He looks like Geoff Hurst 
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You couldn’t make it up!!!
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If it looks too good to be true , it is too good to be true.
If players can be sidelined for a season owing to betting , why should clubs take money from bookies .
It will all end in tears , lots of them
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I have a part time semi retirement job in a well known company that has a very wide employment demographic.
The number of, mainly young, people “spending” quite substantial amounts of their income on online betting is frightening.
I’ve tried to tell some of them that the betting companies are not wealthy by accident. They are not interested.
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My TV usually has the sport on , I find the involvement of betting companies understandable but worrying . There is a figure and I am not exactly sure that 5% of customers make 60% of revenue
That is not healthy for those involved
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My first job was while doing my A levels, p/t at William Hill.
I learned way more over a couple of years of Saturdays doing that then I did at college. About bookies and the industry (this was before they got truly awful), about people, about addiction, about odds and form in so many layered nuances, about strategy, about games, about cost and value.
The gambling industry has forever been hypocritical, bit like fags, but these days it’s weaponised.
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The Toon make their first summer move, signing Lloyd Kelly on a free from Bournemouth. Not exactly a signing to get the pulse racing, but we needed some centre half and left back coverage and a versatile, 25 year old with premier league experience for £0 seems like decent business to me
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They are two different issues. I think the sponsorship debate is about the morality of betting. Players betting on football is more serious as it could involve insider knowledge, or worse, influencing the outcome.
Kevin Campbell. RIP at 54. That’s no age at all. Always liked him.
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Kevin played that night in Copenhagen against Parma Alan Smith scored the winner but Kevin was immense apart from Anfield in '89 my best night as a Gooner. RIP Kev…
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Well the fixtures are out and we’ve less than 2 months to go. By the time the Euros (and Copa America) are done we’ll be well into pre-season for the players who weren’t called up.
At least Newcastle got a potentially easier start than last season.
Bizarrely, West Ham don’t actually play outside of London until November.
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Looks like you have dodged that. Reported that Olise joining Bayern for £55m and £200k/wk for him
Well, ‘PSR deadline day’ has left me feeling a little sad and reflective of the state of ‘the best league in the world’.
NUFC have today sold two homegrown 19 and 21 year-olds, in order to comply with the PL’s financial rules. Villa, having just qualified for the CL, have had to sell their best midfielder for the same reasons.
Eddie didn’t want to sell either player, and neither player wanted to leave. The £68m will be very welcome, but it’s a strange situation to be in, with accountants effectively making key decisions. Anyway, onwards and upwards…
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I certainly feel sorry for Elliot Anderson, he seems to have taken one for the team. He showed some promise last season but his development certainly suffered due to his back injury. Given that Tonali will be back next season, the growth of Lewis Miley and the hope that Joe Willock stays fit, Anderson was likely down to 7th in the midfield pecking order. So $35m seems too good to pass up.
You could argue that the owners/board etc should have known the financial trouble they were likely to be in going into the summer but you have to say PSR doesn’t really seem fit for purpose at the moment.
If the goal of teams is to finish as high as possible and play in Europe, why don’t they just follow the Eufa rules?
And I have to say, Villa seemed to let Douglas Luiz for a bit of a bargain price.
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I agree Graeme. We have some good CM players, and £35m for a player who has only started 15 PL games, was too good to turn down.
The whole situation just seems a bit wrong. The rules are the same for everyone though. It would seem (by today’s events) that the Saudis are trying to play by the rules and I hope that outliers are suitably punished.
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Villa have however bought themselves a terrific bit of quality in Ian Maatsen.
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And Ipswich get Omari Hutchinson.
Leicester sell perhaps their best player, ( the guy who sounds like he is named after a golf course)
and with the promise of starting on minus points all looks just fine.
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Well, you know, Chelsea are short of midfielders…