Hughton has a problem at Carrow Road

The English Premier League is on an international break so now is a perfect time to cast a discerning eye over its futures markets and identify some value long-term bets.

The Sack Race is heating up with bookmakers falling over themselves to move Mark Hughes into favouritism as Queens Park Rangers struggles to live up to its pre-season hype under the former Wales national team boss. He is not much bigger than even money to be the first English Premier League manager to leave his post, with pre-season jolly Nigel Adkins at around 5-1 and 10-1 bar those two.

Hughes has received the dreaded vote of confidence from the Super Hoops board but, according to media reports, he will have until at least the end of the year to get Queens Park Rangers on track. Furthermore, the Loftus Road team has a decent run of fixtures over the next month and a half, including home matches versus Everton, Reading and Southampton, plus a winnable road game at Stoke.

Saints supremo Adkins has been trading at bad odds since betting on this term`s Sack Race began. The Southampton manager has a lot of credit in the bank for getting the south coast side from English League One to the English Premier League via back-to-back promotions and, even if he does end up being a victim of his own success over the last two seasons, he is unlikely to be the first coach replaced.

There is talk of a player revolt at Swansea but one would think that those rumours are wide of the mark. There are more reasons to believe that things are not so good behind the scenes at Fulham but, again, it is almost impossible to know for sure. What is certain, though, is that Norwich is playing poorly under its new manager, Chris Hughton, and that the Canaries have got a tough program coming up.

Hughton, who has the unenviable job of filling the Carrow Road void created by Paul Lambert`s switch to lead Aston Villa, must be tearing out his hair as Norwich struggles under his stewardship. No English Premier League team has scored fewer goals than the Canaries and only Southampton has conceded more goals than them. Their critics such as Ipswich fans would say that they were lucky to avoid the drop last term because their goal led a charmed life on many occasions. Now it seems that they are all out of luck.

Norwich has got home matches against Arsenal, Tottenham (English Capital One Cup fourth round), Stoke, Manchester United and Southampton, plus road games versus Aston Villa, Reading and Everton, between now and the end of November. That is a tougher schedule than any other side at the wrong end of the English Premier League ladder and, if results go against the Canaries, Hughton is going to have a problem.

The Carrow Road board has a history of making snap decisions once it thinks that it has made a mistake. Club legend Bryan Gunn was turfed out once Norwich`s directors were sure that they had erred in appointing him. Hughton could find himself in a similar boat before not too long. He should be the clear Sack Race second favourite and not very far behind Hughes in the betting. He is the value at around 10-1.

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12/10/2012     © Frixo 2024