Hopefully, Alan Irvine will prove this analysis wrong – but in him lies the current value at the moment.
