Another one bites the dust

The process of recruiting a new manager has taken another twist this afternoon as Preston Chairman Derek Shaw speaks out to claim that Davies will not be filling the Valley vacancy.

"I have been informed by Charlton that they are going to 'move on'.
Charlton will not be pursuing Billy Davies any more and said they would like to thank PNE for our co-operation and apologise for any disruption to our club."

I was at work when this news broke, and the bringer of bad news to my desk claimed that Davies had turned us down. I'm mightily glad to get home and read that the opposite is true because having 2 'up and coming' managers (Davies and Taylor) come to an interview and promptly reject the move might well have sent a subliminal to other managers yet to be approached. A kind of 'well both of them have already turned it down, perhaps they know something that I dont' message.

That's also twice now that the odds on a particular manager have absolutely crashed over the space of a 24 hours period, and then the crash has been proved unmerited. It looks to me like the few quid I put on Burley when he was 100-1 on Betfair (in the week of the Taylor interview) now looks a rather sound investment. New York Addick fancies him, anyway...

Parkinson is another name that refuses to go away, but after his murmurings of discontent over the fact that our first approach to Colchester was turned down, are we really the sort of club that would nip in and make a sneaky second approach to the same club, so soon after being rejected the first time? I don't think we are, but I wish that we were.

As I write this, the odds on the new man are:

Iain Dowie - 8/15
Phil Parkinson - 5/1
Sammy Lee - 8/1
Mick McCarthy - 20/1
Martin Allen - 32/1
Billy Davies - 40/1
George Burley - 40/1
Martin O'Neill - 110/1

In an ideal world my wish list from that little lot would be topped by the deep thinking man-motivator Martin O'Neill. In reality though, I would expect that one of those top two will be in place before too long. I wouldn't bet on it though, not any more.