Next-Prem-boss-to-go candidate skating on increasingly thin ice

Even Premier League chairmen with the most saintly of patience have a tipping point and following a record-breaking 9-0 aggregate defeat in their League Cup semi final, Sam Allardyce is on precarious ground at Upton Park.

Although Big Sam has a book of excuses longer than Peter Crouch’s legs, the results do not lie and neither does the next Premier League manager to leave market on Ladbrokes, which has the Irons boss installed as the new 6/4 favourite.

That mantle had been taken up by fellow besieged boss Chris Hughton, though a 1-0 league win over Hull last time out seems to have acted as a mini reprieve for the current 3/1 shot.

Meanwhile, the storm created by Nicola Cortese’s Southampton departure appears to have blown away from St Mary’s just now, rendering Mauricio Pochettino a 6/1 shot, having been heavily odds on when the chairman announced his resignation.

West Ham’s co chairmen, David Gold and David Sullivan, have proved the models of patience thus far, though the voices of dissent from the stands are understandably growing louder.

As galling as the 9-0 overall loss to City was, four wins in the Premier League all season is not an acceptable return for a club of the Hammers’ stature, who currently find themselves locked in an 18-point three-way at the foot of the table.

While Allardyce can bemoan his bad luck with injuries with some degree of credibility, especially concerning star striker Andy Carroll, there is only so much shelf-life in this argument.

Allardyce’s trump card in the sack race it would seem, and quite possibly the reason he is still there despite such a torrid run of seven losses in nine games, is the expensive compensation package he’d be owed if axed before the end of the season.

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

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