Bookmakers have made Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers fourth favourite in the list of Premier League managers tipped to leave their job, making him more at risk than Roberto Martinez at rivals Everton and even Chris Ramsey at relegation-haunted Queens Park Rangers.
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Odds on the former Reading boss vacating his position were cut across the board in the wake of the Reds’ surprise FA Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of lowly Aston Villa at the weekend, and remain as short as 19/2 in some quarters.
All of the mainstream betting shops now see the Northern Irishman as more likely to depart his position than the likes of Toffees head coach Martinez, who has failed to build on last season’s fifth-place finish, and Ramsey, who faces an uphill struggle to keep his team in the top flight.
While Rodgers is unlikely to guide his team to the coveted fourth-place finish in the league, therefore reaching the Champions League qualifiers, he has instead clinched fourth position in a table he had no intention of climbing.
It is in stark contrast to this time last year, when Rodgers came within a whisker of leading the Merseyside outfit to their first ever Premier League title, ensuring he had one of the safest hotseats in England.
Of all of his 19 counterparts, only Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini, Newcastle United’s John Carver and Sam Allardyce of West Ham United are viewed as more likely to leave their posts, either by resigning or via the dreaded sack.
The fact that Carver and Allardyce both have less than two months remaining on their respective contracts means they were virtually guaranteed to be at short odds, so Rodgers’ position in the list further demonstrates how much his stock has fallen.
His attractive brand of football has won him admirers but he is yet to win a piece of silverware in his managerial career.