DUTCH hero
Dennis Bergkamp is the new favourite for the Swansea City manager's job — with Huw Jenkins admitting he is looking to the Continent as he hunts for the right man to succeed Brendan Rodgers.
Bergkamp's odds were slashed from 20-1 yesterday morning to just 5-6 last night, following what bookies described as a countrywide gamble.
The plunge on the Arsenal legend, who is currently assistant coach to Frank De Boer at Dutch club Ajax, saw him overtake Ian Holloway at the head of the market.
Bergkamp, 43, has previously stated that he had no desire to become a manager.
He said last year: "You have to put all your time into the job and that would be hard for me."
But the gamble which has taken him to the head of the market comes with Jenkins admitting there are only a handful of genuine contenders on these shores to take the Liberty Stadium reins because of Swansea's passing style. As a result, the Swansea chairman will happily look into the idea of importing the club's next manager.
Danish great Michael Laudrup, who was most recently boss at Real Mallorca, is thought to be among the contenders to succeed Rodgers.
"I will consider anybody wherever they are from," said Jenkins, "because what matters is whether they can do the job properly for us.
"There are probably three or four good managers out there in this country.
"Then you could talk about any manager in Spain or Holland and they would probably feel they had the ability to do the job that we want.
"There are managers out there with the right philosophy, but what's important then is that we find the one with the right personality as well."
Jenkins has flown out to Europe this week — but for an end-of-season holiday rather than business.
However, work will continue even while he is away as Swansea press on with the difficult task of finding someone who can take the baton from Rodgers.
Ideally, Swansea will have a new manager in place imminently, for the club would then be able to focus on reshaping their playing squad for a second crack at the Premier League in 2012-13.
But Jenkins has again stressed that Swansea will not rush into making what is a critical decision for the future of the club.
"We will see how a few different things go, but there is no need to panic," he added. "You look around at other clubs. West Brom have been without a manager for a month and Liverpool took their time before appointing Brendan.
"The one good thing about Brendan leaving was the timing. It wasn't as if the speculation carried on all summer and then he left just before a new season started.
"He has gone early in the close season so we have got a bit of time to find his successor before things really start to get going again."
Swansea are believed to have spoken to Ian Holloway over their top job, while Wigan assistant manager Graeme Jones is thought to have told Jenkins he does not want to be considered.
Gus Poyet, Marcel Desailly and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer are among a host of others who have been linked with the Liberty since Rodgers said his farewells last week.
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