Ruud Brood is shock Aberdeen manager candidate as punters plough money on to leftfield shout

Experienced Dutch boss Ruud Brood has emerged as a shock contender for the Aberdeen job.

The 60-year-old was assistant manager to Phillip Cocu at PSV Eindhoven and helped them win the Eredivisie in 2015 before he branched out as a manager three years later. He was in charge of NAC Breda and Den Haag before he was sacked last year and was in the running to become Ajax's assistant manager last month to Alfred Schreuder, before they axed him.

And he's the subject of an unexpected gamble from punters who have raced to try to invest on him becoming the successor to Jim Goodwin at Pittodrie. McBookie.com spokesman Paul Petrie said: "He's a name that certainly hadn't been mentioned and I doubt too many Aberdeen fans would know who he is either. But suddenly we have been getting requests for him to be the next manager at Aberdeen. It's an intriguing one and we've put him in at 3/1 joint favourite with Barry Robson, although we have had some interest in Chris Wilder again."

Brood came through the ranks at Feyenoord before going onto play for the likes of Den Bosch and NAC Breda, who he later managed. He narrowly missed out on being included in the Dutch side for Euro 88, which they won, after he was named in the provisional squad. Before he joined Cocu at PSV, he managed NEC Nijmegen, Roda JC, Helmond Sport, RKC and Heracles.

In an interview when Den Haag manager last year, Brood revealed that he'd branched out into pub ownership to alleviate the stress of football management. He explained: "I partly own Pub 10, a sports cafe in my home town of Gorinchem. Football is a hectic world. I have been a head coach for over ten years and it is also nice to be busy with something completely different.

"Pub 10 started as a hobby project