Last week, we asked Spoiler readers whether Roy Keane would still be at the club in 2009. Despite resounding support in the poll, the very next day, he was clearing his desk. Not wishing to tempt fate, today we want to know if Paul Ince will last the festive period. Blackburn were handed their fifth straight defeat at the weekend, and the gaffer is getting dangerously close to growing a beard - a perilous move for a manager under fire.
If Ince fails to get results in forthcoming ties with Wigan and Stoke, his chances of being in gainful employment in the new year are mighty slim. What are your thoughts? Let us know below…
Alan Curbishley has stolen Kevin Keegan’s thunder and won the sack race by walking out of West Ham after getting fed-up with players being sold over his head, most notably George McCartney on deadline day.
Reports claim that Curbishley believes the club’s board have been undermining him and that he has only been keeping the manager’s seat in the dugout warm until Croatia boss Slaven Bilic is available.
The former Charlton boss failed to win over a vocal section of the West Ham support but a poll held on the forum of West Ham fansite Knees Up Mother Brown in the last 24 hours saw Curbishley garner a 87% approval rating.
Sam Allardyce is 4/1 favourite with Sky Bet to take over, while Bilic is close behind at 5/1.
BBC Radio Newcastle are reporting that Kevin Keegan is currently having crisis talks with the club’s hierarchy after becoming frustrated by the sale of first-team players.
There are rumours circulating that he may have walked already and King Kev is now a tiny 1.38 (approximately 4/11) on Betfair to be the first Premier League manager to leave their post.
People talk about dog years, or leap years, but time never drags quite like the months between football seasons. Grown men wander around shoe shops on Saturday afternoons, totally lost and alone. People aren’t sure whether they should be punching each other in the face or not during evenings out, so nights on the town are just one awkward stand off after another.
Thank the sweet baby Moses, then, for our great pals over at Chickendinner. They’ve decided to hell with all this waiting around stuff, and have kicked off the football betting season already. Click the links below for a world of informative fun.
West Ham boss could be granted the first P45 of the season
Every season, punters stake a significant amount on the first managerial sacking, but in the opast few years, the bookies have been clearing up. Who could have seen bumbling clowns Sammy Lee and Chris Hutchings outlasting two-time Premier League winner Jose Mourinho? And the year before did anyone really see Charlton, having stood by Alan Curbishley for 15 years, sacking Iain Dowie just three months into the season? Curbishley is the unlucky favourite this year (5/1, bet here), but in preparation for a big shock, chickendinner have surveyed all of the sack race contenders…
Alan Curbishley
» West Ham’s last two managers - Glenn Roeder and Alan Pardew - were both sacked in the first half of the season.
» Glenn Roeder was sacked after just two games in his third season in charge in 2003. This will be Curbishley’s third season at West Ham.
» However, West Ham have only had eleven full-time managers in their 113-year history - no other Premier League club has had fewer.
» Three managers have left West Ham while they were a Premier League club - Billy Bonds, Harry Redknapp and Alan Pardew - but of those only Pardew was removed in the middle of a season.
Kevin Keegan
» All seven full-time Newcastle Premier League managers have left in the middle of the season.
» Newcastle have ridiculously sacked three managers in August over the last past ten years - Dalglish, Gullit and Robson - winning the sack race on each occasion.
» Keegan has a track record for resigning mid-campaign. He left the England job in the middle of qualifying for the 2002 World Cup and he left both Newcastle and Man City mid-season.
» But Keegan has never spent less than a year at a club, which would mean staying on until January 16. By that point last season, eight managers had left their club.
Loading ...