Who will be next Wolves manager after Vitor Pereira sack?
It was claimed ahead of the Burnley clash that Vitor Pereira had four games to save his job, but he did not get that long after laying into the unimpressed Wolves fans after the 3-2 defeat to Scott Parker’s newly-promoted side.
“What I said to the fans was that we worked a lot and we need to fight together,” said Pereira. “I understand the frustration but what I must say to them is that if we fight united with them we can win games and compete. If I were a fan at the end of this game I’d feel proud of my team.
“Two months ago they were singing my name thanks to the work we did last season (when Pereira kept Wolves up comfortably after arriving in mid-season). Now they sing my name maybe to sack me but this is football.”
Wolves have followed this up with a 4-3 loss to Chelsea in the Carabao Cup and a woeful 3-0 away loss to Fulham, with the latter result sealing Pereira’s fate. Most of the fan hate has been reserved for owner Fosun and executive chairman Jeff Shi, though their patience with Pereira has run out and he has been sacked with the West Midlands outfit bottom of the Premier League and winless in ten matches.
Here are the 10 favourites to replace Pereira at the helm based on the latest prices on oddschecker.com
10) Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Available after being brutally sacked by Besiktas and may now have to reluctantly acknowledge that sweet poisoned chalice of a caretaker job at Old Trafford isn’t going to be handed to him anytime soon.
8=) Kevin Muscat
He was heavily linked with the Rangers job but talks collapsed as Muscat wanted to stay as manager of Shanghai Port – who currently lead the Chinese Super League – until their season finishes on November 22. Doesn’t currently look as though Wolves can wait that long to appoint their former defender.
8=) Gary O’Neil
Has been out of a job since leaving Wolves late last year and became the favourite to come back and try and do to Pereira what Pereira did to him last season by making an awful start look even worse by bringing about instant improvement.
Going straight back to O’Neil for another crack at the job so soon is just far too Serie A behaviour for Our League. Even O’Neil knows that as he’s reportedly pulled out of the running.
5=) Sam Allardyce
He’s a lifelong Wolves fan but surely the days of pressing the Allardyce button are long gone.
5=) Michael Carrick
Left Middlesbrough in the summer but remains a highly-rated young coach who might be more tempted by Wolves now than perhaps a few weeks ago when the prospect of a caretaker gig at Old Trafford seemed so tantalisingly possible.
5=) Rui Borges
Borges replaced Ruben Amorim as Sporting head coach and is doing a terrific job. Managing in the Premier League might be his end goal, but going from Sporting to Wolves is surely a step down…
4) Brendan Rodgers
Rodgers has left Celtic on spectacularly bad terms, incurring the owner’s wrath after his departure for behaviour such as comparing the quality of his side to a Honda Civic in blatant criticism of the lack of investment in the squad over the summer and overseeing consecutive defeats to Dundee and Hearts, who now hold a commanding lead over them at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
No compensation would again be an attractive draw for his appointment, and we’d imagine there might be some other struggling Premier League bosses a touch miffed to see Brendan suddenly available.
2=) Robbie Keane
Keane has managed in India and Israel, and is currently in Hungary, where he has won 13, drawn six and lost three as Ferencvaros boss. Undeniably in possession of Wolves DNA, but is he ready for the step up to Premier League management?
2=) Erik ten Hag
A 63-day sacking is hard to recover from, even when it’s not then followed by reports detailing how staff at Bayer Leverkusen were openly discussing whether you might have been ‘the worst manager in the club’s history’.
Is it fair or right that anyone considering handing Ten Hag a Premier League job would have to consider the sheer extent to which he would become an instant figure of ridicule? Probably not. But it is undoubtedly the reality.
1) Rob Edwards
Has only been at Middlesbrough for about five minutes, but you can never rule out the temptation offered by another crack at the Premier League. Especially when a wide-open Championship offers so few guarantees this season even for a team currently third in the table.
