One of the late surprises in the Premier League this season has been the extent that Brighton have been dragged into a relegation battle with Cardiff City. Fulham and Huddersfield Town are already down, but with just two points standing between Brighton in seventeenth and Cardiff in eighteenth, fans of the club are beginning to worry over how uncertain their future now is.
As they come up to their final few Premier League fixtures of the season, either Brighton or Cardiff could be relegated down to the Championship. It wasn't likely to cause any major disruptions behind the scenes at the club, but Chris Hughton's job could now be under pressure as Paddy Power release next Brighton manager odds.
Former Huddersfield boss David Wagner 4/1 favourite
For some time now, David Wagner has been a 6/1 favourite to become Leeds United manager in the event of Marcelo Bielsa leaving. He appears in the next manager odds for a handful of clubs but he's given the shortest price at Brighton, where Paddy Power are pricing him up at 4/1 to replace Chris Hughton in the not too far distant future.
Looking likely to eventually be relegated down to the Championship, David Wagner left Huddersfield Town in January, removing himself from his position as manager by mutual consent. Since that point, Jan Siewert hasn't been able to halt their relegation, now confirmed to play back in tier two next season, but why David Wagner left the club is still up for debate, making it hard to trust him in a new role.
Based on the performance of David Wagner under an immensely tight budget at Huddersfield, he could work wonders at Brighton and Hove Albion. Other short-priced alternatives after the German-American include veteran football league manager Sam Allardyce at 11/2, Northern Ireland boss Michael O'Neill at 13/2, Preston manager Alex Neil at 9/1, and former Everton, Manchester United, Real Sociedad, Sunderland and West Ham boss David Moyes, also at 9/1.
The next Brighton and Hove Albion manager could come as a shock
As soon as the odds reach 10/1, we see a mix of more ambitious options, as well as some names that appear to be exactly the opposite of what Brighton and Hove Albion fans would want at the club.
Mentioning David Moyes is already something to be wary of after relegating Sunderland not so long ago, but the thought of Bruno Genesio and Thierry Henry both being as short as 10/1 is something of a concern, Genesio unknown to the Premier League after always working in French Ligue 1, and Henry being a dreadful appointment during his short-lived stint at Monaco.
How the odds have been calculated raises plenty of eyebrows, Red Bull Salzburg boss Marco Rose, former PSG manager Laurent Blanc, faltering Championship coach Gary Rowett and Spurs flop Andre Villas Boas all given the same 14/1 price to become the next Brighton FC manager.
It could also be worrying to fans of the club to see Alan Pardew at a lowly 20/1 price, as his last managerial stint in charge of West Bromwich Albion ended in failure. Another manager at the same calibre as Pardew is Harry Redknapp, who's become more of a celebrity than a football manager in recent months, making sense of his weighty 80/1 odds.
Coming in at a whopping 100/1, we expect that nobody will be getting behind Jose Mourinho to become the next Brighton manager. He was frustrated in leaving both Chelsea and Manchester United on bad terms, boosting any potential chance of him returning to the Premier League in order to prove a point, but he surely won't be moving to Brighton if he does decide to return to England once again.
