Steve joined from Wigan Athletic in 2009 and led Sunderland to 10th place at the end of the last season. At that time, there wouldn’t even be free bets going on for Bruce to be the first Premiership Manager to get the sack! Especially with the signing of 10 new players - including O’Shaea and Wes Brown from ManU.

However, with the departure of Darren Bent, Sunderland never looked like the same club and results suffered. Scoring goals was the bogey man and this was only made worse with Asamoah Gyan leaving the club in September. To be fair, online betting markets did reflect the dire position Steve was in - but it all came to a head with the loss at home to Wigan in the last seconds of the game.

It is a sad state of affairs when managers of his calibre find themsleves as betting favourites to get the sack - and as a football supporter, I am realy concerned that players are not held (in part) responsibile for the situation in which clubs like Sunderland find themselves. In reality, I suspect it is just easier to hold one guy accountable, since it’s easier to find yet another scapegoat for a run of bad results. But it is worrying that in the most cases, players get higher wages that the managers and therefore should be more accountable, but in reality this is far from the case.

Anyway, online betting at William Hill for the next Sunderland Manager has Martin O’Neill as the 4/11 favourite, but Mark Hughes is looking pretty strong at 2/1; along with the usual suspects like Rafa, Hiddink, and Bob Bradley. If you’re not a member of William Hill, join now and use the £25 free bets promotion to have a go on Hughes taking up the post!