Tuesday 17 March 2015 17:20, UK
Aston Villa are on the hunt for a new manager following Paul Lambert's departure so who's in the running?
Lambert left the club third from bottom in the Premier League, having seen his side score just 12 goals in 25 games this season.
We take a look at the favourites to be handed the task of reversing their fortunes, according to Sky Bet’s next Aston Villa manager odds.
It is becoming a very familiar story – a vacancy arises and Sherwood emerges as the early favourite. There certainly seems conviction from the punters this time round, with the 46-year-old being continually backed at short odds, having been installed as the 7/4 favourite following Lambert’s departure. Sherwood left Tottenham with a fair amount of credit, posting a Premier League winning ratio record at the club that compares particularly favourably to Lambert’s contrasting stats of below 25 per cent. But how he will cope with being involved in a relegation scrap, given his only previous managerial experience has been with a top-four chasing Spurs?
The former England manager emerged as second favourite following a surge of interest on Thursday morning. Hoddle is out of work having left his position at QPR and it remains to be seen whether he intends to return to management. The 57-year-old is the most experienced of the contenders, having managed Swindon, Chelsea, Southampton, Tottenham and Wolves along with the national team, but has not held the reins at a club since 2006.
The Dane, like Sherwood, was linked with the vacancy at QPR before ruling himself out. He told Danish media on Wednesday: "I’m going nowhere, I'm on contract with Lekhwiya until June 30, the team is No 1, we are in the Champions League in Asia so I'm staying in Qatar.” While some might consider Villa a more tempting proposition, such as the punters who have backed him in from 33/1 to 16/1, the pull of joining a relegation battle does not seem enough to tempt the former Swansea boss.
Villa appointed Arsenal’s former chief commercial officer Tom Fox as chief executive last year, and the American is thought to be impressed by the job Klinsmann has done with the USA national side. The former Tottenham player has been in charge there since 2011 and increased his stock at last summer’s World Cup as they reached the knockout stages in Brazil. Klinsmann has also been in charge of the German national side, while he also spent less than a season in charge of Bayern Munich. At 25/1, the 50-year-old Premier League legend is a big outsider for the Villa role, but may appear an attractive option to the Villa faithful.
Other options
Such is the command of favouritism from Sherwood, all other options are odds of 25/1 or bigger, including Brentford boss Mark Warburton and former Scunthorpe, Southampton and Reading boss Nigel Adkins. However, if the betting on the next QPR manager has taught us anything, it would be no surprise to see one of the big-priced options emerge in the running.
