Make Money!!!

This I week I’m going to predict accumulators for the weekend. Quite simply, football accumulators offer you the chance to bet on the outcome of two or more games. You will need to get both outcomes correct, otherwise you will lose your bet. If you bet on 8 football matches, and get one of them incorrect, you win no money. However if you do get all 8 games correct, you stand a chance to win big money! The odds shown are from Paddy Power and will not necessary remain the same till matches kick off. Make sure to place your bets before the games kick off on Saturday.

First up is a four timer: Manchester City, Everton, Arsenal and Cardiff City (odds 3.7/1)

Secondly I predict wins for Leeds, Charlton, Sheffield Wednesday, MK Dons, Swindon and West Ham (odds 22/1)

Finally I predict wins for Celtic, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Spurs, Real Madrid and Barcelona. (odds 4.3/1)

I have decided to pick my team of the season so far. I know that not all people will agree with who I decide to pick. Opinions and suggestions are welcome!!

Tim Krul

Kyle Walker

Vincent Kompany

Fabricio Coloccinni 

Jose Enrique

Scott Parker

David Silva

Yaya Toure

Wayne Rooney

Demba Ba

Robin Van Persie

Miracles do happen!!

The football world and beyond were all deeply shocked of the events that occurred last Saturday evening. Fabrice Muamba a Bolton footballer collapsed during the first half of a F.A. cup game. He suffered cardiac arrest and efforts to resuciate him on the pitch failed. It was very clear to see how serious the incident was when the other players on the pitch looked shocked and majorly distraught. The players heart stop beating for 78 minutes from the time he collapsed on the pitch to when he reached the London Chest hospital. It really puts everything into perspective. Thankfully since then there has been major improvement with Muamba. He is now breathing independently and able to speak both French and English. Muamba is known in the football world as a genuinely nice guy. One of the first things he said to his father as he regained consciousness in hospital was “did we lose the game”. When he was told the game had be abandoned the player asked “why”. 

It’s fantastic to see the whole football community unite as one with the support offered to Muamba. Players before matches on the Sunday gave a round applause  for the player. Numerous players have tweeted offering their support for Muamba. Players have wore t-shirts saying “ Pray 4 Muamba”. We all hope that Muamba makes a speedy recovery.

Last night saw the return of Carlos Tevez. The player refused to come on as a sub last September. Manager Roberto Mancini stated back then that player would never play for the club again. However, the club  failed to find a deal to sell the player during the Janruary transfer window. I wonder how the other strikers feel if he takes their position on the team. What are people’s opinions with this scenario?

The premier league had become very predictable in recent years. However this year has been a whole lot different. The title race between City and United is likely to go down to the wire, Arsenal are going toe to toe with North London rivals Spurs, Chelsea are not guaranteed a Champions League place, Newcastle are holding their own in sixth and Liverpool, the Carling Cup winners are seventh.

As for the middle of the table, it’s too tight to call, with just three points separating eighth and 15, while at the bottom anyone of three from five could go in May.

Newly promoted sides like Norwich and Swansea have been a breath of fresh air, refusing to be fazed or bullied. Yet the big spenders at QPR have struggled, although last night’s win over Liverpool should give their safety bid a shot of adrenalin.

As the big clubs have dropped a level, the rest have closed the gap. It makes for exciting viewing. The Premier league is truly a competitive league again.

Should have went to Specsavers!!!

I was happy to see my team Man United go top of the league at the weekend. Everyone was saying that Man City were going to walk away the league but in fairness United are giving them a strong challenge. What a difference a few weeks have made for Arsenal. Not so long ago fans wanted their manager Arsene Wenger out. Since then he has won the premier league manager of the month for February and has won 5 successive premier league games. Arsenal were also very unlucky in the second leg of their champions league tie against AC Milan. Arsenal were 4-0 down from the first leg and managed to get 3 goals backs in the first half of the second leg. However they failed to get another goal which would have brought the game to extra time. I think people were very critical of the man who has done so much for the club throughout the years.

The case of introducing goal line technology came in for serious consideration again over the weekend. QPR player Clint Hill looked to have given his team the lead against Bolton as the ball had crossed the line by about two feet before the keeper then cleared it. However the linesman failed to award the goal. This goal inevitable cost QPR the game. This goal would have given QPR the lead in the match but they ended up losing 2-1.

It is time for FIFA to wake up to the impact of technology and realize the fundamental role it plays in the modern world of sport. Like it or not, technology is the way forward, so when there is a governing body adamant on keeping football ‘pure’, it seems inevitable that the world game will get left behind. We cannot expect one man and his two assistants to be able to see what 20 different video cameras can. The creation of High Definition television has given fans the ability to watch a football match from numerous camera angles and through instant action replays, whilst sitting on their couch. There is clearly something wrong if the fans are better equipped to referee a game than the actual referees on the pitch.

Just another Week at the Office!!

Giggs capped his 900 appearance with the match winning goal for Man United in the second minute of stoppage time. This was a much needed win for the club to continue to put pressure on league leaders Man City. This player has been some servant to the club. He is truly a remarakable player and it is going to be very difficult to see someone repeat this feat in the future. Giggs is the only man to score in every premier league since it began back in 1992. At the tender age of 38 it seems that Giggs still has something to offer the club for a few more years. Teddy Sheringham was 42 when he retired, could we possible see the same thing happening here. The only other player than can compare to this is Paolo Maldini who played 902 games for AC Milan over 24 years. 

Liverpool finally won a trophy again after overcoming a major battle with Cardiff that went all the way to penalties. Liverpool weren’t overall convincing throughout the game. This should not takeaway from the credit Cardiff deserve for being great finalists. They defended excellently throughout and their never say die attitude prevailed in extra time when they got the equlaisr that made it 2-2. The penalties for both sides were disapointing but obviously nerves had a big part to play in this. What next for Liverpool? This win should boost a lot of confidence in both the players and fans. Liverpool have a great opportunity to win the FA cup. They have a home quarter final in the cup and major teams such as the two Manchester clubs and Arsenal have exited in earlier rounds. I think Liverpool or Spurs will win the FA cup.

In my earlier blogs, I questioned the ability of Andre Villa Boas. Since then the Chelsea have had a string of very bad results. They currently sit 5th in the league. Three weeks ago they were 3-0 up at half time against Man United and managed to draw the game 3-3. This would have never happened to Chelsea teams in the past. AVB could be sacked any day, but has bought some more time with there latest win over Bolton. One player who would be happy to see the back of him is Frank Lampard. Lampard has been a key player for Chelsea for the last ten years scoring goals reguarly for the team. However this year the manager only sees the player fit to warm the bench. Lampard must be frustrated and could possible move elsewhere if this continues to happen.

Here Today Gone Tomorrow!!

I was delighted to see my team Man United beat Liverpool yesterday after the cup defeat to them a couple of weeks ago. However the result was overshadowed by the Suarez antics again. Would the man ever give into his stubbornness? One simple handshake and the Suarez/Evra affair was finally over. But no: an £80,000 a week salary can buy many things, but dignity and self-respect clearly aren’t among them..  Both the club and player have since apologised to Man United for the players behaviour. I think this is a cover up as the club didn’t want to risk a further disciplinary issue. It seems to me that Suarez is bigger than the club and the club are running the risk of losing their good reputation because of one player.

I wish to admit I was wrong in my previous blogs when stating that I felt Thierry Henry wouldn’t have much to offer Arsenal. He scored the only and winning goal in teams FA cup 3rd round match against Leeds on his debut. Yesterday he scored the teams winner against Sunderland in a much needed away win. Unfortunately he is due to leave the club on February 16th and I have feeling the majority of Arsenal fans will be very disappointed to see him go.

 During the week we saw the resignation of England mangaer Fabio Capello. He has  confirmed his decision to quit came because he could no longer "permit interference from the FA in my work". He has left the FA in a tricky situation before the European Championships in June. The vast majority of people want an English man, therefore the bookies have installed Harry Redknapp as favourite. It’s really hard to see Redknapp leave Spurs before the end of the season as he done so well there so far this season and wants to finish the job of qualifying for the Champions league. What do people think will happen? Will England appoint a temporary manger till the end of the season and then give Harry the job or will someone else come into the fray?

The Referee is a ..................

Do referees deserve all the negative publicly directed at them. I suppose there are two sides to this argument.

Referring today in soccer has become a lot more difficult. In the last couple of years diving and playacting has really being a common occurrence in the professional game. Nowadays players are actually playing for frees and penalty kicks. Refs have been very weary of this and try to let common sense prevail in making decisions. Some players are prone to diving and these players have grown a bad reputation amongst all refs. When refs see these players falling over easily in the penalty box, its very hard for them not to think that the player is diving. However what really annoys me is when a player goes down in the penalty box, looks for a penalty and the ref just waves on play. Surely it’s either a penalty or the player should be booked for diving. This non consistency from refs is what really invigorates both players and managers.

Another thing that refs and their assistants are criticised for is whether the ball has crossed the goal line or not. It probably happens 3 or 4 times a season. However this decision could be in a major game and may decide the outcome of the game. It’s almost impossible for these refs to be 100% sure that the ball has crossed the line in close cases. Goal line technology should be brought into the game. I don’t know why Sepp Blater is so slow to introduce the technology into the game. It can be only bring a bit of fairness to game. It’s not like technology is going to take over the whole game. We can learn a lot from rugby counterparts. They use a Television Match Official (TMO). A rugby ref will go to a TMO if he is not  100% certain about a big decision. The TMO will then look at the play from a number of different camera angles and give his recommendation. I’m not saying that soccer should follow this procedure but maybe they could use it for  the awarding of goals.

The one thing that really annoys me about refs is their inability to admit publicly that they made a mistake in a match. We see managers give interviews after games critcising  the performance of a ref. I think managers and players alike would have a lot more respect for refs if they acknowledged  that they made a particular error in a match.

Taking the Good with the Bad!!

This week I’m gonna talk about football managers. Management of any sort is not for the faint hearted. Football management takes this to the next level. I think the vast majority of people have this perception that most good soccer players can adapt relatively easily to management. This is certainly not the case.

Results are key. Football managers are always under intense pressure and most run the risk of being sacked by the team performing poorly over a short space of time. This is entirely true in most cases except for managers who have been at a club for reasonable amount of time and has brought success whether it be trophies or promotions.

I think QPR’s decision to sack manager Neil Warnock last week was a truly awful one. Do they remember what position the club was in before he joined them. Warnock joined QPR in March 2010 when they were struggling in the Championship. He managed to avoid relgation comfortably that year and went on the following season to win the Championship and gaining automatic promotion to the premier league. This was a league that the club hadnt partcipated in 15 years and it only took Warnock 14 months to complete this. Now they have decided to let him go because of the recent 8 games. Surely you give the man who guided you promotion within such a short space of time a full season to prove himself at this level.

For the past weeks there has being mounting pressure for Blackburn manager Steve Kean to resign. Fans have organised demostrations before league games and have continued these chants to their home matches. I believe these chants in the stadium to be very unfair to the manager and more importantly to the team. Blackburn are in for right battle this year to avoid the drop and fans chanting towards the managers departure is not helping the cause one bit. The team needs all the support they can get to pick up points and this must be very frustrating for the players themselves. David Moyes, the Everton manager was in attendance at one of their home games in recent weeks said that he had to leave at half time because of his surprise and disgust over the fans treatment of their manager.  Keans team went to Old Trafford on New Years Eve and pulled off the shock result of the season by beating Man United. Kean is adamant he is staying but if he cant win over the fans sooner rather than later it could have major repercussions on the teams league position.  Therefore I think Kean should step down if the ongoing saga continues and shows no sign of being resolved.

Who do people think wil get the next sack?

Odds on the next Premier League Manager To Be Sacked –

15/8 – Steve Kean

      4/1 – Owen Coyle

      9/2 – Alex McLeish

      7/1 – Andre Villas-Boas

      8/1 – Mick McCarthy

      12/1 – Roberto Martinez

      20/1 – David Moyes

      20/1 – Roy Hodgson

    20/1 – Martin Jol