Odds of Kevin MacDonald staying on as Aston Villa’s manager shortening

The news on Aug. 30 that Bob Bradley has been re-signed as manager of the American football team means he’s not going to be taking over the reins at English Premier League club Aston Villa. However, the odds are Villa will be naming a permanent manager sometime soon. Bradley was one of the favourites to take over the job after former manager Martin O’Neill walked out on the team a few days before the season got underway.

Bradley’s signing means that Sven Goran Eriksson is back in the running for the job, but it seems Eriksson’s in the running for every managerial job in the world, so I don’t know how much stock you want to put into it. Either way, sports book William Hill currently has Eriksson listed at second favourite to take over at Villa with odds of 11/4.

Surprising to some, current caretaker manager Kevin MacDonald is favoured to stay on for the rest of the season at odds of 11/8.

Another surprise is that current Everton manager David Moyes has emerged as a pretty strong contender as he comes in next at 7/1. Moyes’ Everton has gotten off to a pretty bad start to the season and he’s been with the Merseyside club for years now, taking over there in 2002.

The shocks just keep on coming though as next in line we find Mark Hughes at 12/1. This is another odd bet as Hughes just took over as manager at Fulham. He had hoped to be picked up by a bigger team, such as Liverpool, but settled with the less-glamorous London side. It’s unlikely Hughes will move over to Villa as the club would probably have to dish out quite a bit in compensation to Fulham to get his services. In addition, it wouldn’t do Hughes’ image much good by leaving his new club after just a few games. If he did, his reputation would become as tarnished as Eriksson’s.

Alan Curbishley, Jurgen Klinsmann, Gareth Southgate, and Gerard Houllier are all listed as outside bets with odds of 14/1. It was reported over the last several days that the USA were holding talks with Klinsmann, but patched things up with Bradley instead.

Former Argentina manager Diego Maradona was being considered the other week, but he’s now listed at 40/1 as Villa has stated they’re looking for an experienced manager for the job.

When all is said and done, we might just see Kevin MacDonald stay on as manager unless Villa make an announcement pretty soon.

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