Redfearn the fourth new favourite to take over at Leeds
Published:Neil Redfearn has emerged as the latest favourite to take over as manager of Leeds and can currently be backed at 5/4 to replace Simon Grayson.
The next manager market has been largely topsy turvy, with Neil Warnock, Lee Clark and Billy Davies all previously spending time at the head of the market.
However, the threesome have since drifted in the football betting, with Neil Warnock now 7/2 , Clark 9/1 and Davies 11/4, following comments from Leeds chairman Ken Bates that caretaker manager Redfearn will be given the next three games to prove he is the best man for the job.
Following an impressive 3-0 victory away to Bristol City last weekend, Redfearn will face Brighton at home on Saturday before entertaining Doncaster and Coventry in the space of a week, who are two of the bottom three teams at present in the Championship table.
On paper this looks like an appealing set of fixtures for Redfearn to pick up maximum points, which could very well leave Leeds in the play-off positions, as the club currently sit just two points off a place in the top six.
Redfearn would appear to be Bates’ favoured candidate with the former Chelsea chairman surely alluding to the former Barnsley midfielder when he stated on Yorkshire Radio that the selection of a new Leeds manager was a ‘big appointment, not necessarily in name’, in addition to stating Redfearn ‘had made an impressive start’.
Bates’ transfer dealings have proven him to be unwilling to invest large sums of money into the club, so given that Redfearn’s only previous managerial experience has come in the lower leagues, the chairman may feel that he would be more willing to work in this environment where star players such as Jermaine Beckford and Jonny Howson have been sold in recent times.
This is in contrast to more experienced managers such as Warnock and Davies who would surely want to be given strong backing in the transfer market in order to match Bates’ seemingly high expectations.
Bates’ preference for a more low key appointment was signalled when he claimed to have rejected an application from Sven Goran Eriksson.
