Market Wide Open for Shrewsbury Next Manager - Latest Odds

The current favourite for the Shrewsbury managerial job being a 4/1 shot with the bookies is probably an indication that there isn’t a standout candidate. Michael Duff is the man to currently lead the betting.

Duff has a proven track record in the lower leagues having won promotion from the fourth tier with Cheltenham in the past before comfortably keeping them up in League One. A decent job at Barnsley, again in League One, followed before a swing and a miss at Championship level.

This season Duff has been up against Shrewsbury, beating them twice, having managed playoff contending Huddersfield. He was relieved of his duties earlier this month. Such a recent sacking and perhaps the belief he’ll get another job in League One make us think this is an unlikely appointment.

Any Shrewsbury move for Rob Edwards is surely a mightily bold one. Sure, you can point to the awful season Luton have endured this season but, make no mistake about it, there will be plenty of clubs higher up the pyramid than League Two willing to take a punt on Edwards.

Edwards having roots not too far from Shrewsbury, alongside having spent a period on loan with the club when a player and having already proven himself as a capable manager in the lower leagues are all reasons to make the connection between the 42-year-old and the vacancy but, even after a sacking, there is no way Edwards takes such a backwards career step.

That’s our view anyway; we wouldn’t touch this bet at 5/1.

Now we’re potentially talking. Like Duff and Edwards, Leam Richardson has enjoyed jobs further up the Football League than where Salop are heading but we don’t think this is a wild link.

Richardson’s main experience as a coach has come in assistant roles and whilst he’s got a resume that boasts success as a number one, pretty much all of that came at Wigan. The argument could be made that he profited from creating wave of momentum out of adversity in that job; it is no mean feat but, equally, he has been unable to follow it up with two failures on his CV since – namely failing to continue that progress at Wigan and then at Rotherham.

Admittedly his latest job, with the Millers, was in the Championship but two wins from 24 games, an 8% win ratio, is appalling and will put off a host of League One sides from appointing him. If Richardson is to go again, you feel he might need to go into a club and build something; Shrewsbury could give him that chance.

Craig Harrison being linked to the Shrewsbury job is an interesting one. The Gateshead born former Crystal Palace defender has only had one managerial job in English football, which ultimately ended in a rather drab failure at Hartlepool after just 10 months. It didn’t knock him though.

Hartlepool took a chance on Harrison after he had enjoyed a period of dominance in the Welsh Premier League. He returned to Wales after his Hartlepool sacking and has largely dominated in recent seasons with six pieces of silverware to his name across two different clubs whilst also not disgracing himself in a handful of Conference League matches.

Of course, the neigh sayers would say Harrison’s successes are no different to when he came up short in the National League with Hartlepool, but even now he’s only 47-years-old and would surely have learned plenty of lessons since then. This would be a progressive move and one Harrison would surely jump at.

If you’re looking for a bigger price then what about a wildcard pick of former Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson? Pearson’s health would potentially be a massive stumbling block to any appointment but the latest public noises on that were that things were moving in the right direction.

Pearson’s days in the top couple of leagues are almost definitely done now, unless he earns his way back there with a club. Could Shrewsbury be that club? He did spend six years there as a player.

Unlikely, for sure. Impossible, definitely not.