Friday 27 February 2015

You Gotta Be Kidding Me!

Welcome back, dear readers

Maureen's Meltdown
So, Jose Mourinho decides to pop up on Goals on Sunday for a little rant. Had "The Special One" lost it? Nope, the exact opposite. Indeed, he probably had it scripted on the autocue (close your eyes, give Jose a Jewish New Yorker accent and you'd think you were listening to a Paul Heyman promo). This was classic Maureen, attempting to create a siege mentality, us-against-the-world mindset in his dressing room. "Look at the lengths I've gone to in public to defend you guys", he'll be telling his players. "Look at the loyalty I've shown you. I expect the same back". It's a mindset that can, and has, delivered Maureen some incredible success, but backfired spectacularly when he tried the same schtick at Real Madrid- it's difficult to portray the world as being against you when you're at one of the biggest clubs in the world, that demands success but at the same time has underlying honourable traditions to defend. But there's no way that his rant was timed deliberately to take media attention away from the altogether less pleasant news story that has engulfed Chelsea FC in the last week. Oh no. Absolutely not

Stand Back, There's A Harry Kane Coming
With a total of 24 goals in all competitions so far this season, it's no surprise to hear chat that Harry Kane will be included in the next England squad. However, with the dearth of top quality, experienced players available to Roy (was gonna go with Woy, but decided against a speech impediment joke) Hodgson, Kane probably won't be the only previously unheralded player making their international bow soon: while the inclusion of Burnley's Danny Ings wouldn't be a huge surprise, given the travails of centre-backs Gary Cahill, Phil Jagielka,  Chris Smalling and Phil Jones with game time, form, fitness and being Phil Jones, there could be a call-up for Ings' club team-mate (and England Under 21 regular) Michael Keane

Playing To Your Strengths
Right, enough random Comment Is Free-esque nattering from me, let's do some betting tips for football matches!
Why not try something different in the Premier League this weekend? Rather than trying to predict the straight outcome of the Saturday 3pm games, here's a little over/under total goals acca:
Burnleh v Swansea: Over 2.5
Man United v Sunderland: Over 2.5
Newcastle v Tim Sherwood's Aston Villa: Under 2.5
Stoke v 'Ull: Under 2.5
West Brom v Southampton: Under 2.5
North of the border (let's get back to traditional, predicting winners), Dundee United, despite some iffy recent results, can get their groove back by beating a recalcitrant, disjointed Partick Thistle, while Inverness should have no trouble recording another win away at Ian Baraclough's wretched Motherwell side. In the Championship, meanwhile, Hearts -1 at home to Cowdenbeath are worth taking if you want to bulk up an accumulator (keep them at a sensible length, mind), while Queen of the South are very well priced to record another win away at an out-of-form Dumbarton side whom they have already beaten 4-0 and 3-0 this season. Happy punting






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