International Tournaments done – Premier League to come

Aftermatch

Cyril's Betting Advice
Cyril's Betting Advice

The Euro 2016 is just a memory to some and a bunch of stats to others. To me it was such a disappointment. Goals were scarce and most games went as expected (well bar one at least). Iceland and Wales did their giant-killing acts and nearly everyone appreciated their endeavours. Portugal surprised the “BIG-BOYS” when it mattered.
I think that generally the Euro 2016 was a let-down in many ways. Only Griezman was reliable as a marksman but even he met his match against Portugal. I don’t consider a goalkeeper like Ruis Partricio to be lucky. A goalkeeper is only as good as the opposition allow him to be. For me, he was the player of the tournament. In the right place at the right time. A good reader of the game.

Of course the Euros wasn’t the only tournament during this time as the Copa America was also being played. Chile were defending their 2015 triumph over Argentina. After a goal-less 120 minutes the final was decided on penalties 4 – 1 in Chile’s favour. This year Chile successffully defended their title with a 1 – 0 over Argentina.

After the tournaments out of the way there were some pre-season friendlies to whet our appetites. Or not.
Of course there is still the TRANSFER MARKET that kept us interested. This year clubs appear to have been at the whisky bottle for too long and most were spending money as if it was going out of fashion. Mainly money which they don’t actually had. Until the end of the coming seaon that is, when the reward for failing to garner enough points to stay in the Premiership for next season will be an addition to the bank balance of said clubs in the tune of £1.000.OOO. Who wouldn’t mind being a failure for that kind of money? Of course all the money on earth doesn’t guarantee that the players teams sign will give them value for money. United are reported to have offered 89 MILLION POUNDS for Pogba. He did sign but does he really fit in? It’s happened before at Old Trafford. It can happen to any team spending such large amounts of money.
The other side of the coin is that a less well known player costing a fraction of the money will fit in and make the wheels turn for his new club. It’s happened many timess before. Some older members may remember Kevin Keegan. A knock-down price and what a bargain.
The problem facing punters is many fold but the “fitting-in” of new signings is one that only time will give us a result.

Now you may think that your problems finish here but they don’t. No way. We all are more than interested in finding the WINNER of the PREMIERSHIP in the new season. Let’s think again about all the players, internationals and ordinary players (many stepping-up in class) who will be performing for our favourite team. Just how do they fit in to the team formations. Are be what the team needs or just another red-herring? This is the problem for long term backers. Will their money be in safe hands? Then again they could wait a few weeks to see how these new signings fit in, or otherwise, and then place their bets. Of coure if doing this the odds on offer has shrunken dramatically. It usually only takes a team to win two games on the run to drop from 20/1 to 6/4. Yes I’ve seen that happen too.
Before the season teams are playing meaningless friendlies some in exotic places like U.S.A and Jamaica and Wigan, often two a week sometimes two in three days when it’s a “tournament” so their chances of injury increased game by game.

Finding the premiership champions this season will, I’m sure, be a much tougher task than usual. Of course the usual suspects spring to mind. Arsenal, Chelsea, United and City. Usually that’s where to sorting ends. Any one from four, so to speak however when you look at the incoming players to some of the lesser fancied teams it strikes me that we may see another “Leicester” this season too. Just out of the usual reckoning we have ‘Spurs and Liverpool but I don’t think it ends there. There is of course Leicester who may not be a “one season wonder”. I’m also adding West Ham. They have the find of last season in Payet plus they played as a team with a lot of class. I had intended to add Southampton to this list but they’ve got up to their usual trick of transferring their star players once again.
There may be a “dark horse” amongs the other twelve teams, I wouldn’t put money it but an above expected season could come the way of newly promoted Middlesboro’ if their incoming players really get it together.
There could be a really exciting season ahead!

Don’t forget. Only back with money you can afford to lose and Good Luck.