Premier League manager odds: Tottenham Hotspur, Everton & Crystal Palace
With just 50 days to go until the Premier League 2021-22 season kicks off, three clubs are still searching for managers to lead them into the new campaign.
While the reasons Tottenham, Crystal Palace and Everton are preparing for pre-season currently managerless are different in each circumstance, the common link between the three is just how big a challenge the new incumbents will face.
As it stands, Nuno Espirito Santo (Spurs), Rafa Benitez (Everton) and Sean Dyche (Palace) are the three favourites for the respective roles - but the markets have changed so frequently in recent weeks it is difficult to put much store in them.
Of the three, Tottenham have had the longest time to appoint a new boss - it is more than two months now since Jose Mourinho was sacked on April 19 - while Palace will have known long before the news was made official in mid-May that Roy Hodgson would be stepping down.
Is the fact that neither have filled the hot-seat as we approach the end of June an indication they are conducting lengthy due diligence on the right man - or a pointer that the rebuilds are potentially so extensive it is scaring suitors off?
Everton, on the other hand, were not expecting to be in this situation, Carlo Ancelotti's shock return to Real Madrid at the start of June having plunged them into an impromptu managerial recruitment mission.
Are all three clubs waiting until the end of Euro 2020 to name their new men? If so, why? And is that too late to install a new man at the helm, given the new season will be just five weeks away by that time?
Next Tottenham manager odds (via Sky Bet)
- Nuno Espirito Santo - 6/4
- Graham Potter - 3/1
- Steven Gerrard - 5/1
- Roberto Martinez - 6/1
- Erik ten Hag - 7/1
- Julen Lopetegui - 12/1
- Jurgen Klinsmann - 12/1
Odds correct at 0800 BST (25/06/21)
Why are Tottenham taking so long to appoint a manager?
One has to wonder if Spurs' search has seemed to take an age due, in part at least, to the uncertainty over the future of superstar striker Harry Kane at the club. Either that or they are waiting for second favourite Roberto Martinez' Euro 2020 campaign with Belgium to finish.
Let's face it, becoming Tottenham head coach with Kane at your disposal is a far more attractive prospect then having to replace a 30-goal-a-season forward. Especially at a club with expectations of challenging for a top-four position, even if Spurs have a decently-stacked squad.
At some stage, the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Paulo Fonseca and Antonio Conte have all been backed into heavy odds on favourites to become Mourinho's successor - only for all three to reportedly turn down the job and drift well out in the betting.
Indeed, on Wednesday, the name of Sevilla boss Julen Lopetegui was added to the growing list of managers to reject the Spurs job.
This has turned the Spurs manager hunt into somewhat of a saga, and an embarrassing one at that, so perhaps it's no surprise that a slightly less glamorous name, that of Brighton boss Graham Potter, has now emerged to head the market.
Thus far, Tottenham appear to have been attempting to attract a supposedly higher calibre of manager, someone for whom the job might seem a sideways step or even a step down, especially should Kane leave. PSG's ex-Spurs boss Pochettino, ex-Inter man Conte and former Roma chief Fonseca all fall into that category.
Now, are they instead looking for a manager who would see the role as a step up? That would certainly be the case for Potter - even though Brighton appear to be a club on the rise, the Spurs gig is undoubtedly a much higher-profile one.
Potter earned plaudits for the Seagulls' season, with Infogol's Expected Goals (xG) model suggesting they should have finished fifth, much higher than their actual finish of 16th. If Spurs - who should have finished 10th not seventh based on xG - are looking for a manager to improve their process and progress, Potter could be their man.
Next Crystal Palace manager odds (via Sky Bet)
- Sean Dyche - 4/1
- Frank Lampard - 6/1
- Marco Silva - 6/1
- Steve Cooper 6/1
- Eddie Howe 8/1
- Nuno Espirito Santo 10/1
- Lucien Favre 12/1
Odds correct at 0800 BST (25/06/21)
Why are Crystal Palace taking so long to appoint a manager?
While Crystal Palace do not have the lofty ambitions of their equally-rudderless London neighbours, they are nonetheless an established Premier League club that has finished no lower than 15th in their eight seasons since returning to the top flight.
Much of that has been down to the underrated astuteness of Hodgson but with his departure, alongside a raft of experienced first-team players including Gary Cahill, Scott Dann, Andros Townsend, James McCarthy and Patrick van Aanholt, a huge summer awaits the Eagles.
And that's before we even consider Palace's own Kane-like transfer saga - that of Wilfried Zaha, who is believed to want away from the club. So, again, hardly an ideal scenario for any prospective managers to come in to.
Wilfried Zaha's numbers last season were up on the 19/20 campaign, with the Ivorian responsible for 30% of Crystal Palace's total xG last season. He would be a huge miss should he depart.
Frank Lampard was heavily linked after news of Hodgson's retirement spread and remains second favourite, while Nuno Espirito Santo appeared to be a done deal after his departure from Wolves, only to drift out significantly in the betting.
Intriguingly, the new man topping the market - and at odds of around 1/2 - is former Borussia Dortmund boss Lucien Favre.
It would be a considerable step down from the German giants for the Swiss coach, while Palace's last experiment with a continental coach ended in disaster with Frank de Boer's five-game spell in charge at Selhurst Park.
Whomever takes the reins has a big rebuilding job to undertake with so many players leaving the club this summer - and given Lampard performed miracles in his first season with a then transfer-embargoed Chelsea, it's perhaps a slight surprise the Eagles have not snapped him up.
Next Everton manager odds (via Sky Bet)
- Rafa Benitez - 2/7
- Nuno Espirito Santo - 5/1
- Lucien Favre - 12/1
- Paulo Fonseca - 12/1
- Graham Potter - 14/1
- Duncan Ferguson - 18/1
- Christophe Galtier - 20/1
Odds correct at 0800 BST (25/06/21)
Who should Everton appoint to replace Carlo Ancelotti?
Such is the rivalry between the red and blue halves of Merseyside that some Everton fans appear to be resistant, even hostile, to the idea of former Liverpool manager Benitez succeeding Ancelotti at Goodison.
The Spaniard is surely a manager any other non top-six club would love to have in charge, with a win ratio just under 50% across a managerial career that has spanned a number of big top-flight clubs in England, Italy and his native land.
He is revered by Newcastle supporters who would have him back in a heartbeat and, in truth, are the Toffees a much bigger club than the Magpies?
In some ways they under-delivered under Ancelotti - despite actually finishing two places higher, in 10th, than their performances merited according to the Infogol xG model, which suggests they should have ended up 12th.
After that underwhelming 10th-place, their challenge will be to retain the likes of James Rodriguez, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison, Jordan Pickford and Lucas Digne, among others, players who will likely have plenty of suitors elsewhere.
The arrival of Benitez could yet persuade such players to remain, while the other managers in the betting - including Nuno, who appeared as close to the Everton job as he was the Palace one at one stage - might not boast such allure.
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