Bookmakers had Carrick and Sage as the two shortest-priced names in the Premier League sack race earlier in the week, with Carrick at evens and Sage at 13/8. By Thursday lunchtime both men were out of work, and the market reopened with the Sunderland head coach as the shortest-priced name at 2/1. Matthias Jaissle of Newcastle had been priced at 10/1 before the sackings, with Oliver Glasner of Nottingham Forest at 16/1.
Manchester United sacked Carrick on Thursday morning. The club is reportedly close to appointing Mauricio Pochettino as his replacement.
Crystal Palace moved within two hours, dismissing Sage after a short spell in charge.
Bottom of the table, nine games in
Sunderland, newly promoted last season, sit at the foot of the Premier League after nine games. Their most recent result was a 3-1 defeat at newly promoted Coventry City.
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Across the opening nine fixtures the club has taken fewer points than any other side in the division. That is the structural problem the bookmakers are pricing.
Mick Brown warns of ‘serious threats’ to the job
Former Sunderland chief scout Mick Brown, writing for Football Insider, laid out the calculation facing the Sunderland board.
“Any manager who had his team bottom of the league after nine games is going to face serious threats over his job,” Brown told Football Insider.
Brown added that Sunderland had been keen to give Le Bris time on the back of last season’s promotion, but that the room for patience was narrowing. If results did not pick up before the international break, he said, the board would be “forced into a decision, rightly or wrongly.”
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Jaissle next in the market
Before the Carrick and Sage sackings, the second-shortest-priced name after Le Bris was Matthias Jaissle of Newcastle at 10/1. The next move in the market will depend on what Sunderland do with Le Bris when the Premier League resumes after the international break, the window Brown himself identified as decisive.
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