Championship: PL prospects grim for axed Bolton boss

Owen Coyle's hopes of a return to the Premier League are slim

As Owen Coyle gets the boot at Bolton, history tells us that a Premier League return is unlikely to materialise any time soon...

FA cup semi-final to 18th in the Championship spells a disastrous fall from grace for Bolton over the last 18 months, meaning that Owen Coyle's sacking had a whiff of inevitability about it in the end.

Ever enthusiastic and energetic on the surface, the Scotsman's endeavours could not arrest a steady decay in fortunes which saw the Trotters slide out of the top flight after an 11-season stay.

A swift response was required from Coyle's side, but after the ten-game benchmark, a return of just three wins was desperately short of where Bolton needed to be.

However, in the concertinaed world of the Championship, Wanderers' Premier League experienced squad are still 6.3n/a to earn immediate promotion, with no-nonsense Mick McCarthy the media fancy to take Coyle's place.

The prospects for the former Burnley boss don't look good either as a glance at the employment status of the three relegated managers from 2011/12 tells us.

Steve Kean was frozen out at Blackburn and Terry Connor suffered a similar fate at Wolves, with neither one looking likely to make a return to the dugout anytime soon.

In fact, of the last nine managers relegated from the top flight, only two of those are still employed in any capacity: Ian Holloway at Blackpool and Brian Laws in his less auspicious role as temporary director of football at Shamrock Rovers.

It would seem that the stench of relegation from the Premier League is something which is not easily removed.

Of the last 15 managers who have taken the plunge, not one is currently working in the top league.

Those are worrying thoughts if you are one of the managers which has made a bad start in the Premier League this season such as Brian McDermott.

His Reading side are ominously still winless and therefore one of the favourites for relegation at 1.814/5.

This will not make pleasing reading for Coyle either, whose best hope of employment will probably arrive in the guise of another Championship manager's misfortune, or possibly even further down.

Holloway earned his redemption by guiding the Tangerines to within in a whisker of an immediate promotion last season and, after a competent start, his side are invitingly priced at around 6.25/1 to go one step further this time around.