Padcast: O’Neill v Mancini – Who is due the boot?

Listen here | The sack race is one of the few races nobody wants to win. It’s up there with the race to the front of the Paddy Power canteen queue on mushroom pie day. Christmas is just around the corner and there’s a few chairmen with itchy fingers looking across at the managerial guillotine. […]

FEELING BLUE? The future looks pretty bleak for Bobby and his silly scarf

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The sack race is one of the few races nobody wants to win. It’s up there with the race to the front of the Paddy Power canteen queue on mushroom pie day. Christmas is just around the corner and there’s a few chairmen with itchy fingers looking across at the managerial guillotine.

Roberto Di Matteo and Mark Hughes have already had the boot from the men in charge and now the sack race is heating up again. Roberto Mancini has come under big pressure after City were about as useful as a 20p coin in Europe, and then Manchester United crossed town to end their unbeaten home run. We talk to Mark Ogden, the Northern football correspondent from the Daily Telegraph, as City travel to Newcastle with the real risk of falling nine points off the pace by Saturday evening.

It certainly isn’t all rainbows and lollipops in Sunderland either despite Martin O’Neill’s men thumping Reading 3-0. The Black Cats are just one point above the drop zone and face Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham and Liverpool before January 2nd. The Christmas period doesn’t look too much fun if you’re a Mackem.

Martin McFadden joins the show from A Love Supreme to declare his faith in the manager and tell us his wishlist for the transfer window. After winning just three of their 16 games this season Sunderland fans aren’t in the best spirits so we tried to cheer Martin up with a bucket-load of ‘fun Sunderland stats’ about a range of things from a rope factory, a stained-glass window and the Wear bridge. then it all gets a bit depressing again when we talk about their impending trip to Old Trafford.

Listen out for a smoking-hot 10/1 treble, the smartest place to put your pennies this weekend and the usual weekly cocktail of useless stats and misplaced faith in backing Southampton.

Padcast host Ciaran O Raghallaigh on Twitter
Padcast producer Josh Powell on Twitter
Betting: Newcastle v Man City

Betting: Man United v Sunderland
Betting: Premier League coupon
Betting: The sack race

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