Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna is the current second favourite to be the next Watford boss.

The Hornets are set for relegation from the Premier League following five straight defeats, with veteran manager Roy Hodgson due to be out of contract at the end of the season.

Bet Victor are the first bookmakers to offer odds on who will replace Hodgson. They have QPR and Republic of Ireland assistant boss John Eustace as the 3/1 favourite. The 42-year-old, who played for Watford over a five year period in the 2000s, is also among the favourites to take over from outgoing QPR manager Mark Warburton.


McKenna then comes in at 4/1 for the Watford job, followed by recently sacked Burnley boss Sean Dyche (8/1), current Derby manager Wayne Rooney (10/1) and long-serving Wycombe boss Gareth Ainsworth (14/1). The likes of Rafa Benitez, Slaven Bilic, Chris Wilder and Daniel Farke all feature at 16/1.

Watford have had 14 managers in the last 10 years.

A departure from Portman Road, just four months after being recruited from Manchester United's first team staff, would therefore appear highly unlikely for McKenna given his recent comments.

The 35-year-old, speaking at a Fans' Forum, said: "I wouldn't be at the club if I didn't think that it could match my ambition. Obviously I've moved here from the biggest football club in the world, a football club that is very special to me, that I grew up supporting and that I felt I had a really big role to play at going forwards.

"As I said when I arrived, I wouldn't have made the step away to go to just any football club. I wanted to go somewhere where there was a project, where there was the potential to grow something and to be there over a good period of time.

"That was the type of project I was waiting for and that was the type of project that Mark (Ashton, CEO) and the club presented to me. From what I've seen here first hand that feeling has only been strengthened in terms of the ambition of the football club and the potential of the football club if we all get behind it.

"We know that's going to be a long journey and I'm here to be a big part of that journey. I'm here to help guide the football club to where it wants to get to and, obviously, ultimately where I want to get to as a manager.

"I feel like I have worked at the highest levels of the game in club football, I felt very confident there and I feel like that's somewhere I want to be again.

"That's a journey that I want to take with Ipswich Town. That's certainly where all my concentration is going."