Next Premier League Football Player To Become Manager Betting

As the Barclays Premier League reputation for excellence and global reach continues to go from strength to strength, the associated online football betting markets expand at a similar rate of knots to cater for the frequent internet sports bettor; courtesy of our friends at the web's leading bookmakers. One such area we reckon is set to explode is that of Next Premier League Football Player To Become Manager betting. Think about it. Just how many former Barclays Premier League players of the last 17 years have made the difficult transition from revered player to respected manager? And that's ignoring the entire Manchester United class of the 1990s including Roy Keane, Steve Bruce, Mark Hughes, Bryan Robson and Paul Ince.

There's a myriad of football betting specials provided by the big online football betting bookies out there that cover various tasks inadvertently part of the Next Premier League football player to become manager betting remit. There's always much speculation surrounding the Barclays Premier League's seemingly constant manager merry-go-round, with virtual Football Betting market after virtual football betting market questioning just who'll be the Next Premiership Manager To Get Sacked, Next Liverpool Manager, Next Hull City Manager, Next Portsmouth Manager, What League Gareth Southgate Will Manage In Next, etc. The perpetual linking of Premier League managers past, present and recently deposed with football clubs in the market for a new manager. And as year on year more of the Premier League's former players turn to football club management it's only a matter of time before the Next Player To Become Manager betting market comes into its own.

Shearer, Southgate, Zola And Sutton Most Recent Additions To English Football Manager Stats

Being avid viewers of the English Premier League since its inception in 1992, here at Free Betting Online we count ourselves as pretty much clued up when it comes to spotting a footballer's potential. Which is of course a primary concern from a purely online football betting perspective, being which is one of our mainstays. But rather than talking about being able to spot budding Barclays Premier League stars-in-the-making, we are instead waxing lyrical over recognising which past and present Premier League players are best suited for the big step up to manager once their careers on the pitch peter out. And both a turn of speed or radar-like knowledge for goal begin to wane.

It's the crossroads that most professional footballers dread the onset of the most we should imagine, the spectre of the end of you football career. What next? Should you just disappear out of view with dignity, with your head held high whilst at the peak of your footballing prowess (a la former Manchester United great, Eric Cantona), or persevere against the better wishes of your GP, family and rapidly diminishing army of fans who've previously supported you through thick and thin (Dean Windass anyone?) Wringing out the last few drops of a once proud footballing odyssey that's taken in the highs and lows of every conceivable aspect of the beautiful game. Should – if your body can take it – you decamp to pastures anew (usually somewhere in the Middle East, Indonesia or North America) for one last pay day, or should you instead quit while you're still ahead and concentrate on that fledgling horse racing vocation that's taken your fancy for a while now as you've been winding down. Ownership and training that is, as opposed to losing bucket-fulls of your wages Betting on.

Or what about the media? Do you have a calling for football punditry or commentary? Do you think you'll find some sort of inner contentment and belonging pitched up next to Andy Townsend on the ITV football sofa, chatting chuff to the poor man's Desmond Lynam? That's Steve Rider to those looking befuddled. Or perhaps on that score be meaningfully employed by your local newspaper to write a regular column on footballing going-ons and major talking points. Or maybe even getting behind the mic on behalf of your local (or national if you're any kop) radio station to report direct from the touchline/press box on the live action being played out before you. On a wet Tuesday night in Scunthorpe.

Roy Keane, Steve Bruce And Mark Hughes Have All Plotted Successful Football Management Courses

Or perhaps you dream of being one of the next generation of Barclays Premier League managers who have worked their way up through the ranks of the none leagues and lower leagues, gained your coaching badges and certificates and are now ready to throw your newly acquired managers cap into the fiercely competitive Barclays Premier League cut and thrust. Like the following selection of ex-Premier League stars who in their playing prime enjoyed accumulative successes for both clubs and country.

One such example is that set by Steve Bruce, once of Manchester United. Now a much in demand Premier League manager currently on the Sunderland pay roll, the no-nonsense former Red Devil's defender cut his teeth at Birmingham City and Wigan Athletic prior to being head-hunted for the vacant managerial hot-seat at Wearside's Stadium of Light. Mark Hughes, another of the Manchester United class of the 1990s is attempting to work miracles at Manchester City, having proved his managerial mettle for his national team, Wales and in the Premier League, at Blackburn Rovers prior to signing his Eastlands contract after the departure of Sven-Goran Erikkson. Likewise, Roy Keane, Lord Fergie's snarling, prowling midfield general of the same vintage as the aforementioned has proved himself worthy of future managerial greatness by way of his endeavours at Sunderland a few seasons back, having dragged them up from the relegation-haunted depths of the Coca Cola Championship to the promised Premier League land at the first time of asking. He's now charged with returning the sleeping giant that is Ipswich Town back to the big time, and guiding them out of Championship obscurity as soon as he physically can.

Bryan Robson And John Barnes Have Less Success On Taking Up Football Club Management

Elsewhere though, some of the Premier League's finest exponents of the on-field game haven't exactly recreated their finest hours off the field. Bryan Robson was Sir Alex Ferguson's 'Captain Marvel' during a glittering playing career at Old Trafford, however since turning to management – aside from a brief initial flourish at the reigns of Middlesbrough – he's found himself in the midst of a relegation battle at Boro, whilst being responsible for taking Bradford City and West Bromwich Albion down, before falling foul of the fans and board at Sheffield United who lost faith in his managerial style. While John Barnes enjoyed cult status amongst Liverpool fans during his late 1980s and 1990s heyday, when he eventually hung up his boots and settled on the idea of management things didn't turn out quite as impressively as he'd expected and we had envisaged. His tenure as head honcho at Celtic during the 1999-2000 season was short lived and blotted with abject misery, while his most recent endeavours at League One Tranmere Rovers was even shorter lived and was downright depressing for all connected as his legacy saw them left rooted to the foot of the table. And this was despite the glimmer of hope in between the two gigs when Barnes led his beloved Jamaica national side to a few wins during another brief spell in charge of a football team.

And then there's those former Premier League players who have endured mixed fortunes since taking the managerial ropes; like Paul Ince for instance. The ex-Manchester United and Inter Milan player got things off to a promising start at Macclesfield Town where he signed up as player-coach in 2006, before relinquishing his playing career to concentrate solely on the management side of things a year later after he'd ensured they avoided relegation out of the Football League. Only at Milton Keynes Dons. There he guided the club to the top of the League Two table, claimed the Football League Trophy at Wembley and won the MK Dons promotion to League One before he jumped ship for Premier League Blackburn Rovers. After six months of under-achieving Ince returned to MK Dons where he's still the gaffer. Tony Adams had the most upsetting experience of life at the cutting edge of a modern day football club though in recent times, as little did he realise just what he was letting himself in for when agreeing to take the managerial helm at Portsmouth FC. Mutinous players, divided board, confusion of the club's ownership and the fact that Pompey just weren't good enough cut short the former Arsenal legend's brief managerial encounter to date.

Aston Villa and Middlesbrough player-turned-manager Gareth Southgate has seen his bossing career fall hopelessly short lately too, as he parted company with his first managerial posting – Middlesbrough – earlier this season after successfully guiding them to Premier League relegation and Championship uncertainty. Prompting many ardent supporters to thinking he may want to find that famous Pizza Hut brown bag he shamefully hid behind after his Euro '96 penalty miss that was parodied so well at the time.

Ferguson Jnr Showed Much Managerial Promise After Guiding Peterborough To League One Promotion

What all the above have in common however, was the fact that by and large they were all pivotal contributors to their team's successful causes when employed as players, regardless of their sometimes less than celebratory achievements experienced from the managers' dugout. Conversely, there are certain current managers who can look back on much less meaningful and decorated Premier League playing careers, yet have shown pedigree stood in the technical area donned in a tracksuit or club blazer recently. Take for example Darren Ferguson. The son of you-know-who hardly has a mantelpiece full of silverware back home but in spite of this has started to prove his worth after guiding perennial under-achievers and steadfastly unfashionable Peterborough United to Championship football prominence.

Nigel Clough And Chris Sutton Are Part Of Next Generation Of Premier League Stars-Turned-Managers

Likewise Nigel Clough. After far from memorable playing spells at Liverpool, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest, the son of Derby County and Notts Forest legend, Brian has got his act together since turning his back on the more physical side of the game, and tasted the managerial good life with (then) none league Burton Albion, before moving on to Derby County. Whilst it's fair to say that the Rams haven't seen the best of him just yet, those in the game believe he's definitely one for the future. And then there's Alan Shearer. Shearer vacated the comfort and warmth of the BBC Match of the Day studio just long enough to not stop his beloved Newcastle United slip down the Premier League escape hatch, and by all accounts found he could take a lot from life at the footballing pit face, only for him to not receive a single offer from either the Toon or any other club for that matter in the meantime. Ironically, the other 50% of Shearer's famous SAS (Shearer and Sutton) strike partnership from their Blackburn Rovers days together – that'll be Chris Sutton then – has also just embarked on his own personal managerial odyssey with League Two Lincoln City. Watch this space we guess.

Finally in our former-Premier-League-players-who've-returned-as-managers-round-up we look at two mercurial talents. Ruud Gullit and Gianfranco Zola. There's no denying that Holland's Gullit was a footballer of sublime natural talents who lit up the Premier League whilst at Stamford Bridge, although sadly he couldn't emulate this at managerial level as Chelsea and Newcastle United fans will testify at every given opportunity. Gianfranco Zola on the other hand is shaping up well at West Ham United if he's afforded the rare managerial luxury of time and is definitely one to watch.