Emmerdale fans are convinced they’re worked out the villager who will take over Eric Pollard’s shop after he tries to sell it to earn back the debt he owes Brenda.

Pollard destroyed his most recent relationship with Brenda Walker after draining her life savings on a failed crypto venture. After realising he has no money to pay her back, he sees that the only way forward is to sell the shop but it appears no one is willing to buy it for the price he needs to sell it at.

Unbeknownst to Pollard, Tracy Metcalfe has been stealing from the shop till after she’s been struggling to afford looking after Frankie ever since her ex-husband Nate Robinson “left” the village.

Unfortunately, things get worse for Pollard when he reads over the accounts to finally prepare to sell the business. He notices the missing money and instantly blames himself, with Tracy wracked with guilt as he leans on her for support.

Vanessa ends up outing Tracy in front of Pollard after she goes to her and admits everything. Amy Walsh (Tracy) previously shared: “I think in a weird, twisted way Tracy was protecting him by not telling him how she treated him and then it was all worked out in the end because the money wasn’t missing.

“If you think about it from the perspective of it’s all about the money for Tracy, she just thought the money was missing. Now it’s there, he doesn’t have to know a thing and all will be well again and probably selfishly knowing if he did find out she’d lose a job and she’d be worse off and all the rest of it.”

With the truth set to be exposed in upcoming episodes, fans have tried to figure out who could end up buying the shop once Pollard sells.

On a Reddit thread, some fans are convinced that Manpreet could be the one to take over the business after she gets “struck off” from her position as a Doctor.

Fans think Manpreet could offer to buy the shop if her secret is exposed(Image: ITV)

u/Ok-Autumn suggested: “Manpreet might get stuck off if those pictures become public knowledge. She will need somewhere else. And I can’t see many other people having the money to buy it.”

Another viewer u/SoapFan85 replied: “oooh good shout! Imagine Manpreet and Claudette running it together haha” after they originally suggested: “I think it would be good to have it a bit more central like the post office used to be with Viv and the Windsors! Maybe someone like Claudette for all the gossip?”

Manpreet is currently trying to navigate her secret from being exposed as Leyla caught her posting racy photos of herself online. With Leyla dead, Manpreet thought her secret was safe until she became the victim of blackmail.

She’s still unaware that Joe Tate was behind the blackmail in order to get her on side so he could use her to get a blood sample from Caleb for the kidney transplant.

At the time of the blackmail, Manpreet confided in Ella Forster but after Manpreet sided with Chas and Liam over the spiking incident, Ella announced her secret.