The early leader was former Rovers favourite Andy Tillson, currently first team coach under Paul Tisdale at Exeter City. The ex-defender is still Rovers record signing, being bought from Queen's Park Rangers for a fee of £375,000, the downside to his appointment would, however, be his lack of managerial experience. Tillson started his coaching career at Team Bath where he had a highly successful time working under Ged Roddy as the club worked their way through the lower leagues and into the Conference South. Following the clubs withdrawal from the English league system he was due to take up a place as assistant boss at Weymouth before he was offered the role of first team coach at Exeter. As time went on his odds lengthened and he is currently out at 12/1 with Victor Chandler.
There are two betting sites running a market on the next Rovers manager, Skybet and Victor Chandler, and both currently list Torquay manager Paul Buckle as the favourite to take over at the Memorial Stadium, VC even going as far as making him odds on at 4/6. Buckle's coaching career began at Exeter City, where he initially took up a player/coach role before being promoted to the role of assistant manager under Paul Tisdale. But the ambitious coach was keen to find employment as a manager in his own right and in June 2007 was appointed as manager at Exeter's local rivals Torquay United, a job he remains in today.
Two consecutive season reaching the Conference play-offs saw Torquay promoted back to the Football League at the second attempt, beating Cambridge United in the final at Wembley. In their first season back in the league Buckle took Torquay to a 17th placed finish, ensuring survival for another year, one that would start with a bang. The Gulls started like a house on fire, winning their first four league games, taking Championship Reading to extra time in the League Cup and knocking out League 1 pace setters Bournemouth from the Johnstone's Paint Trophy in a penalty shoot-out. That form wasn't to last, though, as they went nearly two months without a win, having to wait for a 3-1 win over Morecambe on October 30th.
Speaking to Torquay's official website Buckle denied any contact with Rovers, saying:
"I have said before that there has been no approach from Bristol Rovers, so that's the end of the matter"
The Gulls gaffer has, however, talked of his ambition to manage at a higher level:
"The club has been approached by other clubs before and, of course, I am ambitious.
"I left Exeter three-and-a-half years ago to take on something massive. It was my first job and I am well into it now. We are back in the League and I am really proud of what we have achieved here at Torquay.
"I want to manage at the very top.
"If the opportunity comes up, there is a question to be asked, but, as we speak, nobody from my football club has spoken to me about Bristol Rovers."
From this statement we can glean that Buckle may be interested in the Rovers job, should the Bristol club make an approach to the Torquay board.
One manager who has made a sudden entry into the odds is Alan Knill, currently in charge at Bury, who is second favourite at 3/1 with Skybet and 5/1 with Victory Chandler. The former Rotherham boss has earned plaudits for the style of play that his team sets out with and this has been shown by a plus 14 goal difference for the Shakers this season. Two seasons ago Bury missed out on automatic promotion by a single goal, losing out to Wycombe on goal difference after finishing level on 78 points. Last season the club disappointed, finishing 9th overall, one win outside of the play-off places, this season however they sit 5th in League 2 with a superb away record.
Knill's managerial career didn't start off too well either, in two spells at Rotherham, one as caretaker, he had a poor record, taking the Millers down from League 1 following financial problems that threatened the clubs existence, including a fourteen game winless run, so what he has managed to do on a shoestring budget at Gigg Lane is certainly impressive. He certainly has the support of Rovers top scorer Will Hoskins, whom he helped develop into the first team at Rotherham. The former Watford striker tweeted twice on the subject of Knill joining the Gas:
@hosky8 "Seeing rumours that Alan Knill is being considered for the job. What a top man and my first gaffa. Wat a job he would do here imo #justsayin"
@hosky8 "Talking about Alan Knill on Thisisbristol.co.uk. Would love it if he got the job!!"
Another of the names that has been talked about since the market opened early on is current Newport County manager Dean Holdsworth. As a player Holdsworth had major success at Brentford and Wimbledon and also had a long stint at Bolton as well as shorter stays at a large number of other clubs. His first major coaching role was at Derby County where he was assistant manager to Phil Brown for a short period. After grafting out two more years at non-league level he moved onto become manager at Isthmian League club Redbridge before Newport, one of the clubs he had previously played for, came knocking for him and, after an initial poor start to the 2008/09 season in the Conference South, he lead them to a 10th placed finish.
But what has turned Holdsworth into a prime candidate for a number of managerial vacancies is his impact since then, including taking the 2010 Conference South title by a gaining 103 points, a whole 28 ahead of second placed Dover, earning promotion to the Conference National with seven games to spare in mid-March. That superb form has continued into this season as County currently sit in 4th place in the Conference table having taken 42 points from 25 games. Though he has an excellent record at Newport it may be that the Memorial Stadium job has come at too early a stage in his career as his lack of experience in Football League management is likely to count against him.
One of the stumbling blocks for all of the managers mentioned above is that they are already in jobs and thus compensation will be required if any of them are to take the job at Rovers but there is one candidate to emerge that is currently not in work and his name is Paul Hart. Undoubtedly an experience manager Hart will certainly not be surprised by anything will happen should he take over and, having been in charge of youth academies at Nottingham Forest, Leeds and Portsmouth, he will certainly have an impact on the likes of Ben Swallow, Charlie Reece and Eliot Richards among other young players at the club.
Hart began his managerial career at Chesterfield in 1988 where he lead them to a play-off place before being sacked. Following this Hart took over at Nottingham Forest in 2001 and once again was in charge of an unsuccessful play-off push but was once again sacked, this time for a poor run of 14 games without a win. After failing to take Barnsley on a promotion run Hart left football management for a short period before returning at Conference side Rushden & Diamonds where he was let go once more after just six months in the job. It was then back to youth team coaching for Hart, this time at Portsmouth, before the call came for him to step into the first-team hotseat at Fratton Park. With the club in dire financial straits Hart took Pompey onto the worst start to a season in Premier League history and with the club floating around the wrong side of the relegation zone Hart was relieved of his duties.
Two spells in London followed, firstly at QPR where he lasted just five games before leaving the club. His last managerial role was at Crystal Palace, where he was given the task of keeping the club, also in administration, in the Championship, a challenge that he succeeded in, drawing with relegation rivals Sheffield Wednesday on the final day of the season, sending their opponents down instead. That spell at Palace is in many ways similar to the job that he would have to be doing at Rovers and his success in keeping Palace up would certainly count in his favour, though looking at his overall statistics, some fans may well not be impressed.
In very single job Hart has been in he has lost more games than he has won and his overall win percentage is down at 30.75%, lower than Paul Trollope who left the Gas having won 37.23% of the games he had managed the club in. Hart wasn't initially seen as a choice for the Rovers job but his odds have shortened to evens (Skybet) and 3/1 (Victor Chandler) since he was spotted attending Bristol Rovers 3-2 loss to Plymouth, with rumours that he was in discussions with chairman Nick Higgs following the game, though that is and will most likely remain pure speculation.
An early frontrunner whose odds have lengthened is current caretaker Darren Patterson who went as short as 2/1 at one stage but the defeat at MK Dons and the surrendering of a two goal lead to lose to Plymouth look likely to have cost him his shot at getting the nod for the job on a permanent basis.
Whoever takes the reigns will have a tough task ahead of them with a small squad, desperately out of form and clearly low on confidence will take some turning around. Nick Higgs has stated that he hopes to have the new manager appointed by 'mid-January' and having seen Rovers last two performances it will be a big risk to leave it any later than that.
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