Top online bookmaker PaddyPower has suspended betting on Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez leaving the club after a flood of football bets this afternoon. At the start of the day the Liverpool boss had been a 22/1 outsider to be the next Premier League manager to lose his job but a betting plunge pushed Rafa’s odds down to 7/1 before they pulled the plug at 4/1.

Whether the betting plunge is a result of rumours on a hot summer’s day in pub gardens or if Rafa had thrown his toys out of the pram again remains to be seen. Liverpool’s apparent lack of transfer funds would certainly appear to give the betting some credence over at PaddyPower.

A spokesman at paddypower.com, said: “A rumour of some kind has spread like wildfire – we don’t know what’s behind it but somethings happened at Anfield for such a sustained level of requests for the Benitez boot.”