Is time running out for Gary Johnson?

Earlier this month we looked at how bad things were looking for the under fire Preston North End boss Darren Ferguson, now it is the turn of the current manager of the previous club he managed; League One side Peterborough United. Since Ferguson left the side Peterborough have been relegated from the Championship to League One.  Now the current Posh boss, Gary Johnson is experiencing his own job threatening problems.

Peterborough have failed to win a league game at home since 16th October 2010, when they managed to defeat Swindon Town at London Road in a close fought 5-4 game. Since then they have lost their last four league games in succession.

Although his side managed a comfortable 4-1 home win in the FA Cup during his sides first round replay game against League Two side Stockport County, Peterborough have been struggling in the all important league. They have already been knocked out of the Carling Cup and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

Peterborough were crushed last weekend at home in their League One game against promotion chasers Charlton, when the visitors thrashed Gary Johnsons side 5-1. Phil Parkinson’s Charlton team were 4-0 up by the time the first half whistle had been blown, but with only a goal apeice from each team in the second half the three points belonged to Charlton.

Prior to the Charlton result there was talk in the press that Johnson was about to jump ship before he was pushed, but this has been strenuously denied by the manager. However following this terrible result the board must now be considering the managers position. Rumours of an impending sacking were strengthened when Peterborough United chairman, Darragh MacAnthony gave his full backing to Gary Johnson, a process that normally means the end for a manager!

Peterborough replied to the Charlton result at the weekend by again being thrashed, this time defeat was away at the hands of Southampton in a 4-1 drubbing. They next face Leyton Orient at home where they are at odds of 8/11 to win at home with bookmakers Ladbrokes, the draw is 5/2 and an away win for Orient is at odds of 7/2.

Although 4th in the Premiership City need a win to take the pressure off Mancini

Bookmakers Victor Chandler have again cut the odds on Manchester City’s troubled manager Roberto Mancini being the next to join the Premiership sack race. The Italian has had his odds slashed to just 9/4 to be the next Premier League manager to be sacked, directly behind West Ham manager Avram Grant whose is at odds of 7/4.

The cut in odds is a direct result of Manchester City’s second consecutive goalless draw at Eastland’s. Firstly there was the bitterly disappointing game against local rivals Manchester United, this was followed on Saturday by the match against Birmingham City who are currently struggling in the relegation zone.

The result on Saturday was met angrily by City fans especially when Carlos Tevez was taken off and replaced by the defensive midfielder Gareth Barry. As City needed to win the game, this seemed an odd substitution given that the £18 million Brazilian striker Jo was sitting on the bench.

The City faithful were heard to chant “What’s Going on” at this surprise decision to seemingly go for the draw when 3 points were desperately needed if Manchester City have any real expectations of winning the Premiership Title this season.

City have only won once out of their last five Premiership games and they have failed to score any goals in the league at Eastlands since the beginning of October. If this level of performance is to continue then serious questions will need to be asked by the Manchester City board of Mancini’s ability to manage one of the most expensive teams in the Premiership, as the fans will not tolerate results like this for much longer. If Mancini were to be sacked hotly tipped to replace him in the next Manchester City manager odds is either Frank Rijkaard or Guus Hiddink.

Will Keane side get some consistency this season?

Barnsley recorded their second away win in 15 games as they played Ipswich Town at Portman Road at the weekend. The game ended 3-1 in the Tykes favour to give Ipswich their second defeat on the trot. The loss also meant that the Tractor boys have recorded as many losses at home so far this season as they did for the whole of the 2009/10 campaign. Throughout the game the disgruntled Ipswich home fans cheered every time that the visitors passed the ball successfully to show their frustration.

The Tractor Boys are not having the worst of seasons they are currently resting at 12th in the Npower Championship table and as the league is so tight they are just 3 points away from the play off spots. However, being an Ipswich fan is full of inconsistencies at the moment being up one week and down the next and gaining no forward momentum.

The yo-yo ness of the team has resulted in the teams second lowest attendance so far this season in the Tuesday night game home defeat against Derby. Whether this will result in Roy Keane being the next Championship manager to leave his post this season remains to be seen, according to bookmakers Victor Chandler he is around the 12/1 mark to go.

On top of the defeats Ipswich boss Roy Keane was blasted in the press this week by the former Ipswich captain Jon Walters for his management style and the axing of veteran club coaches Bryan Klug and Charlie Woods. The former skipper famously fell out with Keane prior to joining Stoke in the summer as the player tried to engineer his Town exit prior to the club agreeing a fee for the player.

Will Ian Holloway escape a fine from the Premier League?

Blackpool boss Ian Holloway has sensationally threatened to quit his job with the recently promoted Blackpool should the Premier League take any kind of action against himself or Blackpool over allegations that he fielded what football pundits are referring to as a “weakened team” for the sides midweek clash against Aston Villa.  Blackpool lost the match 3-2 in what was a very close game but Holloway had made 10 changes to the team that had faced Everton in their previous match.

This has resulted in bookmakers SkyBet and Paddy Power slashing the odds on Ian Holloway being the next Premier League manager to leave his post with the odds coming down from the 40/1 mark to that of just 7/1.

In post match interviews Holloway was asked if he had fielded a weakened team, Holloway was angered that the question was even asked and that is was purely his decision on which players he chooses to play from his squad. Holloway reiterated that he will not have anyone tell him which players he should choose,  he does not let the chairman tell him who to play and he will not let the Premier League dictate to him what squad can go out.  As Blackpool will be playing 3 matches in a week he needs to juggle the players available to him from his 25 man first team squad.

Even though Holloway could be described as a very passionate manager whether he would actually go as far as to quit his position should the Premier League take any action against him remains to be seen. He is more than likely calling the Premier League’s bluff hoping that if he makes a stand similar to that of Spurs manager Harry Redknapp he will avoid a fine. Redknapp escaped punishment earlier this month after he described Nani’s controversial goal against Spurs as a farce, he had threatened to stop doing post-match interviews if he was sanctioned in any way.

Last season Wolves were given a suspended fine of £25,000 when manager Mick McCarthy fielded a second string side against Manchester United losing the game 3-0, but Holloway has insisted that the players he put out in the game were his best 11 men at the time in a squad he is currently developing.

Mark McGhee awaits the boards verdict on his tenure

The Aberdeen managers woes continue this week as his side again faced defeat, this time at the hands of Inverness CT on Tuesday evening in a match he desperately needed to win to secure his position of manager of the Scottish Premier League side. Inverness won the game 2-1 with a first half penalty from Adam Roone created by Yoann Folly pushing Grant Munro in full view of the referee. Aberdeen got back on track in the second half from a goal by Andrius Velicka but the game was sealed by Inverness in the 81st minute from a Grant Munro header. All this was done in front of an attendance of less than 6,000 nervous supporters.

After Mark McGhee’s side suffered the embarrassing 9-0 defeat by Celtic at the weekend the pressure was on the Dons boss to have recorded a win in this match. Despite the poor result McGhee has vowed to remain on as manager of the club. This choice may be taken away from him by the board of directors at Pittodrie as they will be meeting in the next few days to make a decision on the future of the under fire manager.

The next game for Mark McGhee is away at top of the table Rangers where a win for his side is very unlikely and a loss here is to be expected. The bookmakers Bet365 are giving his side odds of 12/1 to win and 12/5 for the draw, the likely Rangers win is at 10/11.

Aberdeen have now slipped to 11th place in the SPL, just one point above bottom club Hamilton, the side have collected just 10 points from 12 games this season.

McGhee needs his side to bounce back quick following their 9-0 defeat

Aberdeen Manager Mark McGhee has said that he does not want to be drawn into questions as to whether he will leave the Scottish club following the team’s disastrous 9-0 away defeat at Celtic Park on Saturday other than that he was “highly embarrassed”. Both teams were reduced to 10 men by the 35th minute of the SPL game but Celtic were already winning the game by 3-0 at this point, but there was total collapse from the Aberdeen squad who gave away a further two penalties and failed to gain any real possession of the ball and therefore there were very little attempts on the Celtic goal.

Following the defeat there was a rushed boardroom meeting at Pittodrie in the aftermath of the teams worst defeat in their 107 year history, their worst previous defeat was also against Celtic in the 1989/90 season when they were defeated 8-0 at home.

Currently Aberdeen are sitting at ninth spot in the Scottish Premier League with 10 points from 11 games. McGhee has been in charge of the squad since 2009 when he took over the role from Jimmy Calderwood who was surprisingly sacked by Aberdeen in May 2009 just hours after he took to fourth place in the league and had got the team back into Europe. Under McGhee’s Aberdeen have played 57 games and won just 17 of them which has caused unrest amongst the fan base.

Aberdeen’s next game is against Inverness CT tomorrow evening and are with bookmakers Ladbrokes at odds of 11/8 to win the match, the draw is 9/4 and an away win for Inverness is at odds of 2/1.

Whether the board will change their mind remains to be seen as they are currently behind the manager but as soon as this changes we will have the odds for the next Aberdeen manager here.

Mancini ponders his next move will be

Earlier this week we reported on the challenging times  at Manchester City that lie ahead for City boss Roberto Mancini. We highlighted some of the problems that he was experiencing with players on and off the pitch and effectively, the rumours are that Italian has lost complete control of the dressing room.

Following this, there were several interviews in the press with members of the Manchester City squad stating that there were no problems at all in the squad and that everyone was fully behind the manager. As the old saying goes though, ”there is no smoke without fire” something we at the Sack Race are firm believers of and if you read between the lines in the interviews, there is definitely tension within the Manchester City squad.

While all this was going on, Manchester City were trying to play the game that their players are played extortionate amounts to do so and of late, having been failing miserably. Thursday’s result could be one of the final nails in Mancini’s managerial career at Eastlands as his side were beaten 3-1 away from home by Polish side Lech Poznan in Group A of the Europa League, making it the third straight defeat for City in all competitions. City had started the game well but that soon changed when Lech opened up the scoring in the first half, this was countered by a goal from Adebayor in the 51st minute. It looked as if both sides were then going to play for the draw but the Polish champions had some luck when a cleared free kick was rebounded off the head of Arboleda to score before a strike in the first minute of added time compounded Man Citys misery.

All this bad news for City has seen Mancini move up the pecking order to be the next Premiership manager to be sacked with bookmaker Paddy Power offering 13/8 about the Italian to be the next to go and he is sitting just ahead of troubled West Ham manager, Avram Grant, who is 3/1.

Will the 3-0 loss at home for Palace mean the end for Burley?

South London club Crystal Palace may soon be looking for their third manager of the year as their poor season continues. The sides last outing in the Npower Championship saw the Eagles slump to a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of high flying Swansea to keep the side bottom of the Championship with just 11 points. This has made this year the worst ever start in a decade for the Eagles who have won just one out of their last eight games and it makes the chances of the former Scotland boss George Burley getting the boot go down to odds of just 2/1 of him being the next Championship manager to be sacked.

The next closest manager who could be looking at the boot is Bristol City boss Keith Millen who is in odds supplied by Victor Chandler at 4/1, Bristol City are 2 places above Palace and 2 points ahead with both teams having played 14 games.

George Burley has only been in charge of the London side since taking over the role in June of this year from former manager Paul Hart who was appointed by the administrators. Hart managed to complete his assigned task of keeping the troubled Crystal Palace side in the Championship after he himself took over the role from former manager Neil Warnock who left his role as managers at Palace to manage Queens Park Rangers following the teams 10 point deduction for going into administration.

Since the deduction of points and falling into administration Palace have struggled to maintain any kind of results, as well as being bottom of the Npower Championship they were knocked out of the Football League Cup on penalties by Portsmouth.

Will Northampton Town's turnaround continue?

Things were not looking too good for Northampton Town’s manager Ian Sampson as he was at one point looking like being the next League Two manager to join the sackrace, but their 2-0 win away from home last night against league strugglers Lincoln City coupled with the  2-1 win against Gillingham at the weekend has given the manager of the Npower League Two side a bit of breathing space following their 5 previous defeats in the League.

The Cobblers will have a break of almost a week and a half in League as their next league game is not until 13th November when they take on Port Vale at the Sixfields Stadium before that they will hopefully progress past round one of the FA Cup after they take on Forest Green away from home.

Ian Sampson started his career at Northampton Town back in 2006 when he was appointed as the youth team coach and was soon promoted to the role of first team coach. When the then manager of Northampton Town, John Gorman resigned as manager of the side he was appointed as caretaker manager until the rest of the 2007 season. Town then took on Stuart Gray in 2007 as their permanent manager who lasted until 2009 and then Sampson was given the role of caretaker manager for the second time before being appointed full time manager.

Currently Northampton Town are at odds of 12/1 with bookmakers Bet 365 to be relegated from League Two at the end of the season and a massive 80/1 to be crowned League Two champions. On the goal scoring front former Coventry City player Leon McKenzie is at odds of 25/1 to be the leagues top goal scorer.

There are daily reports in the back pages of the press of upsets in the squad ranging from players not pulling their weight and leaving matches at half time once they have been subbed, to the great differences in wages amongst its star players. This is as well as much publicised spats at Molineux during half time between Yaya Toure and new signing James Milner as well as argument between Emmanuel Adebayor and defender Vincent Kompany. These reports grow stronger even after midfielder Gareth Barry (himself in the doghouse for getting caught drinking on a day off with City team-mates Joe Hart and Adam Johnson) said to the press that the squad is fully behind Mancini

There have also been some clashes between Mancini and some of his high profile players this season, Craig Bellamy has moved to Npower Championship side Cardiff in a season long loan move, Carlos Tevez has returned home to Argentina apparently due to home sickness and the £17.5 million signing Roque Santa Cruz is set to quit City in January, all this does not make a happy home!

Man City next play in form West Brom away from home and that is followed by a the all important derby fixture at Eastlands against local rivals Manchester United and already bookies are starting to queue up the contenders for the next Manchester City manager and top of the list with the bookmakers Sky Bet is Frank Rijkaard who was recently released from his contract with Galatasaray after he suffered a disappointing run of results, he is closely followed by the current boss of Turkey Guus Hiddink at odds of 9/2.