Brighton and Hove Albion Under-18s manager Inigo Calderon has emerged as the new bookies’ favourite to take charge at Bristol Rovers with it now a week since the club announced the sacking of Matt Taylor.
The Gas had hoped that they would have had a new manager in place in time to take charge of their Boxing Day trip to Exeter City but were unsuccessful in bringing German Michael Wimmer over to England.
The former Austria Wien head coach was sounded out as Rovers’ leading candidate for the job but an appeal against a rejected work permit proved unsuccessful and now George Friend and co. will have to look elsewhere.
Wimmer is still priced at 6/1 by the bookies as the second favourite but the new overwhelming leading candidate is Calderon who is priced at 1/3.
The Spaniard hasn’t managed a senior team before but is currently in charge of Brighton’s Under-18s having played for the Seagulls for six years in both League One and the Championship.
Elsewhere, former Sheffield Wednesday and Watford manager Xisco Munoz’s name is still doing the rounds, as is another Spaniard’s in Aitor Karanka. Both are priced at 10/1 and 20/1 respectively.
Former West Ham United coach Kevin Nolan is still amongst the favourites, also at 10/1, after Football Insider reported last week that the current interim England Under-20s assistant was in the frame for the job in BS7.
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Naturally, there are also plenty of outsiders with former Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson, ex-Southend United manager Sol Campbell and current Cambridge United boss Garry Monk all amongst some of the names the bookies have linked to the job.
Here are the current top 10 names that the bookies have listed in association with Rovers’ managerial vacancy…
- Inigo Calderon – 1/3
- Michael Wimmer – 6/1
- Xisco Munoz – 10/1
- Kevin Nolan – 10/1
- Aitor Karanka – 20/1
- Paul Simpson – 33/1
- Sol Campbell – 33/1
- Garry Monk – 33/1
- John Coleman – 33/1
- Steven Schumacher – 33/1
*odds provided by BettingOdds.com and are correct at the time of writing