Next West Brom manager: Former Everton star new favourite and ex-Southampton boss moves up pecking order

West Brom began life without Carlos Corberan on Boxing Day as they suffered a 2-1 defeat to Derby County.

Despite Grady Diangana scoring with nine minutes to go, an opener from Jerry Yates and an own goal from Mason Holgate put the Rams on their way to victory. The set of results has West Brom in eighth, still only two points off of the play-offs, though they have played a game more than Watford.

Chris Brunt was the man in caretaker charge at Pride Park, and he's expected to be in the dugout when West Brom travel to Bramall Lane to face second-placed Sheffield United. He will be assisted by Damia Abella and Boaz Myhill during this interim period.

As Carlos Corberan begins to get to work at Valencia, sporting director Andrew Nestor is working hard to find his successor. News broke from Football Insider on December 26 that apparently John Heitinga is a 'leading contender' for the job.

Heitinga who previously played for Everton and Fulham in the Premier League is now on the coaching staff at Liverpool. He's been assisting Arne Slot who are top of the league, and was in charge of the team during a Carabao Cup tie against Southampton earlier this month.

The 41-year-old has also worked under David Moyes at West Ham before, and holds the UEFA Pro Licence which is the highest qualification a coach can have. He had a caretaker spell at Ajax before, winning 14 of his 22 games in charge, and news of him being a key contender for the job has put him up the rankings in the bookies markets.

Mark Robins who was installed as the immediate favourite before Corberan was out the door has dropped to second at 5/1. There has been some slight movement with recently axed Southampton boss Russell Martin shooting up to third, having previously been fifth favourite.

Steve Cooper who was sacked by Leicester City in November has dropped to fourth, and Gary O'Neil who was only let go by Wolves a couple of weeks ago has also dropped. The probability of David Moyes joining has drifted further, but Tony Mowbray has since come in to the reckoning.

He wasn't even in the top 19 when the original list of candidates came out. The 61-year-old took a leave of absence from his job at Birmingham City this year to focus on his health, but said in November that he hoped to return to work in the new year.

Mowbray was previously the manager of West Brom from 2006 to 2009, with the Baggies acting as his first permanent manager's job in English management after joining from Hibs. He oversaw a play-off defeat to Derby County in 2007, but a year later he guided them to the Championship title, and saw them reach the FA Cup semi-finals, losing to eventual winners Portsmouth.

Unfortunately West Brom finished 20th in their first year after getting promoted and were subsequently relegated. He took up the job at Celtic shortly afterwards. Could a second spell in charge at the Hawthorns be on the cards?

Next West Brom manager

John Heitinga - 5/2

Mark Robins - 5/1

Russell Martin - 8/1

Steve Cooper - 10/1

Gary O'Neil, Tony Mowbray, and David Moyes - 12/1

Steven Schumacher - 16/1

John Terry - 20/1

Mat Sadler, Derek McInnes, Paul Ince, Matt Bloomfield, Ryan Lowe, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Michael Appleton, Nathan Jones, Lee Carsley, Andrew Crofts, Steven Gerrard, and Slavisa Jokanovic - 25/1

*Odds courtesy of BettingOdds.com and correct at the time of publication.