davio

Premier league

Let’s look at the top goal scorer market.

Hernandez heads the market. He managed 13 league goals last season and is expected to build on that. However will he do as well in his second season as his first? If he does he’ll get to 20+ goals and the 9/1 with paddy power will look huge but at that price I think ill pass, ditto Rooney.

Torres hasn’t set the world on fire at Chelsea, in fact he hasn’t set a match on fire at Chelsea and at 10/1 I can’t be having that. Drogba? How will he fit into the new Chelsea set up? He prefers to be the main man and with Torres on the pitch I can’t see them working.


Tevez? Will he be here? If he stays will he play? And will he be arsed? Ill swerve him.

Bent. Now I was going to have a nice bet on Bent but with the departures of Young and Downing who will make his chances? And with McLeish as manager, who isn’t exactly renowned for entertaining football, Darren can get bent.


Im looking for players who are going to offer some value and we can pick up a nice e/w bet.

First up Peter Odemwingie: in his first season at West Brom he managed to bag 15 goals (more than Hernandez) and came 5th in the top scorer charts. More interesting is the fact that of his 15 goals, 6 came in the 11 games hodgson was in charge for. And reading the below it seems he’s in the mood to score some goals with his boots.

"I think this is the best period of my career so far.
"Last season was the proof of that and I think these coming few years will also be good.
"The older a player is the more intelligent he becomes in football and he can be more productive.
"I am always in competition with myself and beating my own records shows me that I am going forward, growing and improving.

He’s 66/1 ew with Bet365, shane long has now come into the side and if they can forge a good understanding goals can flow. There are doubts as to whether he will play in the opening games but given the first two matches are against the u’s and Chelsea, its not that bad that he will miss those matches and regain full fitness

The second bet is Suárez for them. His form in Holland was pretty solid and he seems to have fitted in well with that mob. At 14/1 (general) he’s a good bet seeing as they have no European fixtures this year and he should be playing every match.


Finally RVP makes the list. He managed 18 in an injury plagued season last year. If he can keep free of injury he is arsenals main onion bagger and is a win bet at 10/1 with Billy Hills

Europa League: after last years great success with Porto (33/1ew) lets look at this years candidates.

To start with, im getting rid of Athletico Madrid as, although they won it in 09, they are just too nconsistent. (Hi Yooz!)

Sevilla are also scrubbed from the list and ditto Bilbao. I just can’t see Sevilla going all out to win this and Bilbao will struggle to play at home and abroad.

Roma have a new manager in Luis Enrique but I can see that going tits up after a few months so that’s a line through them and you can add their city rivals Lazio onto the snub list as well, Ditto Palermo, for the same reasons as Bilbao.

PSG look a dark horse but is French football that strong at the minute? Im unsure about that overall but with the money behind them and the players they have now bought they are one for the shortlist.

Hanover, Schalke and Mainz make up the German challenge but I can’t see any of them going close either. Schalke may have reached the semi finals of the champions league but the soccer u’s showed them up for what they were, a mid table German soccer ball side.


Is Harry going to take this seriously or is his main focus getting the 4th spot? That’s the question you have to answer and I think he won’t and hearing the below only cements that fact…

The White Hart Lane tactician has labelled the situation a 'nightmare', although he insists the club will be giving it a go in the tournament.
"The young lads will get plenty of games in the Europa League because, otherwise, I think it's a killer, to be frank," explained Redknapp.
"Thursday and Sunday every week, you've got no chance in the Premier with that. It kills you off, it's a nightmare.
"You have to go to crazy places, but we'll give it our best shot and just give it a go."

Like Athletico I can’t see Fulham repeating their exploits of ’09 and the Russian sides this year look weak to me. As for Celtic, well let’s not even bother discussing them.

After that teams are 50/1+ and I can’t see any team above that price getting close.

So after all that we are left with two teams to Join PSG on the shortlist.

Sporting and PSV.

Sporting didn’t have the best of seasons last year but still managed to finish third. They have plenty of champions’ league experience and at 33/1 they could go close.

PSV, like Sporting, came third in a close finish in the Eredivisie. Quarter finalists last year they should build on that and at 25/1 look like a solid e/w bet.



Udinese have been added as well, 33/1 ew with ladbrokes looks a cracking bet

League multiples

With big Sam in charge at west ham we should be seeing them in the premier league next season. The purchase of Nolan is a good one given how he performed for Newcastle last season and the year before in the championship. They’ll be a lot more solid than they were under grant and they should make it straight back to the premier league.

Huddersfield, beaten play off finalists last year, im taking them to avoid the heart ache this year by getting automatic promotion.

Crawley are the money bags of division 3 and that wealth can see them buy the players it'll take to rise to league 2 come may.

A straight win acca on the three of them is a 181/1 poke with billy hills (they have a price boost at the mo, get on)

A promotion treble pays just under 10/1 with Blue Sq and Bet365.

Further a field a Barcelona, Bayern, Porto, PSG 4fold pays over 12/1 with tote sport and betfred