Frank Lampard remains the bookies favourite in the Premier League sack race odds market but two others share a similarly short price.
Frank Lampard – (Best Price 4/1 | Worst Price 10/3)
We’re now just a few days away from the start of the 2022/23 Premier League season, and 44-year-old Lampard has been a constant at the top of the sack race market throughout the summer (4/1).
Most observers have been left underwhelmed by Everton’s transfer market response to narrowly avoiding relegation in May, despite the recent £20 million signing of Dwight McNeil.
McNeil became the Toffees’ third summer recruit and the second from Burnley after centre back James Tarkowski, who featured in 144 of the 152 games the Clarets have played in the Premier League across the last four seasons. The other new signing is Sporting Lisbon’s Ruben Vinagre.
But does the level of investment so far this summer signal a lack of faith in Lampard? Or is it just a change in approach after years of incompetent spending under owner Farhad Moshiri?
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Ralph Hasenhuttl – (Best Price 5/1) | Worst Price 9/2)
Hasenhuttl’s Southampton have been far from the biggest spenders this summer, but they have bolstered their squad with a series of smart looking signings.
For example, Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, local rivals Portsmouth’s Player of the Season in 2021/22, has come in for just over £12 million. Bazunu has been capped 10 times by his country and joins from Manchester City after loan deals at Rochdale and Portsmouth.
Despite this investment, and the positive response to other new signings including Bordeaux forward Sékou Mara and Joe Aribo, who opened the scoring for Rangers in May's Europa League final against Eintracht Frankfurt, the bookmakers aren’t convinced by Hasenhuttl’s long term future at St. Mary’s (5/1 in the next manager to leave market).
This probably owes mostly to their poor finish to last season, which at one stage included a run of five points from a possible 36. Hasenhuttl has also frequently been linked with other jobs during his near four-year reign on the south coast.
Jesse Marsch – (Best Price 6/1 | Worst Price 4/1)
The third and final member of the trio topping the sack race market is another manager whose side narrowly beat the drop in 2021/22. Jesse Marsch’s Leeds have since lost midfielder Kalvin Phillips to Manchester City and star wide man Raphinha to Barcelona.
However, Leeds can’t be accused of standing still themselves, having spent +£20 million on three players this summer and wrapping up five deals just a week into July.
Attacking midfielder Brenden Aaronson and right back Rasmus Kristensen both signed from RB Salzburg, while midfielders Marc Roca and Tyler Adams joined from Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig respectively. Winger Luis Sinisterra was a £22.5 million recruit from Feyenoord.
So why the lack of support for Marsch (6/1), who kept Leeds up and has overseen a positive pre-season campaign including a 6-2 win over Cagliari at Elland Road?
Probably because he is following in the footsteps of revered coach Marcelo Bielsa, who has been the sole exception to Leeds’ ‘hire and fire’ mentality in recent years. However, the fixtures have fallen quite kindly for the Whites aside from a week three home match against Chelsea.
Brendan Rodgers (Best Price 9/1 | Worst Price 7/1)
Something is clearly amiss at Leicester despite Rodgers leading the Foxes to an 8th place finish last season. Captain and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel looks poised to join Nice after 11 years with Leicester, star midfielder James Maddison is into 7/4 to join Newcastle after the Magpies lodged an improve bid, and rumours continue to swirl around the future of Youri Tielemans – the Belgian is 7/4 to join Arsenal and 11/10 to stay at the King Power.
Of course, players come and go at this time of year, but what are the Foxes doing themselves in the transfer market? Quite simply, nothing so far. We wrote in our season preview last week that they are one of just two clubs across Europe’s top five leagues yet to make a signing so far this summer.
Is this a balancing of the books coming out of Covid times? Or does it indicate more of a concerning lack of support for Rodgers ? Time will tell, but 9/1 looks a tempting price at this stage, particularly given Leicester come up against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United in their first five matches.
Bruno Lage (Best Price 12/1 | Worst Price 10/1)
A bit of a surprise inclusion on this list given that Lage did what he came in to do last season, cementing the club’s place in mid table after the exit of Nuno Espírito Santo. It’s also fair to say that Wolves meandered a bit towards the finish line having flirted with the lofty heights of 4th towards the end of January – in fact, they collected just two points from their final seven games to finish 10th.
So, Lage’s place in the top five of the sack race market (12/1) could, perhaps, indicate a bit of a hangover from the end of last season in the eyes of the bookmakers. It could, alternatively, be related to the club’s desire to play more attacking football. Despite the creditable finish, Wolves only mustered 38 goals from 38 league matches - a return only better than the bottom three sides.
And finally, it could be to do with the lack of transfer movement. The loan move has become permanent for Hee-chan Hwang, whose form fizzled out after a bright start, while Nathan Collins could prove a shrewd defensive recruit but really he is just covering the loss of Romain Saiss to Besiktas.
Wolves do have a kind opening run of fixtures to build confidence and ease any pressure on Lage, facing the likes of Leeds, Fulham and Bournemouth in their first five.
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