Plymouths Argyles plight gets worse!

On the 3rd December 2010 I raised the issues Plymouth Argyle faced and pointed out that they were a huge 9/2 to stay up this season. Since then they have sold numerous players won very few games and took a 10 point penalty for breaching finance rules and now find themselves rock bottom of the league and facing almost certain relegation. Clearly the lack of finance now is a day to day concern for the Plymouth board and the on field activities may almost be of secondary importance behind the future of the club. Its a real shame that this club find themselves in this situation however the writing was on the wall the minute England lost the race to host the World Cup. Plymouths owners seemed to be only interested in the club up to the point where there was no chance of getting their hands on some of that World Cup gold. Now unfortunately the clubs fans will have a nail biting wait to see whether they can survive as a club and then can they dig themselves out of trouble?
On the betting front clearly the 9/2 on offer in December now looks like the bet of the season!
Turning to European matters it was interesting to see another clean sweep for British clubs this week, Liverpool, Man City and Rangers all qualifying in the Europa League for the last 16 and Chelsea winning in Denmark with Man U avoiding defeat in France. Our league once again looks very strong at European level and hopefully we can go on and lift some of the Silverware on offer!
Looking ahead to this weeks fixtures, Yeovil travel to Tranmere. Earlier in the season these 2 teams were involved in a 4 goal match, Yeovil coming out on top 3-1. On that day Yeovil were 3 up inside 39 minutes with Tranmere scoring in the 89th minute for what was only a consolation goal. At that time Tranmere had only won once all season and were somewhat struggling for form. The tables have turned over recent times and Tranmere now sit 2 places and 4 points above Yeovil. Tranmere have won 6 games at home and have not lost at home in the league since December 11. Yeovil haven’t won since they beat Plymouth at home on 1 February 1-0 and days before won away at Brentford. I expect Tranmere to continue their good home form and pick up 3 points.
Tranmere 11/10 to win
In the premiership Newcastle entertain Bolton. These clubs are locke together 8th and 9th presently Bolton ahead by 1 point. Newcastle have had an up and down season but have scored 30 goals at home which is the second highest in the League together with Arsenal. Bolton have only won 2 away and have only won once at St James Park in the past 10 seasons. Owen Coyle have Bolton playing in a different style these days however with home ground advantage I go for Newcastle to win this, and expect goals!
Newcastle 11/10 to win
Amazingly Blackpool are 10/3 to win at Wolves. Given Blackpools style of play and the way they have beaten the likes of Liverpool and Spurs this season I see this as a massive price for Holloways men. Wolves may have beaten Man U recently but can the team get so pumped up when facing a team like Blackpool? Again I see goals here but 10/3 is far too big in my view for Blackpool!
Blackpool 10/3 to win
Another team that has done well away from home this season is Scunthorpe. They travel to Bristol City on the back of a 3-2 home win against Sheffield United, a 0-0 draw with Derby and a 1-0 home win to Forest. In my view that is cracking form and if Scunthorpe can continue in that form they can avoid the drop this season. Bristol City have recovered after a bad start to the season but are still only 17th in the league and far from out of danger. They recently beat Watford 1-3 but lost to Leicester 2-1 and Leeds at home 0-2. Scunthrpe have yet to draw away this season and I can see them turning on the away form to snatch a win at Bristol. Again the price of 10/3 looks incredibly large!
Scunthorpe 10/3 to win

The £1 yankee pays £259 and the £10 Accumulator £838

New google gadget

We now have a new Google Gadget so if you want to get the tips via iGoogle add this gadget to your igoogle page.
http://www.google.co.uk/ig/adde?moduleurl=http://www.challengeluke.co.uk/XML/TopTipGadget.xml&source=imag

This will show the tips for this week and also you can see how we got on last week

UEFA - you need to start having respect for players and fans alike!

Well what a great week of football we have just witnessed! As a Spurs fan I was clearly delighted with the result in Milan (0-1) but more impressed with the performance. Harry Redknapp appears to have sorted out Tottenhams weaknesses and the team goes from strength to strength! To win in AC Milan was a great achievement however the performance of the Milan captain was an absolute disgrace! To head butt an opposing coach is completely off the scale and hopefully a long ban will be given out. I must also raise an eye at Flaminis challenge on Corluka who will now be sidelined for a month. The rules in football are somewhat odd, Flamini was booked for his challenge and not sent off despite the fact we had 5 referees watching the game and no one in UEFA seems to want to look at TV replays. Corluka was lucky not to end up with a broken leg, the sad fact is that the people that run the game are spineless and don’t seem to care about players or fans. Yesterday we were told that to watch the Champions League final will cost a small mortgage, making the game way out of range of the real football fan. To charge £85 for a single ticket to watch 90 minutes of football if you support the club and £150 to watch the game if you are not a fan of one of the teams is quick frankly incredible. We live in an age where it seems football has no view on what is going on around it!

Rant over, I turn my attention to Arsenal or as some have nicknamed them “Mini-Barca”. As I was travelling I could only listen to the game. At half time Arsenal were available at 16/1! Arsenal at home! I understand that Barcelona played them off the park but credit to Wenger and his men for turning in an amazing second performance. I have since seem the second Arsenal goal and was very impressed with the speed of the attack and the final finish. Watch out Birmingham next week in the Carling Cup final!

This weekend we have both 5^th round FA Cup ties and 4^th Round replays. As I haven;t had a great deal of success with cup games this season I am turning my attention to other fixtures this weekend.

In league 2 we have seen the resurgence of Hereford United. Although the lost to Lincoln at the start of the month we have to go back to December to find another league defeat. They are at home to Burton Albion who are struggling at present and lost again away from home at Torquay. Hereford recently won at Torquay so as a form guide for this game you have to favour Hereford. At odds of 7/5 and given Burton have only won once away this season this is my first selection!

Torquay are at home to Southend, Torquay have won their last 3 games on the bounce but lost at Southend earlier in the season. Southend are a good away team having won 6 games away this season. The sides are locked together just outside the playoffs although Torqauy have a game in hand, i can’t see Torquay continuing their win streak and can see this game ending in stalemate, that will suit both clubs at this stage. Its 12/5 the draw!

As home form goes it doesn’t come much better than Millwalls. Another team looking enviously from outside the play offs they will play Middlesborough at the New Den. Millwall have won 9 times already at home, with Middlesborough only winning 3 away and losing 10. Middlesborough recently lost away to Crystal Palace in a relegation battle after recently winning 0-4 at Bristol City.  Millwall also won at Middlesborough in November. At 19/20 this is the one for me!

Finally Ipswich host Hull. Ipswich have hit some form recently and have shot up the league. It maybe a little bit too late to see them push into the play offs but cannot see them being beaten by Hull this weekend. Ipswich are a different side under Paul Jewell and will be on a high following their 0-6 demolition job at Doncaster in the week. Ipswich are availabl at 21/20 to pick up  3points.

This weeks £1 yankee is valued at £123.80

The £10 accumulator will pay £326.20

English football tips 12 February 2011

Last weekends’ football proved one thing, that thing being that football is very unpredictable but fantastic to watch! It was goals galore in the Premiership and of course we saw the end of the Manchester United unbeaten run. The run ended at Wolves, probably a surprise to most people however the stats show something different!

So far this season Wolves have beaten Manchester City 2-1 at home, Sunderland 3-2 at home and Chelsea 1-0 at home. They are yet to play Tottenham at home (that is coming up shortly so beware) and beat Liverpool 1-0 away. SO of the top 7 Wolves have only failed to beat Arsenal and Tottenham, some record for a team second bottom in the league!

I have just heard that Roy Hodgson is in work again at West Brom. Maybe this will be a happier place for Roy after his bad time at Liverpool. Fulham (where he was previously to Liverpool) are similar to West Brom in that they don’t have a lot of funds and do have an enthusiastic chairman that appears to want to be involved from time to time in a more hands on approach at the club. I expect Roy to do well and keep West Brom up this year.

Looking ahead to the weekend fixtures Watford welcome Burnley to Vicarage Road. Watford have good home form and have recently scored a hatful of goals at home having scored 18 times in 6 home league games. Burnley have only failed to score on 5 occasions away from home this season. I expect goals galore here on Saturday so go for the Goal Crazy option at 4/6.

Despite Cardiffs lofty position of second in the league their home form is a bit patchy. They did well last week at Swansea, winning a close game 1-0 with a Bellamy winner in the 85^th minute. They welcome away experts Scunthorpe. Scunthorpe got thumped 5-1 at home last week against Hull, this held up their horrid home form statistics. Scunthorpe hasn’t even scored an away goal since beating Burnley 0-2 in December. Coupled with Cardiff not conceding at home for 2 games and scoring a hat full this has to be the home banker of the weekend. Cardiff are very short at 1/3 but this is a must for the accumulator.

Barnsley is not a happy hunting ground for Ipswich and i feel this will continue this weekend. Ipswich have won once in 4 visits in recent years and also lost at home to Barnsley 1-3 earlier in the campaign. Ipswich have won at Derby recently and won their last home game 3-0 to Sheffield United, however they haven’t managed 3 wins on the bounce this season and therefore I favour Barnsley at 11/8.

Finally MK Dons haven’t played at home since they were beaten 1-3 by Plymouth on a Tuesday evening. Since then, they have won 2 and drawn 2 away from home, which is pretty good form. MK Dons also beat Brentford 0-2 away back in November. These sides have only played twice and not since 2006. Brentford won last time out away at Exeter 0-2 but you have to go back to December to find another away win. I feel MK Dons will rubber stamp their recent form with a nice win on Saturday. MK Dons are available at 21/20.

This weeks Yankee will pay £55.63

Saturday 5th February 2011 selections

This week i'm starting the Championship and Nottingham Forest who host Watford. Earlier in the season these teams played out a 1-1 draw. Both goals coming in the first half of the game. Forest are on a great run and pushing for the second spot in the league. Watford sit in 7th place just outside the playoffs. Watford have drawn and lost their last 2 games whereas Forest have won their last 6 games on the bounce. Both sides suffered in the cup last week so both will want to step up from those defeats. I think this game will go to Forest and allow them to keep up the pressure at the top of the league.
Its 5/6 for a Forest win.

Next up we have Scunthorpe who have a dreadful home record, having only won 1 game at home this season. Hull have won 4 away but havent drawn any. The reverse fixture ended 0-1 to Scunthorpe earlier in the season, with a goal in the 89th minute. I expect this one to be close again and indeed am going for the draw.

Draw 23/10

In League 2 Hereford have fired into form winning their last 6 including a 4-3 win at Lincoln. They once again play Lincoln who themselves have won their last 4. Both sides and next to each other in the league with similar goal difference. I see lots of goals in this one so am going goal crazy and backing both teams to score!

3/4 both to score

Finally in the Premier League Blackpool visit Everton. Blackpool are great away from home with their attacking nature which always suggests there will be goals in their games. these 2 teams drew 2-2 earlier in trhe season so I again go for the goal crazy both teams to score!

3/4 both teams to score

Goos luck with your weekend betting!

The end of the football January transfer window 2011

The debate will go on and on, should we have a transfer window in January? Who benefits from such a window and ultimately what does it achieve?

For me, the window showed how out of touch football clubs are with the rest of the world. There seems to be so much money sloshing around, you can argue whether its wasted money or not!

At the moment Torres handed in a transfer request at Liverpool, my immediate thought was why did he wait until the last hours of the transfer window? If he was unhappy why didn’t he say something at the beginning of the window? Fans paid good money for Torres shirts and some unfortunate ones probably bough them in January, is that fair? I appreciate players have careers to think about but surely they have a responsibility to their fan base as well!

Is Torres worth £50 million? Probably not but it seems to be a case of certain billionaires showing other billionaires that they still have a big wallet!

So who were the winners in this round of transfers? Firstly lets consider Darren Bent, 3^rd highest goal scorer in the premiership over the last 5 years and sold for a what is now considered a bargain at £18 million. That seems like great business and has scored for Aston Villa already. He has experience and has shown he can score against the big boys.

Next we have Torres, £50 million to Chelsea, has been out of form for a good season now and prone to injury, wasn’t fit in the World Cup and it showed and hasn’t fired for Liverpool, but still considered the best out there.

Then we have Liverpool, the club with financial pressure, a striker that wants out, so they sell for £50 million and buy a striker for £35 million that has very little premier league experience, even less international experience and has outside issues with the courts. I think Liverpool did the right thing in selling Torres but to spend so much on someone that might or might not make it at top level seems slightly risky – other players have done well in the Championship and not stepped up to the Premiership, for me the second season for a striker is important, being unknown for a season is one thing but the second time around coaches will have analysed the player and worked out the strengths and weaknesses and will use that to try and stamp out the presence of a player. The best players still succeed but many fail.

And finally we have Newcastle, when Alan Pardew arrived he stated Carroll was discussed before his appointment and would not be sold. In the transfer window again we were told day after day by Pardew that Carroll was not for sale at any price, and in the end the Geordie fans were again sold down the river by Mike Ashley. Mr Ashley is probably smiling as he counts his cash but unfortunately Pardew can’t play a bag of cash up front at the weekend! So Chelsea have a new player, Liverpool sell and sign a new player and Newcastle have cash.  Although Newcastle have cash and probably got way above the true value of Carroll I fear that they will come out of this in the worst position. They always seem to get themselves sorted and make some progress then shoot themselves in the foot. They could have sold Carroll in the summer and found a replacement, but surely if the powers that be were always going to sell Carroll if the price was right why hadn’t a replacement been lined up? Why weren’t these so clever business people thinking ahead and planning for this exact eventuality – Liverpool did, maybe thats the King Kenny influence which they so badly needed!

Last night proved an interesting night with lots of fixtures up and down the land, my Yankee returned 3 results, the one i missed was Tranmere Vs Rochdale where I had gone for Rochdale, Tranmere scored in the 4^th minute and Rochdale equalised in the 95^th minute! I wonder what happened in between! So i returned a small profit which brings some welcome relief after a run of bad weeks.

I will post my fixture selections later in the week.