A rush of betting on Luiz Felipe Scolari's dismissal at Chelsea forced a leading bookmaker to suspend action on the Brazilian being the next Barclays Premier League manager to leave his job.
The Chelsea boss, whose side were held to a 1-1 draw by League OneSouthend on Saturday when a late equaliser at Stamford Bridge forced an FA Cup replay, was 50-1 with some bookmakers at the start of the day to find himself out of work.
But that price tumbled steadily and one punter was still trying to place £500 on him to go when the odds had been cut to 10-1.
William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe told the Daily Mail: "It came out of nowhere and we felt we had to suspend the market until we know more.
"We had expected people to be looking to back Mark Hughes or Tony Adams, and we've not been able to find out any reason why a gamble of this nature should have begun.
"It may be something as innocent as it being the tip on a subscription betting service, or it might be that somebody knows something that we don't."
There has been no suggestion Scolari is under pressure from the Stamford Bridge hierarchy, even though Saturday's result meant Chelsea have won only two of their last seven home matches.
