Bristol City recently sacked manager Dean Holden, following a run of ten losses in 13 games since 9th December, which has seen the Robins slide from sixth down to 13th in the Championship table.
Assistant head coaches Paul Simpson and Keith Downing have been placed in temporary charge following City’s 2-0 loss against Reading on Tuesday.
Former Wigan Athletic manager Paul Cook is the favourite to get the job at Ashton Gate.
In his time as a manager, Cook helped lead Chesterfield to a League Two promotion and the following year lead them to a sixth-placed finish in League One. However, the club he had the most success with was Wigan. In his time at the Latics, he led the club back to the Championship in his first season as well as a memorable FA Cup run in which they reached the quarter-finals after beating AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United and Manchester City. Following the club being relegated to League One due to financial difficulties last season, Cook left his role at the Latics.
This would be a good move for Cook, as this would be the best managerial role that he has had yet, due to the talent in the squad, and this would provide the former Wigan man with a chance of leading a club to the Premier League if he can get things right.
Preston North End manager Alex Neil is next on this list of managers linked with a move to the Robins.
Neil has done an exceptional job at Deepdale on a limited budget, which has seen the Lancashire side compete for a place in the playoffs in the last two seasons.
The 39-year-old Glasgow born manager has had a promising start to life in management since becoming Hamilton Academical manager back in 2013, having led the SPFL side to the playoffs in 2014, as well as managing to get Norwich City promoted to the Premier League in 2015.
This move would be a progressive one despite both the Robins and Preston being in the same division, as he would be working with arguably a better squad of players, and with a much bigger budget than that which he has at Deepdale.
Neil is priced at 6/1 to succeed Dean Holden as City manager.
Former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe is next on the list of managers linked to the vacant role at the Robins.
Howe has not had a job since leaving the Cherries following their relegation from the Premier League at the end of last season. He is best known for his time at the south coast club, managing them for 12 years till his departure in 2020, with a one and a half-season spell at Burnley separating his two spells at Deans Court between January 2011 and October 2012. His time at Bournemouth saw him take the Cherries from the bottom of the League Two table to as high as ninth place in the Premier League in 2016/17.
Howe may feel as though he could bide his time and be in consideration for other jobs that he has been linked to such as Celtic, Crystal Palace and Newcastle United.
Former Lincoln City manager Danny Cowley is also on the list. The 42-year-old hasn’t had a managerial role since being sacked by Huddersfield Town at the end of last season despite consolidating their Championship status having taken over the Terriers when they were in the relegation zone in early September following the departures of several key players in the summer window.
Cowley has a proven track record of overachieving with clubs, as he managed to get Lincoln promoted from the National League in 2017, as well as reaching the FA Cup quarter-finals with the Imps which was the first time in the competition’s history that a non-league side had achieved this feat.
The former Braintree manager then backed these achievements up by winning the EFL trophy in Lincoln’s first season back in the football league in 2017/18, before winning League Two the following season, which saw the Imps go back into English football’s third tier for the first time since 1999.
This would be a good role for Cowley to take, as with his track record of overachieving, he will have a realistic shot of being able to get the Bristol side in contention for promotion.
Former Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson has been without a job since his controversial sacking by Watford last season, having given the club a lifeline in their eventual relegation back to the Championship, as when he joined the hornets in early December, they were seven points adrift of safety, when he was sacked the Vicarage Road side were three points clear of the relegation zone with two matches to go.
Pearson is best known for his time at Leicester over two spells as manager, having earned them promotions from both League One and the Championship, as well as laying down the foundations for their 2015/16 title win, having signed the majority of that team, including Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez and Kasper Schmeichel.
The 57-year-old is a Premier League standard manager, however, upon being sacked by Leicester in the summer of 2015, he did have a brief spell at clubs such as Derby County and Belgian side OH Leuven, showing that he is no stranger to challenge.
Pearson has the odds of 11/1 to join the Robins - Click here to claim this bet in your bet slip!
Lampard is the final manager on this list, having recently been sacked by Chelsea due to a poor run of form that had seen the Blues win just two of their last eight league games under the former Derby County manager over the festive period.
However, following the aftermath of his sacking, there were rumours of the Chelsea transfer team signing players that he wasn’t interested in bringing to the club, which was essentially the downturn in his form at the Bridge, as he managed to finish fourth in the Premier League with them in 2019/20 having had a transfer ban.
Lampard comes across as an ambitious man, and will more likely be waiting till the summer to see what decisions the likes of Celtic, Crystal Palace and Newcastle make on their current managers, as he will feel that he is of the standard to manage those clubs, and having managed at Stamford Bridge for one and a half seasons, a move back to the Championship would be a significant step-down.
