Guardiola odds-on for Man City as Mancini unlikely to see out season

Manchester City fans should not be too downcast as it took Chelsea and all of their millions the best part of a decade to finally win the Champions League, but for Roberto Mancini, he seems to have months rather than years to steer the ship.

Mancini certainly feels Man City were hard done by at home to Ajax, but the daylight rule does not exist and so Aleksandar Kolarov was correctly ruled offside.

Meanwhile, the Mario Balotelli penalty incident did look a spot-kick, but the situation could be deemed 50/50 with both men attempting to gain an unfair advantage.

It seems that Mancini used up all of his good luck in winning the Premier League on the final day, as in Europe much has gone against him.

He has been in the Group of Death for two straight seasons, but if a team truly are the best in Europe, they should be able to get through all obstacles put in front of them.

Needing two wins to qualify now and other results to go in their favour, 16/1 is the price that they do miraculously make the knockout stages, while punters can get 100/1 that they somehow win the Champions League.

However, the more serious betting opportunities seem to lie with the future of Mancini, who is considered unlikely to make it to the end of the season.

The problem he has is that the board will at worst demand progression and unless the Premier League and FA Cup double is achieved, there is little he can do to better last season.

It is 2/5 that Mancini is not the Man City manager at the end of the season and 4/6 that Man City fail to win a trophy in this campaign.

In terms of a Mancini replacement, Pep Guardiola is the logical and predicted option and is as short as 10/11 to be the club’s next manager.

This is plenty short enough though, as Roberto Di Matteo’s permanent Chelsea appointment on a short-term deal cries out that Stamford Bridge is the chosen destination of the former Barcelona boss once he has had a sufficient break from the game.

Therefore, Jose Mourinho may make more sense at 2/1, but it is unlikely that he will depart Real Madrid until at least they are out of the Champions League this season.

If Man City are thinking of axing Mancini over the Christmas period, Harry Redknapp may even come into the reckoning at 50/1.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.