Bookmakers are today listing a shock new favourite in odds for who the next permanent manager of Norwich City will be.

Alex Neil, the 33-year-old player-manager of Scottish Premier League side Hamilton Academical, has been slashed all the way down to 4/5 with SkyBet, 1/2 with Bet Victor and Coral, and 4/7 with Paddy Power.

• Hamilton manager Alex Neil at Carrow Road for talks with Norwich City

Most bookies are continuing to offer caretaker manager Mike Phelan as second favourite (6/4 SkyBet) and former Tottenham boss Tim Sherwood as third favourite (8/1 with Coral and Bet Victor).

Paddy Power are now also offering odds of 14/1 for highly-rated Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe and 20/1 for Republic of Ireland chief Martin O'Neill.

It is Neil who is grabbing the headlines though – leaving Canaries supporters searching for details about the shock new contender to replace Neil Adams, who resigned as City boss on Monday.

The Scot played as a midfielder for Barnsley and Mansfield Town in England, before returning to Scotland when he joined Hamilton in 2005.

Neil initially took over as player-manager at New Douglas Park in April 2013, with the club in the Scottish Championship.

Last season he guided the Accies to second place in the Championship and success in the promotion play-off against top-flight Hibs, winning a penalty shootout after the tie had finished 2-2 after two legs.

Hamilton are currently third in the Scottish Premiership, just three points behind reigning champions Celtic and four points behind leaders Aberdeen.

French striker Anthony Andreu is also the division's top scorer with 12 league goals so far this season, and Neil has recently had to play down talk of his side qualifying for Europe.

'We've not lost two league games in a row all season after 20 games, which is an incredible achievement for us,' Neil told BBC Scotland.

'Performances probably dipped for a wee spell, that's probably a fair comment. But the last four or five weeks, our intensity's back to where it was at the start of the season and we're getting the results to back that up.

'Talk of European football is far too early, because when the split does come you're playing the top teams in the league, so it becomes even more difficult to achieve that.'

Do you think Neil would be a good option for Norwich City? Leave your comments below.

Latest odds as of Wednesday afternoon (SkyBet)

Alex Neil 4/5

Mike Phelan 6/4

Tim Sherwood 4/1

Brian McDermott 25/1

Stuart McCall 25/1

Uwe Rosler 25/1

Neil Warnock 25/1

Nigel Adkins 28/1

Karl Robinson 28/1

Roy Keane 28/1

Oscar Garcia 28/1

Glenn Hoddle 33/1

Ian Culverhouse 33/1

Paul Clement 33/1

Alan Stubbs 33/1

Steve Bruce 40/1

Ally McCoist 50/1

Phil Neville 50/1

Alan Curbishley 50/1

Ralf Rangnick 50/1

Nigel Clough 50/1

Dougie Freedman 66/1

Dennis Wise 66/1

Alan Irvine 66/1

Nolberto Solano 66/1

Paul Ince 66/1