Why Newcastle boss will be gone before Man Utd man gets sacked
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Speculation continues to mount that Louis van Gaal will be given the boot by Manchester United, but another Premier League manager needs to be more concerned about being shown the door.
Steve McClaren has lost 14 of his 26 Premier League games in charge of Newcastle United and rumours are circulating that Mike Ashley is feeling anxious.
According to Bleacher Report, the Magpies owner is weighing up whether or not to sack the 54-year-old boss in order to get the club out of relegation trouble.
Time could be running out for the English gaffer, with Ashley planning to use the next two home games as a barometer as to whether or not to bin the manager.
Bournemouth and Sunderland will provide the opposition for those matches, with defeat at the hands of both relegation rivals a worthy cause for dismissal.
Obviously, this will be a troubling turn of events for McClaren, but savvy punters will be in for a good time.
The Newcastle boss is currently priced at 7/1 to be the next Premier League manager to leave and is only the fifth favourite.
Van Gaal leads the way, while Remi Garde, Guus Hiddink and Manuel Pellegrini are all ahead of the former England boss.
Of course, Pellegrini and Hiddink are guaranteed to go at the end of the season, leading to their 6/1 odds, but McClaren won’t last that long.
The Magpies invested heavily in the January transfer window as the club parted with £29m to bring in Jonjo Shelvey, Andros Townsend and Henri Saivet.
That brought their spending for the season up to £77.5m and McClaren hasn’t got his team playing to the level you would expect from a squad assembled at such expense.
Newcastle have lost two of their three games since the window closed, including a humiliating 5-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea in their last match, and are 18th in the table.
This level of underperforming despite substantial investment has to be a worrying sign and Ashley would be wise to act before Championship football becomes inevitable.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
