Paul Jewell Favourite For The Chop In Championship Sack Race

The 2012/13 Championship campaign will be characteristically as competitive as ever this season, with a host of clubs vying for the two prized automatic promotion spots, along with the four play-off places. Relegated Bolton and Leicester City start the season as the favourites for the title, with the likes of Wolves, Cardiff, Leeds, Blackburn and Blackpool also looking to make an impact at the top of the table. With expectation comes pressure and we take a look at the managers who could crumble early on in the season.

Paul Jewell starts the new season as the 4/1 favourite with Stan James in the Next Championship Manager To Leave His Post betting market. Jewell came under-fire last season following Ipswich Town's dreadful start to the campaign, where they lost their opening three matches, including a 7-1 pummelling at the hands of newly-promoted Peterborough. Between October and December 2011 Ipswich also suffered a nightmare seven defeats in a row, with Jewell fortunate to hold on to his job, before eventually guiding the Tractor Boys to 15th. The owners will not be so lenient this season meaning a poor start would see Jewell sent packing.

Eddie Howe is the man next in line for the chop with odds of 6/1. Since taking over at Burnley he has guided the club to 8th (2011) followed by a disappointing 13th last season, which simply isn't good enough. Burnley supporters crave a return to the Premier League and want to see their club challenging for a play-off place at the very least.

Sven Goran Eriksson was sacked by Leicester City early on in the previous campaign following the club's below-par start. City's owners, King Power, have spent heavily in the last year in an attempt to get the club back in the Premier League. City started the 2011/12 campaign as favourites, only to collapse under the pressure. They are again among the frontrunners for promotion and the 10/1 priced Nigel Pearson will be hoping that he doesn't suffer the same fate as Sven.

Darren Ferguson is currently in his second spell at Peterborough United. The club’s ambitious yet controversial chairman Darragh MacAnthony has a ruthless streak, highlighted by the fact that the manager’s job has traded hands six time since his arrival in 2006. MacAnthony and Ferguson have had their problems in the past and if these issues were to resurface early on in the campaign then the 10/1 priced manager could well be in trouble.

Elsewhere Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean will be hoping for a more successful season following a torrid 2011/12 campaign. Rovers won just one of their opening 13 league matches last season and if they stutter towards the start of this season then surely he will be on his way out, with the Scotsman an attractive price at 12/1 in the betting. Meanwhile Bolton's Owen Coyle has been handed odds of 16/1 to be the first to get sacked, with Leeds' Neil Warnock available at the same price.

Next Championship Manager To Leave His Post Tips:

• 4/1 - Paul Jewell (Ipswich Town)
• 10/1 - Nigel Pearson (Leicester City
• 12/1 - Steve Kean (Blackburn)

Odds provided by Stan James.