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The race for the vacant Portsmouth manager's market has provided fascinating reading over the past week or so and over 13 million has been traded on Betfair. Frenchman Alain Perrin was sacked on 24 November after steering the club into the Premiership relegation zone without a home win all season.

Perrin had only been manager since April 2005 but had won just four matches out of 21. He replaced an equally unimpressive boss in Velimir Zajec, who mustered five wins in 21 matches and was himself only in charge at Fratton Park for five months.

Neil Warnock was the first manager in the frame and eager punters backed him into 1.20 (1/5). The former Notts County, Huddersfield and Bury manager had been in charge at Sheffield United since December 1999 but had made no secret his desire to manage in the Premiership. Warnock was set to hold talks with Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric until he decided to remain at Brammall Lane on 1 December. His Premiership dream may yet come true as The Blades are sitting pretty in one of the automatic promotion positions in the Championship.

The best was yet to come. Harry Redknapp, who left Portsmouth for bitter rivals Southampton, revealed in a crunch meeting with Saints chairman Rupert Lowe that he had always felt more comfortable at Portsmouth after he was refused permission to speak to his former employers about a possible return. Redknapp's position became untenable and he walked away from the club he joined just 12 months ago.

Over 11 million was traded on Redknapp, with punters eager to "buy money" backed him at odds as low as 1.01 (1/100) although some shrewd players managed to get a few pounds on him at odds as large as 59/1 previously, creating a no-lose betting situation.

However, there was yet another twist in this tale. Mandaric refused to pay Southampton the 220,000 compensation they demanded the remainder of Redknapp's contract, since the former West Ham boss was still technically under contract, leaving him in limbo.

Mandaric has now expressed interest in other managers, with Northern Ireland boss Lawrie Sanchez, under-pressure Rangers manager Alex McLeish and former Hearts manager George Burley all in the frame.

Despite this and numerous claims in the press that Redknapp has no chance of a surprising return to Fratton Park, he is still trading as low as 1.30 (3/10).

posted by escs  # 6:12 PM