Take advantage of Palace boss’ drift in next Bolton manager market

Dougie Freedman remains favourite to succeed compatriot Owen Coyle at Bolton Wanderers, yet his slight drift in the betting comes as a surprise after some very non-committal comments regarding his future at Crystal Palace.

The Scot is priced at 5/4 to take the reins at the recently relegated club, having masterminded the Eagles surge up the Championship table following a run of six wins from seven matches.

His appointment will be viewed as a slight as far as Palace fans are concerned, who have endured a season-and-a-half of mediocrity under his stewardship, aside from a Capital One Cup semi-final appearance, only to turn his back on them at the first sign of interest from elsewhere.

When quizzed on the issue, Freedman answered: “I cannot deal with speculation. I have too much to do in this job.”
This was hardly a staunch display of commitment to the club he made well over 300 appearances for as a player and it could be easily interpreted that he has half an eye on the Trotters’ hot-seat.

With this in mind, back 12/5 Millwall to draw a line under Palace’s purple patch when the sides clash at Selhurst Park in their next Championship fixture.

History tells us that when a manager wants a change of scenery he gets it and, if Freedman’s hedgy comments are to be read into at all, his inflation in price represents a rare opportunity for punters to get one up on the bookies.

Changing manager seems to be all the rage in Lancashire and, according to Ladbrokes, Tim Sherwood is poised to be the new man installed at Blackburn.

He’s odds on at 8/13 to pick up where Steve Kean left off and the Ewood Park legend has been subject of more than one Rovers approach according to various reports.

Spurs have knocked them back on every occasion but, should Sherwood decide to make the jump from first-team coach to manager, a compromise between the two clubs would surely be reached.

It seems as though the controversial Rovers hierarchy have settled on a very attainable number one candidate, which makes backing anyone else futile at this stage.

It seems unlikely that the second-favourite for the post, Blackpool’s Ian Holloway, would desert the sweet gig he has at Bloomfield Road for the uncertainty of his Lancashire rivals, as it also doubtful that strong-willed chairman Karl Oyston would hop on the manager-swapping bandwagon that’s cruising through the north-west at the moment.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date