Manchester United’s season tickets sales have fallen for the first time in two decades. Over 51,000 season tickets were sold for this season a drop of 2,000 for the same time in previous seasons.
Although ticket sales are more than most clubs it seems United have been a victim of the credit crunch. Or is it the Anti-Glazers boycotting season tickets.
United Chief Executive David Gill was quick to quash the assertion that the drop in sales was a boycott by the Anti-Glazers, but with the fans angry with the clubs massive debt since the Glazer takeover it would be fair to think this was the case in the ticket slump.
United in the past usually had a waiting list for season tickets, so is it the Credit Crunch or the Glazer boycott whatever it is it’s not helping the club in anyway whatsoever.
Wycombe’s U-19 starlet Matty Phillips has made a giant step in his professional career by jumping from League Two to the Premier League after agreeing a move to Blackpool.
Premier League new-boys Blackpool have snapped up the exciting Wycombe winger for an initial fee of £325,000 which could leap to £700,000 depending on appearances.
Wycombe manager Gary Waddock who himself played in the top-flight revealed: “It’s a great opportunity for Matty to play in the Premier League and we couldn’t stand in his way. He is an outstanding prospect and I’m sorry to lose him but it’s a great move for him and excellent business for the football club.”
Wycombe are no strangers to producing Premier League players, in recent years they had Birmingham defender Roger Johnson and Newcastle defender Mike Williamson on their books before their move to stardom.
Phillips will hope to follow in the footsteps of Wycombe legend winger Steve Guppywho played will the Chairboys from 1989-94 before going on to win a League Cup Medal with Leicester in 2000 and a Scottish Premier League medal with Glasgow Giants Celtic in 2001-02.
Guppy also gained one cap for England, in 1999 against Belgium, not bad for a player who was a virtual unknown until his exploits with Wycombe.
U.S. winger DaMarcus Beasley (28) has been snapped up by German Bundesliga side Hannover 96, after being out of contract since his release from Scottish Champions Glasgow Rangers in the Summer. Hannover have given him a two year-contract as they see the player to be in his prime at the age of 28.
Beasley was released by Rangers after an injury plagued 3 years at Ibrox which seen him play only 29 times and scoring 4 goals for the club.
Beasley who only participated for the final few minutes of one match in the World Cup this Summer for the U.S. hopes the move will help him regain a starting place in the U.S National side.
Beasley has made 93 appearances for the U.S. , scoring 17 goals. In 1999 while playing in the U-17 World Cup he received the Silver ball after been voted second best player in the tournament behind team-mate Landon Donovan.
It remains to be seen whether he can resurrect his International team but one things for sure, Beasley will try hard to do so.
In my opinion, there really is not a better manager than Jose Mourinho who could take over the volatile hot-seat at Real Madrid. His self-defined confident arrogance leaves him standing as the perfect man for the job. Over the past few years, Real have seen a host of managers come and go in quick succession. But I feel that Mourinho’s time will bring something new and exciting to one of the most storied soccer clubs in the world. I spotted a great article on the subject over at Guardian, written by Sid Lowe, that is well worth reading:
Free in Marca: your very own poster of José Mourinho. If anyone needed proof that Real Madrid’s coach is unique, here it was. By the end of last season, the country’s best-selling newspaper could hardly bare to look at Manuel Pellegrini, let alone produce a poster of him. Much the same could be said of the men who preceded Pellegrini, from Carlos Queiroz to Mariano García Remón, Vanderlei Luxemburgo to José Antonio Camacho. Coaches, as the former Madrid manager Juande Ramos said this week, “are useful to have around – as someone to burn”.
Mourinho is different; Mourinho is someone to pin on your wall, an idol. And because Mourinho is different, everything about this Real Madrid is different too. For the first time, the superstar is on the bench. Mesut Ozil claims he joined Madrid to work with “the best coach in the world”. No one ever said that about Juan Ramón López Caro. The club’s president, Florentino Pérez, has certainly never said this about any of his coaches before: “This year’s galáctico is Mourinho.”
On the morning Mourinho officially signed, he was taken round the stadium, finishing up before the trophy that obsesses Madrid. “When we got to the last European Cup [which Madrid won in 2002], Pérez said he missed it,” Mourinho revealed. “I said: ‘I only won my last one 10 days ago and I already miss it.’ We both want the same thing. Madrid have an incredible history in the European Cup and an incredible negative history in recent years.”
He could not have summed it up better. In the competition that defines them, they have not won a knockout tie in six attempts. By their own measure, the biggest club of all are not a big club at all. They went three years without a trophy of any kind at the end of Pérez’s last presidential reign and, despite spending €258m (£212m), ended his comeback season empty-handed. Meanwhile, Mourinho achieved with Internazionale what Madrid so desperately want to achieve: he won the European Cup and he defeated Barcelona.
That is why Madrid invested almost €100m (£82m) in paying off Pellegrini and signing Mourinho and his staff. Talk of beautiful football, occasional gripes by the very few dissenters are largely a red herring. Nothing else matters: Madrid must win, they must be a European force. Forget former talk of fantasy, when he announced Mourinho’s arrival Pérez said simply, and quite accurately: “Madrid’s identity is winning.”
Check out the rest of the article over at the Guardian.
Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
With Transfer deadline looming, here’s a look at what Transfer and other EPL Gossip hitting the headlines in this Sunday’s UK Newspapers.
Manchester United are ready to offer £20m for Everton Midfielder Jack Rodwell. (Sunday People)
Manchester United midfield veteran Paul Scholes plans on managing his beloved Oldham when he retires from the game. (News of the World)
Former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier could take over the Aston Villa vacancy. (Sunday People)
Holland keeper Maarten Stekelenburg will snub a move to Arsenal and stay Ajax. (Sunday Express)
Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson will seal a deal with former club Fulham for Defender Paul Konchesky and he is also ready to make a last ditch bid for West Ham forward Carlton Cole. (News of the World)
Hodgson is also ready to take Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez to Anfield on loan. (Sunday Express)
New Barcelona signing Javier Masscherano denies going on strike at Liverpool in order to orchestrate a move away from Anfield. (Sunday People)
Tottenham look favourites to sign West Ham midfielder Scott Parker with West Ham looking to make funds available for new signings. (Mail on Sunday)
Tottenham have also made a cheeky enquiry about the availability of Manchester United Defender Rio Ferdinand. (News of the World)
Tottenham are set to make a bid for former Manchester United striker Giuseppe Rossi if they can’t loan AC Milan striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. (News of the World)
Tottenham striker Robbie Keane looks set to leave White Hart Lane with Aston Villa and Newcastle scrambling for his signature. (Mail on Sunday)
Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia may yet stay at the DW Stadium after Birmingham pulled out of signing the midfielder because of wage demands. (News of the World)
Wigan have agreed a deal with Chelsea for striker Franco Di Santo. (Sunday People)
West Ham Wigan and Bolton are set to battle it out for the signature of Former Arsenal winger Robert Pires who is out of contract after leaving Villareal in the Summer. (Sunday Express)Shay Given is set for a move on-loan to Fulham. (Mail on Sunday)
Wycombe threw away two important points in this tie at Northampton, after being in total control of the match-up for nearly 87 minutes.
Wycombe’s tactic of pressurising the opposition high up the pitch was clearly playing dividends and when Wycombe midfielder Kevin Betsy was hauled down on the edge of the penalty area it was the post which came to Northampton’s rescue.
However the breakthrough incidentally from another free-kick in the 39th minute courtesy of a wonderful curled strike from Adam Sandell to give Wycombe a deserved lead in the first-half.
The second-half began in similar fashion with Wycombe creating numerous chances in front of goal which they failed to convert into goals. And Wycombe were to rue their missed chances when in the 87th minute Northampton were awarded a penalty, which Andy Holt was fouled for and Kevin Thornton blasted the the resulting spot-kick home for a share of the spoils at Sixfields Stadium.
Next up for Wycombe is a trip to Accrington Stanley where they will hope to continue their unbeaten start to the season in League Two.
Republic of Ireland winger Aiden McGeady’s move from Celtic to Spartak Moscow has really baffled me. McGeady claims he made the move to Russia to escape the constant death threats he received while playing in Scotland after he declared for the Republic of Ireland rather than Scotland at International Level.
However in moving to Russia he will be at more risk than he ever would be in Scotland as the Russian fans are notoriously volatile. McGeady will travel with his Spartak team-mates to Grozny where they will play local side Terek, with an armed Military Escort to the stadium because of the volatile security situation in war torn Chechnya. Now when did he ever have to do that in Scotland?
Terek fans are renowned for throwing stones at opposing teams buses as they arrive to their stadium, so McGeady may have fled Scotland for Russia for refuge from the Scottish fans but it is nothing to what he will encounter in Russia.
Since moving to Russia McGeady has been put up in a luxury hotel and also Chauffeur driven around Moscow as he gets to know the City. But when he does eventually get his own wheels he may want to watch out for the corrupt Traffic Cops who are known to ask for as much as £1,000 as a bribe to let them off a ticket for anything drivers do wrong on the roads.
I can’t for the love of money see the logic in Mcgeady’s move from Scotland to war torn Russia maybe it is the money.
The Premier League is attracting more and more women, 19 per cent of the 13.6 million fans who attended the Premier League in the 2008/09 Premier League season were female fans. (2.6m)
This is seen as a great thing for families as it is an opportunity for family time. In a day when most kids only want to talk about one thing, that being soccer, it’s usually their Dad’s who they go talk football to. But with this ground breaking report showing female attendance is growing rapidly, it may soon be their Mum’s who they can also talk to about the Beautiful game.
On the down side, men will not be able to tell their missus they are going to watch the match at 1pm when the game officially Kicks-off at 3pm. Early time down at the local before the game might be a thing of the past.
Watch out guy’s its only a matter of time before they will be giving you a summary of what went wrong for your team, now that would be a big change. Before they do check out our Guide to the Offside Rule!
Manchester United Football Club are prepared to pay a possible £60,000 worth of fines for boss Alex Ferguson, which he will receive if he doesn’t change his stance on giving BBC Television Company post-match interviews.
Ferguson has refused to speak to BBC since they aired a programme in 2004 called “Father and Son” that implied his son Jason was using his Fathers influence in the game to financially benefit himself. Jason is an agent who was accused by the BBC in 2004 of wrongdoings in the transfer market. Jason was never charged with any wrongdoings since the programme was aired, and Fergie Snr is infuriated that the BBC failed to apologize for dragging his sons name through the mud.
Under new Premier League rules managers are required to give broadcasting rights holders after match interviews but Fergie has refused to speak to BBC until they at least apologize to his Son for their incriminating programme in 2004. Ferguson faces a £1,000 fine after he refused to speak to the BBC after United’s 2-2 draw with Fulham at the weekend, instead sending Assistant Mike Phelan to speak.
That figure will increase every time Fergie refuses to speak to the BBC, but according to club sources the club will pay the fines as they support his stance 100% in keeping silent until the broadcasters apologize.
Most of us have done it! had a bet on a game on the TV believing that we can predict the outcome of the game whether it be first-goalscorer, correct score or the full/time result of the game and I bet we all make the same 5 betting mistakes I mention below. I bet most of us have at least done 3 of the mistakes on many occasions leaving you broke, lets hope these tips can help you overcome those mistakes.
1. Betting on your favourite team
No-body likes betting against their favourite team but I bet your favourite team doesn’t always win either and neither do you. This is the number one mistake most punters make, they let their heart over-rule their heads sometimes meaning you bet on your favourite team even though the odds are truly staked against you, which can only mean one thing you lose your hard earned money.
MY TIP: If you truly want a bet on your favourite teams game why not bet on their being more than two goals in the game meaning should your team lose 2-1 you get a pay-out and if they win 2-1 then bingo you win also. Odds on this are usually even money and is a great bet.
2. Not Backing Draws
No one likes backing draws when betting in soccer even when it’s the most logical outcome of the game. The reasons for this is that most betters like to support one team in a game and never think of backing the draw.
MY TIP: When teams are evenly matched price-wise by the bookies, back the draw. Why? Because it is usually the best price for the game meaning you get value for your money should you win.
3. Betting on Score-casts
This bet involves picking the first goal-scorer and the right score of the match at full-time, usually paying out 21/1, which looking statistically should be at least 50/1 but most bettors see the big pay-out and hand over their hard earned money to the bookies bit like giving candy to a baby.
MY TIP: Stick to single bets as you have a better chance of staying out of the poor house bookies love punters taking on this bet because they see it as easy money don’t be a mug stay clear of the Score-casts.
4. Betting Late In-Play
The appeal of backing late for most punters is the immediate pay-out. You can bet, win and collect in a matter of minutes, you can also lose in those few minutes but most punters don’t think of that out-come. But on further reflection of this betting technique the value of the last ten minutes of a game is worse than the value of the proceeding 80 minutes of a soccer match
MY TIP: If betting late in a game use minimum stakes there’s no such thing as easy money.
5. Using Just One Bookmaker
Using the same Bookmaker game in, game out will seriously lose you money Example: If you bet £20 on 10 games at even money and you were to win only 5 of those bets you would have zero in your bank account, but had you checked out the best price for those games you will have came up with those same bets at at least 5/4 meaning had you spent less than 5 minutes to get the best prices available you would now have £25 in your account instead of zero.
MY TIP: Register with 5 different bookmakers and get the best value for your money when betting.
