Blues boss Mick McCarthy is now some bookmakers' odds-on favourite for the vacant job at Barnsley, his hometown club where he started his playing career.
Having been very much an outsider in the early betting following Paul Heckingbottom’s departure for Leeds on Tuesday, McCarthy’s odds came in significantly this morning and, at the time of writing, stand at 8/11 with SkyBet and Bet Victor.
With Sky Bet Lincoln City boss Danny Cowley is second favourite at 6/4, current Tykes caretaker-manager Paul Harsley is third at 10/1 with former Leeds, Huddersfield, Preston and Sunderland manager Simon Grayson fourth at 14/1.
McCarthy, who celebrated his 59th birthday yesterday, was born in Barnsley and came through the ranks at Oakwell.
He made his senior debut in 1977 and went on to make 314 appearances, scoring 10 goals, before leaving for Manchester City in 1983, having been part of a side which had climbed from the Fourth to the Second Division.
It’s not the first time McCarthy has been the bookies' favourite for another job during his five-and-a-half-year spell with Town, the Blues boss, who is widely expected to move on when his contract is up in the summer, having been linked with a return to the Republic of Ireland role which he previously occupied between 1996 and 2002 on a couple of occasions.