The money hasn't stopped coming for manager-less Hull
Premier League Relegation
It’s not been a great summer for Hull City after the delight of winning the Championship play-offs a few months ago. Steve Bruce has abandoned ship after falling out with the owners, who themselves didn’t want to stump up for new players and are desperate to see the club.
The fans aren’t too impressed, while Moses Odubajo, Allan McGregor and Alex Bruce are due on the treatment table until Christmas at least – leaving Hull’s squad skinnier than a catwalk model. There’s been a flood of bets on the Tigers to drop straight back down to the second tier, and more than a third of punters will be counting their pennies if Hull go down at current odds of .
Somewhat surprisingly is that 23 per cent of punters fancy reigning Premier League champions Leicester to suffer the same fate. They may have lost N’Golo Kante, but Claudio Ranieri has done fantastically well to keep hold of Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy. The Foxes are to go down – and although they’re more likely to be relegated than win the league () it’s hard to see them capitulating to the point where they end up facing the drop.
A smarter bet may be Sunderland at and 10 per cent of punters fancy the Black Cats to finally run out of lives. Their last four seasons have seen them finish 17th, 14th, 16th and 17th again, and despite securing the services of David Moyes as manager, punters aren’t convinced.
Swansea have lost Andre Ayew to West Ham and there hasn’t been too much investment from their American owners which may have gaffer Francesco Guidolin looking nervously over his shoulder. Nine per cent of punters are on the Swans to go down () despite five season of consistently finishing between eight and 12th.
Southampton () and Burnley () have also been supported, but presumably for slightly different reasons. Burnley came up as Championship winners, but in two previous Premier League attempts they’ve managed point hauls of just 30 and 33. Sean Dyche will be eyeing up a very unwanted hat-trick. Southampton have had their usual summer of losing their manager and star players but they always seem to bounce back to form in the league. This year Ronald Koeman, Graziano Pelle, Victor Wanyama, and Sadio Mane have jumped ship and at 14/1, six per cent of punters think the Saints’ luck is about to run out…