YET another example of football’s unique brand of classlessness is the fact that everyone seems to accept the idea of the ‘sack race’ without question.

There are surely few other professions or even sports where it would be seen as the done thing for bookmakers to take bets on someone losing their job. The practise is so ingrained in football culture though that a change in the betting now constitutes a bona fide story in some quarters. And with both Kevin Keegan and Alan Curbishley relinquishing their posts at Newcastle and West Ham respectively, the odds-makers have turned their eyes to the present Everton manager, David Moyes.

In fairness to them, it’s not that difficult to follow their train of thought. The financial constraints at Goodison Park are a matter of public record, Moyes himself has yet to sign a new contract with Everton, and furthermore the two clubs mentioned are currently on the look-out for new men to lead them.

We’ve been here before, with Moyes linked to other jobs – in fact he seems to have been spoken about in conjunction with the Newcastle post alone about 17 times – and the question that we always ask is: “Would he leave Everton for them?”

West Ham seems unlikely straight away with Zola’s imminent appointment, but Newcastle is a slightly different proposition. Mike Ashley is certainly wealthy enough to make more transfer funds available than Bill Kenwright ever could, and presumably he could also offer Moyes a bigger contract as well. However, the sports retail magnate’s reign up on Tyneside has hardly been characterised by a willingness to splash his hard-earned dough around. In fact, one of the reasons that Keegan left, although in all honesty it never takes much, was because the chairman was attempting to actually recoup money by selling players on the final day of the transfer window. While Everton were making a £15million signing, let’s not forget.

There are also another couple of factors that make a Moyes move to St James’ Park seem unlikely. Firstly, for all he has achieved with Everton and the high regard in which people who know their football hold him, he remains a slightly unglamorous figure as compared to some other managers.

For many Geordies, who still have a rather high opinion of their club’s status and genuinely thought that they should have appointed someone like Jose Mourinho back when Keegan returned, Moyes is from the same pragmatic stock as the derided Sam Allardyce.

With that in mind, and with Ashley desperate to curry favour with the fans again, don’t be surprised to see him look for a more exotic name.

A manager from overseas might also be happy to work somewhere that utilises what has become known as the ‘continental model’ too, i.e. one where a director of football buys the players and the manager or coach tries to build a team out of them. That’s what appears to be in place at Newcastle, and indeed West Ham, and if the likes of Keegan and Curbishley can’t work in those circumstances then what are the chances of Moyes being told what players he can or can’t have by Dennis Wise?

Fairly slim you would think.

The fact is, that despite Everton’s much-publicised money troubles, there are still very few clubs in this country that are any better – Manchester City and Chelsea are very much the exceptions, not the norm. However, despite these crumbs of comfort, the only proper way to end the speculation is for Moyes to finally put pen to paper on the deal that he has been supposedly close to signing for months now.