The extraordinary scenes at Tynecastle yesterday came out of nowhere and will no doubt disappoint Hearts supporters, who will now question the rationing behind the shock sackings and the direction in which the club is heading. Hearts got their 2010/11 campaign underway with a respectable draw away to defending champions Rangers. This was followed by another 1-1 draw at Paksi in their Europa League Qualifying match. On Sunday they were beaten by a solitary strike from Dundee United’s, leaving them 9^th in the Scottish Premier League. However, this obviously wasn’t the start the club’s owner Vladimir Romanov expected and he opted to send Jefferies and Brown packing.

Jefferies and Brown led Hearts to 3^rd last season behind the Rangers and Celtic. This is a creditable achievement and is widely regarded as top spot among the SPL’s other ten clubs, such is the dominance of the Old Firm duo. If Romanov believes he can successfully break the mould of the top two just by switching managers then someone needs to point him in the direction of a library so he can open up a couple Scottish football history books. Not only is there a sizeable gulf in class between the Old Firm clubs and the rest of the SPL, but they also eclipse everyone else in terms of spending power and support, something that is unlikely to change in the forseable future. Hearts have at least offered Jefferies, who has a long and distinguished history with the club having made over 300 appearances and managed them on two separate occasions, the role of director of football, although at the moment it is unclear whether he will accept the role.

Hearts are now expected to put their faith in Sergio, who ironically lost his job at Sporting in February following the club’s Europa League elimination by Scottish side Rangers. Reports suggest the 43-year-old will arrive at Tynecastle today, where he is believed to take over training, followed by a press conference later this afternoon. His appointment is certainly a gamble as he has never managed outside of Portugal and doesn’t have a very distinguished managerial record. Nevertheless he is likely to be in charge for Hearts’ return Europa League Qualifier fixture at home to Paksi on Thursday. Betfred have Hearts as the 1/2 odds on favourites to win, with Paksi at 9/2 to come away with a win, and a draw priced at 11/4.

All odds supplied by Betfred

Inverness had a fairly decent season last year under Butcher as they maintained their top flight status with a mid-table position, he will find it tough to improve on that this season though and that is reflected in his price of 9/2 with Paddy Power to be the first Manager of the season to get the high jump. There are two other Managers currently also available at 9/2 as the bookmakers struggle to pick a favourite at this stage of the season, Danny Lennon of St Mirren and Kenny Shiels of Kilmarnock also know that a good start to the season is essential to their future job prospects according to Paddy Power.

The main story in the SPL will of course be the battle between Rangers and Celtic and we have a new ingredient this season as Ally McCoist takes sole charge of his first campaign with Rangers, he has been a successful Assistant to Walter Smith over the past few years but following the retirement of Smith he now takes the hot seat on his own. It will be an interesting time at Ibrox with McCoist under pressure to continue the good form of the team over the past few years, Paddy Power rate McCoist as a 14/1 shot to be the first SPL Manager to leave his post this season and that may attract a little bit of money over the next few days. McCoist is a legend at Ibrox and he is likely to be given plenty of time to build a new squad at the club if he struggles over the first half of the season, the blue half of Glasgow have won the League for the past three years and McCoist will be desperate to make that four in-a-row this year.

First SPL Manager To Leave Their Post During The 2011/12 Season

• 9/2 – Terry Butcher
• 9/2 – Kenny Shiels
• 9/2 – Danny Lennon
• 5/1 – Derek McInnes
• 8/1 – Jim Jefferies
• 9/1 – Stuart McCall
• 9/1 – Peter Houston
• 10/1 – Jim McIntyre
• 14/1 – Ally McCoist
• 14/1 – Craig Brown
• 20/1 – Neil Lennon

All Markets including supplied by Paddy Power.com (Not including Colin Calderwood)

Smith has spent over 11 years at the club

Smith had expressed that he wanted his assistant McCoist to become his successor and the assistant was being groomed for the position since joining the side. McCoist will now become only the 13th full time manager in Ranger’s history and he will start his tenure at Ibrox with a one year rolling contract. McCoist joined Rangers as assistant manager in 2007 along with Walter Smith who returned to the club for his second stint in charge taking over from Paul Le Guen. Prior to this appointment with Rangers McCoist had spent 15 years as a player with the team making 581 appearances and scoring 355 goals.

McCoist will remain the assistant manager for the rest of the season helping Smith to chase Scottish Premier League leaders Celtic who are currently 8 points ahead of Rangers. Rangers are placed at odds of 2/1 to retain the title with bookmakers Victor Chandler but with Celtic at odds of 4/11 it may be too late for Rangers to catch up. As well as facing their Glasgow rivals in the League they will also meet up in the Scottish FA Cup 5th round replay and the Co-operative Insurance Cup final.

However before all that they have to face Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon away in the Europa League on Thursday in the 2nd leg of the fixture. The first leg saw Rangers give away their lead as the tie finished in a 1-1 draw but with Rangers being given odds of 5/1 to win it may be a tall ask of the side to perform away from home.

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.

There was some worry that Lennon lacked the necessary experience to take on such a big challenge but he has employed some experienced names in back room staff to help him along the way, the stand out appointment is that of Stuart Baxter in an advisory role, he is will be taking on that role whilst retaining his position as Head Coach of the Finland National team. That appointment is thought to be a direct response to the board’s worry of the experience of Lennon and he will be on hand to help out the new Gaffer where needed, however Lennon proved last season that he has the skills to do the job to a high standard. He led Celtic to a good end to the season in the SPL despite not getting close to Rangers at the top of the table, he took charge of the club with the team 13 points adrift of their big rivals and ended the season just six points behind the League Champions.

Lennon has his new back room staff will be under pressure from the off next season with Champions League qualifiers to deal with before attempting to overhaul Rangers as the top team in Scotland, the SPL title has gone to Ibrox for the past two years and the Celtic fans will not want to complement another season in the shadow of their biggest rival from across Town. Lennon will know that he must get off to a flying start in his first full season in charge with a good brand of football the order of the day, attendances at Celtic Park were worryingly low during last season and only a winning team will attract the crowds back to Parkhead.

Rangers under Walter Smith have been hugely consisent in the League meaning they have pulled away from Celtic with relative ease and that is not good enough for a club like Celtic, Mowbray was unpopular with his style of play and when results started to slip he was given the boot after less than a season in charge at Parkhead. There had been some speculation that the Celtic board would be looking for someone more experienced than Lennon but after a decent end of season it now appears that Lennon will be given the opportunity to take the team forward. The Champions League will also be a big target for Neil Lennon next season with the club entering the tournament at the qualification stage, there would be no better start to his reign in charge than to lead the team to the group stages of the tournament.

It is expected that when Lennon is appointed as Manager that he will look to surround himself with some experienced men as that as seen as his only shortcomings, if he can get his backroom staff right then there is no reason to believe that Lennon will not be able to do a good job. Lennon will want to get the team back to winning ways as soon as possible with the the team playing in front of a half empty stadium at the back end of last season, he will know that if he can win over the fans then the feel good factor will come back to the club and they can launch an assualt on Rangers and the SPL next season

Should Forest get promoted to the Premier League then Davies is though to be worried about the transfer budget he would be given, he knows the team will need a big upgrade but the Forest board are unlikely to want to spend the excessive amounts needed. Davies is known as a feisty character and his record shows that he does not hang around at one club for too long meaning he may be ready to move on from Forest, this is despite turning the club around from a relegation club to a promotion chasing team in little more than a year. At the moment it is still Neil Lennon who is the favourite to become the new man on a permanent basis, Lennon has been in caretaker charge since Tony Mowbray was sacked and has made it clear that he is eager to take the role on a permanent basis.

Davies would be seen as a more experienced man for the job and a good alternative to Lennon should the board decide to go that way, he has led Derby to the Premier League in the past and now has the chance to do the same with Nottingham Forest through the play-offs. At this stage it is unclear how the Celtic fans would react to a former Rangers Player as their Manager but it is bound to be a difficult time for Davies if he decides to head to Celtic Park. He would quickly be forgiven though if he could get the team back to winning ways, the League title would be the order of the day after losing out to Rangers for the past two season’s.

Lennon is still clearly the front runner for the job and if he can finish the season well then it will be hard for the board not to recognize that, however Davies looks like being the best alternative as he has good experience down in England and looks ready to head back north of the border.

Next Permanent Celtic Manager Odds with SkyBet.com as of 21/04/2010

N Lennon 7/4
B Davies 5/2
M Hughes 7/1
A Pardew 8/1
A Curbishley 9/1
P Lambert 10/1
W McStay 12/1
C Levein 12/1
R Aitken 16/1
M Jimenez 16/1
D McInnes 20/1
R Keane 20/1
Bar

All odds are supplied by SkyBet

Next Celtic Manager Odds

Celtic’s season slumped to a new low last night when they were crushed by St Mirren 4-0 leaving Tony Mowbray under increasing pressure at Celtic Park, the team now lie ten points behind Rangers having played two games more to the disgust of the fans. Mowbray joined Celtic in the Summer after having a successful spell at West Brom but things have not worked out for him and he may find himself out of a job come the end of the season if results continue to disappoint. It has been a tough season for Mowbray with the team slipping out of Europe at an early stage and things have been made worse by their performances in the SPL which have handed the title to bitter rivals Rangers for the second consecutive season.

Mowbray took the 4-0 defeat to St Mirren on the chin by saying the club will move onto the next game but he knows that Celtic fans will not accept a result like that for too much longer, they are a club that is used to success and trophies and at the moment they are not performing anywhere near the level they need to be to keep Mowbray in the job. The Sack Race understands that Mowbray’s position will be reviewed at the end of the season so only a strong finish to the campaign may be enough for the board to give him a second season, the side are into the Scottish Cup Semi-Final and a win in that tournament now looks essential for Mowbray.

Celtic fans are growing increasingly agitated with the team’s performances of late and Mowbray knows that any Celtic Manager is measured against how they compare against Rangers, at the moment their fierce rivals Rangers are clearly the superior side. The last Old Firm Derby saw Rangers take a 1-0 win at Ibrox to all but end the Scottish Premier League title race with a couple of months of the season to go and that is unacceptable for a club like Celtic. Tony Mowbray could well find himself back in the job centre in the Summer if results do not pick up and he can convince the board and fans that the club are moving in the right direction. At this stage though the bookmakers are worried for hus future following the St Mirren defeat and he is now odds-on with Skybet to be gone before the end of the season.

Odds supplied by Skybet.com

Next Celtic Manager Odds With Skybet.com as of 25/03/2010 – Subject to change

N Lennon – 11/8
Paul Lambert – 5/1
Mark Hughes – 6/1
W McStay – 8/1
J Hughes – 9/1
Slaven Bilic – 10/1
Roy Keane – 16/1
John Collins – 16/1
Roy Aitken – 16/1
Derek McInnes – 20/1
Mark McGhee – 20/1
L Moravcik – 25/1
David O’Leary – 25/1
Henrik Larsson – 33/1
Other names on request

Next Celtic Manager Odds

The past few weeks have seen things go from bad to worse for Tony Mowbray and Celtic as they have failed to close the ten point gap that has opened up at the top of the Scottish Premier League, the club have looked decidedly shaky in recent weeks and are not looking like catching rivals Rangers anytime soon. Mowbray joined Celtic from West Brom in the Summer aiming to bring the SPL crown back to Celtic Park this season after Rangers picked up the title last term, however things have not worked out so far for Mowbray and he is beginning to come under increasing pressure with some fans starting to question his position.

The latest poor result came at the weekend when they could only manage a 4-4 draw with Aberdeen despite leading by two goals with just 15 minutes left, the defence is a particular worry for Mowbray who knows they will need to learn to keep the back door shut if they are to starting closing in on Rangers. Robbie Keane came in on transfer deadline day in a deal that Mowbray would help turn things around but he didn’t account for the defensive problems now facing the team. The crucial match is the Old Firm tie with Rangers at Ibrox at the end of the month, a win there could see the season turn around while a defeat would be unthinkable for both Tony Mowbray and the fans who are hungry for more silverware.

There has been more bad news out of Parkhead this week off the pitch as the club announced a huge drop in turnover, over the last six months of 2009 the clubs turnover was down a massive 22.8% with the failure in the Champions League cited as the main contributing factor. Mowbray knows the importance of taking Celtic into the Champions League group stages next season if he is to realise his dream of turning Celtic into a force on the European scene which seems a long way off at the moment.

Mowbray knows only too well that any Celtic Manager is judged against his success against Rangers in the domestic cup competitions as well as the Scottish Premier League, the Celtic faithful would be expecting their team to be at least on a par with their Glasgow rivals but at this moment in time they look a team short on confidence. It was a bust transfer deadline day for Mowbray as he tried to resurrect their season by bringing in the likes of Diomansy Kamara from Fulham and the marquee loan signing of Robbie Keane. Keane is a huge signing for Celtic and Scottish Football but he will need to produce the goods for Mowbray who has stuck his neck on the line for the Spurs player who is reportedly the highest paid player in Scottish Football history.

One bookmaker has opened up a market on whether or not Mowbray will last the season at Celtic Park and although at this stage Sky Bet are backing him to remain in the hot seat they are by no means certain at this stage, punters can currently get odds of 7/4 that Mowbray will not make it to the end of the SPL season. Those odds reflect the recent poor run at Celtic and the Mowbray will no that the upcoming fixtures could be crucial for his future at the club, the club have three games in a week coming up with away games against Aberdeen and Dunfirmline sandwiched by a game at home against Hearts. The under fire Manager will be hoping that his Celtic team are a few points closer to Rangers at the end of the week than they are now otherwise the speculation will increase with Celtic supporters growing inpatient.