Month Of The First Premier League Managerial Departure

When will we see the first Premier League managerial casualty?

A couple of days ago I took a look at the 'First Premier League Manager To Leave His Position' betting market and rather worryingly for Alan Pardew he's currently the favourite with all bookies to be the first manager to either get the sack or resign.

A related betting market worth a look is 'Month of the 1st Premier League Managerial Departure' being offered by Stan James.  December 2013 is the favourite to see the first managerial casualty at odds of 2.75, closely followed by November 2013 at 2.88.

If you fancy a longer priced speculative bet then you can get 21.0 on August 2013 or 11.0 on September 2013.  You would expect most managers to last at least a little longer than that, but given the unpredictable and sometimes bizarre behaviour of Mike Ashley*, who knows what strange events the forthcoming season will throw up?

* That's the polite way of wording it!

The full list of odds are as follows:

First Premier League Manager To Leave?

The bookies don't rate Alan Pardew's chances of staying in his job...

The internet has unquestionably brought many positive benefits to the world, but it has also brought with it some negatives.  For example, because of the internet, last week while I was enjoying myself on holiday in Magalluf, I was unfortunately still able to discover the depressing news of Joe Kinnear's return to Newcastle.

Joe Kinnear's appointment has led to various theories among fans as to why Mike Ashley would ever consider making such a ludicrous appointment.

Perhaps Ashley appointed Kinnear because of his alleged excellent record as a manager which Joe has been telling everyone about.  It's an excellent CV, and if not for the fact that it's a complete work of fiction then you would possibly be impressed.  So maybe Mike Ashley is the only football fan in the country who isn't aware of Joe Kinnear's problem with differentiating the truth and reality from the fictitious version of history he seems to have dreamt up for himself.

The Latest Transfer Odds

Transfer Rumours: Who Will Be The Ins and Outs At St. James Park?

We're only a couple of weeks into the close season and already the transfer rumour mill is into full swing with new potential transfers being reported every day.  A lot of the time the stories make no sense at all and you get the impression sometimes that the papers have just plucked a player out of one hat and then plucked a team out of the next hat when coming up with their stories.

I think sometimes a better guide to potential transfers are the odds being offered by the bookies, as obviously bookies have a lot more to lose than newspapers if they get it wrong.

The latest rumour in yesterday's papers was that Monaco are interested in Hatem Ben Arfa and according to SkyBet the current odds on a move for Ben Arfa are as follows:

2012/13 Season Round-Up

"No football for three months!"

It's been a season to forget and one with very few positives, but despite the poor standard of football on offer this season, I still found myself yesterday morning thinking, "Ar, no!  No football for three months!"

Obviously the eternal optimist in me wants to hope that next season will be better, but for that to happen changes clearly need to be made.  I've gradually lost patience with Alan Pardew and his constant excuse making as the season has gone on, but I'm not necessarily as desperate to see him go as some fans are.  I just want him to start accepting responsibility when things go wrong.

Managers are susceptible to good and bad form, just like players, but if things are to improve then Pardew needs to recognise his mistakes.  He needs to be more ambitious.  He needs to realise that avoiding relegation isn't a success.  He needs to realise that all clubs suffer from injuries so the time to complain about a lack of depth in the squad is pre-season when you can do something about it, rather than halfway through the season when the damage is already done.

General Football Tips (19/05/13)

...And Odds For The Toon V Arsenal

So in the end it was Wigan who claimed the third and final relegation spot, and although the mackems would obviously have been our first choice, it's safe to say that few Newcastle fans will be disappointed to see Wigan making the drop.

The end of a season that most Toon fans will want to quickly forget sees us come up against an Arsenal side who need three points to ensure a Champions League spot.

SkyBet have the match priced as follows:

Newcastle - 6.0
Draw - 4.0
Arsenal - 1.53

Latest Relegation Odds

An Entertaining Side Dish...

I mentioned a few weeks ago that "...misery for Sunderland can never be more than an entertaining side dish compared to the joy of a Toon victory."

That remains true, but now that we've guaranteed our Premier League survival it's nice to be able to relax and enjoy the 'entertaining side dish' of the battle for the final relegation spot.

Ladbrokes currently have the relegation battle priced as follows:

Wigan - 1/25
Sunderland - 14/1
Aston Villa - 25/1

"I don't really care if Arsenal win 4-0." ...Alan Pardew

It was Pardew's "Thank God we are not in the Europa League again” comment which angered me the most.

Our second away win in the league all season owed as much to the mistakes of Jose Bosingwa and QPR's overall lack of quality as it did to our own performance, but at least we can 'celebrate' the fact that our Premier League survival is now guaranteed.

A Liverpool friend of mine commented that being involved in the relegation battle must have been 'exciting' which just shows how little he knows about being involved in a relegation battle.  'Exciting' has been a rarely used word when watching Pardew's tactics this season, and 'nervous' would be a far more appropriate word to describe the final run-in to of our season.

I have to admit that when fans were criticising Pardew earlier in the season that for a long time I personally thought the blame deserved to be pointed higher up and that it was our failure to strengthen the squad pre-season which was the real reason to blame for our current predicament.  However, Alan Pardew's constant excuse making has gradually worn down my patience more and more, and he really needs to start accepting responsibility for our shortcomings.  If Pardew had put as much effort into improving our results as he does into making excuses then we would probably have been challenging for Europe again rather than battling to avoid relegation.