RandoEFC

Here's the 2023-24 table after three rounds. @6666 loses some ground at the top but it's still a close-run thing between him, @nudge and @Viva la FCB.

I had a really poor January. One weekend I think I won about 2 out of 12 of my main bets on the Saturday and then on Sunday had 7 winners and a refund from 9 bets which were selected using the exact same method. I've found it a bit all over the place as well although this is the first season I've really been putting bets on with much volume so I can't really compare.

Yeah but this is a different definition of "feeder club" to what used to exist. Antwerp can end their association with Man Utd whenever they want if it no longer benefits them. If the Glazers bought a controlling stake in Antwerp then it would change the relationship entirely.

St Albans 3-0 up at half time as well .

I think the old arrangement of having a club you can send your youth players to to play at an appropriate level is fine. Anyone could enter such an agreement if they wanted to. Not any owner of an elite club can afford to buy multiple other clubs across world football to use to get around FFP rules, nor should that be allowed. This will come to a head for City's owners at some point as I'm pretty sure Girona and Man City aren't allowed to compete in the Champions League at the same time due to the conflict of interests but knowing modern football they'll probably just pay off whoever they need to to look the other way and get their way as always.

1-1. Frustrating loss as Elversberg equalised early second half and then had one disallowed at the death.

I repeat, this Man City/Troyes situation is multi-club ownership, not a mutually agreed feeder club arrangement. The two are completely different.

First leg: Dusseldorf have seen BTTS in 8 of their 10 home games this season and Elversberg have in 8/10 away games. There have been a few 1-1s in there but the Over 2 goals should be good. Dusseldorf average 3.6 match goals this season and 3.25 for Elversberg. Second leg: Taunton really suck on the road with five defeats and a couple of 0-0s in their last seven. St Albans sit in the playoff places in the National League South and are on a good run with 7 wins and just 1 defeat in their last eleven. 1.65 seems a good price for them to see Taunton off.

In the last 48 hours, Rishi Sunak has placed a £1000 bet with Piers Morgan that he can deport a bunch of helpless refugees on a plane, and then made a jibe about trans issues at PMQs today while Brianna Ghey's mother (the trans girl who was murdered last year whose killers' names have just been publicised this week) watched on from the gallery. Is it still "below the bar of political discourse" to use the phrase Tory Scum? Because if that stuff doesn't make you scum then what does? He's disgusting. I can't wait to see them have their arses handed to them at the next election and then bury themselves in years of opposition as their "up and comers" like Kemi Badenoch continue to convince themselves that these culture war issues about transgender people, immigrants, "woke" brigade etc. are actually vote winners.

You can point to difficult circumstances but at the end of the day. There are some elements of a football club that are directly under a manager's influence and Pochettino isn't performing well. I've seen it at Everton. Benitez, Lampard and Dyche all been dealt the same terrible hand but Benitez and Lampard both made a bad situation worse and Dyche has found a way to maximise what he's got. Poch is performing on a par with Benitez and Lampard.

There's a difference between two independent clubs entering a mutually beneficial parent/feeder club relationship and the owner of an elite club buying up multiple other clubs across the world to be used as pawns to play the system. Man Utd have a relationship with a Belgian club if I'm not mistaken, Royal Antwerp. The idea is that they loan their youth players out there when they're ready for first team football to take the next step in their development. Antwerp get access to young talent, Man Utd get their players developed, I assume Man Utd send Antwerp some sort of payment as well. But Man Utd never had the power to send Antwerp £15m to buy a player and then buy them off Antwerp for £30m later on so that their spreadsheet could say they spend £30m on a player when in reality they spent £45m. Now this isn't what's happened with Man City. Troyes signed the player for £6m or something. I'm sure Man City or Girona could easily have afforded that if the owners wanted them to play for those clubs. The fact he went to Troyes, never played for them and immediately got loaned to PSV and then Girona is dodgy as fuck though. What was he doing going to a second-tier French side if he was already good enough to play in the Dutch League? I don't know exactly why City's ownership group would have done something like that but it's clearly some sort of tactical accounting and I'm afraid nobody can convince me that it doesn't stink in some way.

I am disappointed in how many properly progressive policies the Labour party seem to have dropped. You have to keep it in context though. Compare that to the Prime Minister betting £1000 that he can deport some helpless refugees to Rwanda and there isn't a comparison between the two still. I think Starmer has been quite poor at managing his public image and he could be in danger of fumbling the election if the Tories weren't shooting themselves in the foot, the hand and the face on a daily basis. Labour seem to be scared to take a firm position on anything. You can understand it though because they're on track for a landslide and you wouldn't do anything to rock the boat as long as that's the case. They can still communicate better though. They've copped some criticism this week over watering down their green commitments from £28bn. All they need to do is explain (accurately) that the main reason they have to keep altering their commitments is because the Tories keep causing economic shocks that massively change the face of what a Labour government would be walking into. For example, Liz Truss' and Kwasi Kwarteng's budget apparently caused about £30bn worth of avoidable damage to the public purse. Of course this has an impact on what Labour can credibly propose to do with the Treasury when they get into power. I understand there are other reasons why people are disillusioned with Labour and it's not just these pledges but that's one thing where they could easily have better handled the messaging.

It's going to become increasingly prominent now. Newcastle will clearly have explored using the Saudi League for the same reasons though they haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. There's been talk of the involvement between Nottingham Forest and Olympiakos being a bit shady. I have no doubt that if Everton do get bought by 777 then if it suits them, they'll want to do the same between us and Genoa for example. It stinks really. People will discuss it from a legal or accountancy perspective but it's football ffs. It's clearly not in the spirit of the rules or fair competition. It's clearly on the radar of the Premier League but they tried to rush through a short-term fix in January to stop clubs making cheeky deals through their affiliates. Unfortunately, a large enough minority of clubs voted it down and they needed 14 to pass it, or something like that. Everton were among the clubs who voted against it, which I was disappointed with. This is the problem with the Premier League clubs being allowed to make the rules themselves. It's the wild west. Every single one of them will just vote in their own interests with no regard for the greater good. An independent regulator is essential.

Definitely not dodgy at all.

Gambled and won. 13 corners. 1.72 x 1.53 is 2.63 so +£16.30 for me this week.

I'll replace with Rotherham vs Southampton Over 9 Corners @ 1.53

Never. In. Doubt. Nancy ️ Phonix Lubeck ️

I haven't run this week's Aussie games through my algorithm yet but without fail, Macarthur games come out as expecting about 11 corners minimum every week. It's weird how entire leagues like Australia can be pretty good for corners. There's definitely some sort of culture in the tactics in different leagues that lead to high/low goals, corners, cards.

I thought so too but it's actually being picked up by Autosport, Motorsport.com, Andrew Benson etc. The Andretti thing is an embarrassment regardless.

Deadline Day drama: https://x.com/autosport/status/1752990058255122507?s=20

Entering these for the weekend because the price is already moving for the first leg. Going for a couple of what I think are over-priced match winners this weekend. Nancy vs Cholet Nancy sit 5th in the French third tier and host joint-bottom side Cholet on Friday evening. Nancy are far from perfect but are currently on a run of five consecutive wins after a poor run of form. Their home record for the season isn't great or terrible with 3 wins, 5 draws and 1 defeat, but 2 of those three wins have come in their previous two home games. Cholet's form is the real selling point here. They've lost 9 of their last 11 games and 7 of their 8 away games all season, including their last five. Nancy also won the return fixture 2-0 back in August. I think 1.72 is a decent price here and it's already closed from 1.83 when I first looked this afternoon. SSV Jeddeloh vs Phonix Lubeck Going even more obscure now in the German Regionalliga. 2nd placed Phonix Lubeck travel to Jeddeloh this weekend, both clubs returning to league action for the first time since November. Phonix have been particularly strong on the road this season with 7 wins and no defeats in their last 9 away games. Jeddeloh haven't won at home since September with 3 draws and 4 defeats in their last seven. Phonix also absolutely obliterated Jeddeloh 7-0 in the return fixture earlier this season. Hopefully neither of these teams return from their winter break in unrecognisable form. Again, I think 1.75 represents value here.

If they start doing that in England you'll start seeing Olympic opening ceremonies more often than you'll see a Premier League season come to an end.

And this will be your first win of the season.