Betfair.net

Throughout Premier League history there have been several stalwart managers - bosses who remain loyal to a club for many years and bring success.

Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and David Moyes are currently of this ilk - others such as Alan Curbishly and Harry Redknapp have since left their clubs. What's been a consistent theme over the Premier League years is that when a stalwart manager has left a club they've been relegated within two seasons.

Martin O'Neill took over at Leicester City in 1995 and took them to promotion to the Premier League in his first season in charge. They finished in the top half of the Premier League in each season under O'Neill and won the League Cup twice. After O'Neil left to manage Celtic in 2000, Peter Taylor managed to keep Leicester afloat for one season before he was sacked and Dave Bassett and Micky Adams took The Foxes down in 2002.

Harry Redknapp had seven seasons in charge of West Ham and not only managed to stop the club yo-yoing between the top two leagues but also introduced several quality young players such as Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard. After a dispute with the chairman, Redknapp left in 2001. Glenn Roeder had a reasonable first season in charge of The Hammers before they were relegated in 2003.

Alan Curbishley was manager at Charlton for 15 years (four in joint-command with Steve Gritt) and managed to establish them as a mid-table Premier League club. After his resignation in 2006, Iain Dowie and Les Reed quickly came and went before Alan Pardew failed to keep them afloat and they were relegated just twelve months after Curbishley had left.

Steve Bruce and Peter Reid are also worthy stalwarts. Both took their respective teams, Birmingham and Sunderland, to two promotions and a relegation. The symmetry continues as the same season both left their jobs, their clubs were relegated from the top division.

Bolton fans should be afraid! Sam Allardyce had eight seasons in charge at Bolton. In that time he got them promoted, took them to a League Cup final and into European competition. His replacement Sammy Lee was sacked after only a handful of games and it's now down to Gary Megson to beat 'The curse of the departing stalwart manager' and keep Bolton up.

According to Betfairians, Megson's chances of doing so are good as they're currently only the eighth favourites to be relegated at [7.0].

Given the tough act he's had to follow, I think Megson is doing a reasonable job. They're presently four points clear of relegation and have only lost once to a team below them in the league this season (Tottenham A).

Given the plights of Leicester, West Ham, Charlton, Birmingham and Sunderland after their stalwart manager departed, perhaps Bolton fans should cut Megson a bit more slack and get behind him, rather than taunting him.