The usual suspects have popped up as the oddsmakers have their say on “next up” in the managerial hot seat at White Hart Lane, the man who will replace Andre Villas-Boas for Spurs.
I always say: “Oddsmakers may not know everything … but they sure know a lot.” If anyone ever doubts that bit life knowledge, I point them toward one of those lavish, luxurious, ridiculously opulent towers getting ever bigger and better in Vegas or Macau and finish the argument with a smug and unapologetic, “I rest my case.”
So I found it quite surprising when the oddsmakers listed 90 or so potential candidates … and not one of them was named Bob Bradley!
Are we really that much of a soccer backwater here, that a man who was quite well respected globally – truly, more than he was respected in his own land – and a man who did well enough with Egypt can’t get a mention?
It wouldn’t be so bad except for some of the other names mentioned.
Here is the link, which includes names and odds assigned by several of the legal sites overseas:
Someone from this list will probably have the job in the coming days or weeks. But some are hard to take seriously. To wit, the fascinating names include:
- Jurgen Klinsmann: Generous at 20-1, considering he just signed a new four-year deal with the United States and seems about as likely now to bolt for a coaching job in North London as Sunil Gulati himself.
- Ledley King: A Spurs legend, to be sure … but never coached a moment in his life, far as I can tell.
- Alex Ferguson: Yes, because every a 71-year-old man who accomplished everything a manager could possibly accomplish in club coaching wants to start a “new phase” of his managerial career.
- Giovanni Trapattoni (pictured): He’s three years older than Ferguson! (And 38 years older than Villas-Boas.)
- Paolo Di Canio: because things went so swell at Sunderland.
- Diego Maradona: Surely they are just having a bit of fun with that one. Aren’t they?
- Steve Clarke: Wait, what? The guy on “gardening leave” at West Brom?