Leicester City have sacked manager Claudio Ranieri just nine months after he led them to the championship, after the worst title defence in modern history. The Foxes are currently in more strife than the Mitchell family, and sit just one point above the relegation zone with 13 games to play. 12 months ago they were five points clear at the top of the league and had just won back-to-back games at home to Liverpool and away to Manchester City.
Now they’ve won just one of the last 10 in the league and haven’t scored a top flight goal since New Year’s Eve as they essentially go about writing the greatest story ever written, but in reverse.
With Ranieri gone Paddy Power make former City manager Roberto Mancini (5/4) the favourite to succeed the Italian, with ostrich-hating ex-Foxes gaffer Nigel Pearson (7/1) third in the running.
Frank de Boer has been out of work after getting sacked just 85 days into his Inter Milan reign, but he’s getting well backed at 9/2, while everyone’s favourite dad-dancing egotist Alan Pardew is an 8/1 shot to take the post.
If you want to ‘give it Giggsy till the end of the season’ he’s a 33/1 poke, while it’s nice to see Alan Curbishley floating around the 50/1 mark. He hasn’t got a hope, but it warms the heart just to see his name mentioned.
One of Paddy Power’s best looking PR people said: ‘So it’s a case of dilly ding dilly gone for Claudio Ranieri, after a patch of form worse than the Paddy Power five-a-side team. It looks like they could replace one lovable Italian with another, as Mancini leads our betting.“Or former boss Nigel Pearson could pick up where he left off – battling against relegation.”
*These betting markets on new managers are more erratic than a Donald Trump press conference, so please forgive us if they have changed since publishing