Sacked on Sunday? Meulensteen and Hughton on red alert

Who’d be a manager?

Most of them are on a hiding to nothing. Just ask Michael Laudrup, who lost his job at Swansea this week because of their midwinter slide.

Thoughts have already turned to which boss will be next to vacate their post and Fulham’s Rene Meulensteen is favourite.

His side travel to former club Manchester United this weekend and are massive 14/1 outsiders to upset David Moyes’ Red Devils.

Meulensteen conceded Fulham have hit ‘rock bottom’ after crashing out of the FA Cup to League One strugglers Sheffield United.

In all honesty that fourth round replay was a distraction for the Craven Cottage club as they have slipped to the Premier League basement since the original tie.

Fulham are odds-on favourites to go down and were four points from safety before the start of play on February 8th.

Wayne Rooney’s fantastic scoring record of seven in his last seven against Fulham must make punters sanguine about their chances of pulling off a shock at Old Trafford.

It also puts Meulensteen under major pressure. His January signings, including Greece striker Kostas Mitroglou, must hit the ground running or Fulham could be cut adrift at the bottom.

Club owner Shahid Khan has also recruited experienced coaches Ray Wilkins and Alan Curbishley onto the staff. Either man might step into the breach if he fires Meulensteen.

Any repetition of Manchester City’s 7-0 mauling of Norwich earlier in the season at Carrow Road meanwhile might make the position of Chris Hughton untenable.

Although results against title contenders will hardly shape the Canaries’ survival prospects, they are 6/1 to make it two defeats on the spin for City.

Manuel Pellegrini’s team must feel wounded after seeing their perfect home record go when Chelsea won at the Etihad last time out.