Football Punter’s pick today is a Champion’s League Midweek Special from VC Bet called It’s Cold Out There. Spartak Moscow, CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Kiev all play the second legs of their Champion’s League qualifying games this afternoon and there’s just enough time left to get into some betting action on them.

Football Punter gives each game the once over to see how likely it is to come off and has the full details over at Football Punter - It’s Cold Out There.

With odds of 14/1 for the three to win, Football Punter is giving it the thumbs up.

New signups with VC Bet get a free ?20 bet as well so click on the link or the banner below and get signed up.

“Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses? ” sang The Eagles in their classic song Desperado and it’s not only that opening line that had me thinking of Owen Hargreaves as I listened through the rest of the song this morning. To the untrained eye, Herr Hargreaves would seem to have pretty much everything that a young man in his mid-20s could ever want.

He silenced his critics at the World Cup when they doubted the merits of his very inclusion in the 23 man England squad and forced them to eat humble pie as he put in several accomplished, if understated, performances to come away as many England fan’s Man of the Tournament.

He plays his club football for one of the world’s biggest and most famous clubs alongside some of Europe’s finest footballing talents at Bayern Munich and has risne through the ranks of that club since he was 16 years old to command a first team spot with added responsibilities following the departure of captain Michael Ballack.
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Well the first weekend of the new Premiership season is over, and I could hardly have wished for a better start than our 5-1 victory over Fulham on Sunday. I just hope this result is not an anomaly, and we’re starting as we mean to go on.

However, I?m not about to get ahead of myself here. Let?s not forget that Fulham were dire, and we?ll not find many defences quite as generous as theirs this season (on a side note, can anyone tell me exactly why Ian Pearce continues to play as this level?).

Despite this, it?s fair to say that our football (especially in the first twenty minutes) was a joy to watch. At times we looked like the United of old, with fluid movement, slick one-touch passing and great width provided by Giggs and Ronaldo as well as our two flying fullbacks Neville and Evra. Rooney and Saha showed signs that they could strike up a fearsome partnership up front this season, although that will have to put on hold for a while thanks to Rooney?s ridiculous 3 game suspension. We?ll certainly miss him, as he was at the hub of much of our good play in the game, and deservedly grabbed himself two goals.

Talking of suspensions, it should not be forgotten that we will also be with Paul Scholes for 3 games. We?ll miss him greatly too, though his suspension appears to have been rather overlooked in the furore over Rooney’s. Scholes looked back to his impish best in pre-season and took that form into the game at Old Trafford, using the ball intelligently and sometimes dropping deep to help us keep possession. He was also, for once, ably protected by the much-maligned John O?Shea in the holding midfield role. But even though Scholes is out, it looks as though Michael Carrick will be back by the weekend and ready to make his competitive debut, although sadly not in time for the Charton match in midweek. He is obviously a different type of midfielder, but his presence should help ease the disappointment of losing the seemingly rejuvenated Scholes.

The emphatic victory meant that Ferguson?s week ended well after what must have been a frustrating few days. As well as being (rightfully) annoyed with the FA over the Rooney and Scholes issue, he has also encountered stubborn resistance from Bayern Munich a he tries to sign everyone?s new favourite player, Owen Hargreaves.

Of course, it was never going to be easy to convince Bayern to sell Hargreaves, especially considering they have already lost Michael Ballack this summer. Personally, if I was in Uli Hoeness? position I would bite the hand off any club willing to pay ?17m for him, which is allegedly what we?re willing to offer. I would hope everything would be sorted one way or the other soon, but it’s unlikely. This could go on all the way to August 31st.

One thing that I found odd about this whole saga was when Fergie said recently that he has been an admirer of the player for a long time. I?m not sure I believe that. If that is the case why did he wait until now - when Hargreaves? value has been inflated by a good showing at the World Cup - to make an offer? Where were we when the player was being linked with ?5m moves to the likes of Middlesborough a few years ago?

It?s a similar thing to the Carrick situation, when Fergie said he had been a long-term admirer of the player, yet this belies the fact that we didn?t move in for him when Spurs did. Back then we could have got him for some ?2.75m rather than the faintly ridiculous ?18.6m we eventually coughed up to Spurs. I would hope that we won?t be paying a similarly inflated fee for Hargreaves, but it?s almost certain that we will (if we sign him). Fergie seems fairly desperate to sign the player, perhaps because he knows that if the Hargreaves transfer doesn?t materialise we may not have a back up to turn to. Villarreal appear to have called of negotiations over Marcos Senna due to the constant delays, whilst a long-term target, Lyon?s Mahamadou Diarra, is set to sign for Real Madrid.

All in all though, Fergie has little to complain about today. If he was offered the chance of winning the first game but not signing another player, or losing the game but bringing in a player, I think I know which one he?d pick. It was always going to be vital to start this season strongly, and this game was a great start. I just hope we can keep it up. I guess we?ll see at The Valley on Wednesday.

Football Punter’s pick today is a four team Midweek Special from VC Bet called Away The Lads. Chelsea, Manchester United, Portsmouth and Bolton all to win away from home tomorrow night after each picking up three points in their opening fixtures.

Football Punter gives each game the once over to see how likely it is to come off and has the full details over at Football Punter - Away The Lads.

With odds of 22/1 available it’s well worth a look.

New signups with VC Bet get a free ?20 bet as well so click on the link or the banner below and get signed up.

Chelsea kick-off the new season aiming for a third consecutive League Championship under Jose Mourinho.

Once again there have been transfers flooding in and out of Stamford Bridge over the summer. Out has gone fans favourite Eidur Gudjohnsen to Barcelona. Other players who have left the Club include Damien Duff to Newcastle, Carlton Cole to West Ham, Jiri Jarosik to Celtic, Asier del Horno to Valencia and Hernan Crespo to Inter Milan. Glen Johnson has also been shipped to Portsmouth on loan for the season.

But Jose Mourinho has added yet more World class talent to the Chelsea ranks. In Andriy Shevchenko they have landed one of the World?s most potent strikers from AC Milan. Germany Captain Michael Ballack has also arrived from Bayern Munich with a formidable reputation and in addition to that they have snapped up Ivorian striker Salomon Kalou from Feyenoord, Nigerian midfielder John Mikel Obi from Lyn Oslo / Manchester United, Portuguese goalkeeper Henrique Hilario from CD National and Dutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz from Hamburg.
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Just to get us up and running on our new football discussion forums, State of the Game will be holding a great contest for our forum members. The first three members to refer another 30 members each will get a free TOFFS football shirt of their choice, delivered straight to their door.

The quality of TOFFS? products is second to none, only the best cotton is dyed, knitted and striped to our specifications ? we don?t make t-shirts which are supposed to be retro football shirts ? TOFFS? shirts are genuine reproductions of the real thing constructed with genuine passion by people who love football.

These shirts really are top class and TOFFS have a massive range for pretty much every club and country you can think of going back through their footballing history so it shouldn’t be hard to find something you’d like.

Full rules for the contest can be read here.

Registration for the forums is FREE so getting in is easy, getting away once the chat starts flowing might be a little bit more difficult

What a wonderful start to the season, for Portsmouth.

I won?t go into detail about the ins and outs of Saturday?s game, as I?m sure everyone has seen the highlights and read the reports, of what was an abysmal afternoon for Rovers.

The glaring issue that jumps out of the match is the need for video cameras to be used to survey the game to watch out for things that referees may not pick up on in games. Things like a bloody good tackle made by Andy Todd in our box, which subsequently saw Todd sent off, and a penalty awarded in Pompey?s favour.

Ok so it wasn?t clearly a brilliant tackle from the view that the referee had, but video evidence clearly shows Todd getting a foot to the ball, before Kanu fell over him. Fortunately this did not have any bearing on the result of this match as the penalty was saved. However it will have an impact on Wednesdays night?s home game against Everton, since Todd (and Lucas Neill, no arguments there) are both suspended, and Nelsen and Zurab are both still struggling with injuries!

As I said above, with the use of video cameras that officials have access to during the game, this sort of mistake can be prevented, along with disallowed goals (Ask Roy Carroll about that one), and dives (no names need named here, I?m sure everybody can think of someone). As is the case with all debates there are reasons for and against, but in my humble opinion, the reasons for outweigh the reasons against; which include the tradition of the game, and the fact that it may slow the game down.

I?m not going to compare the use of cameras in football to how they are used in rugby league on disputed tries, as I?d like to keep football, and egg chasing as far apart as possible. I think it can definitely benefit football in general and is worth a shot!

The only consolation Rovers will take from Saturday?s farce is that we lost 3-1 to West Ham on the opening day of last season, and managed to bounce back and maintain excellent form throughout the season!

Yours Hopefully…

With the Carling Cup starting up amongst the lower league clubs this week, our friends at Football Punter have been looking over the odds from VC Bet to see what action is worth getting involved in when it comes to picking a winner for the competition.

Manchester United may have lifted the trophy last year but will they be favorites to take it again this year or will Chelsea or Liverpool have a stronger chance of some early silverware? Maybe some of the outsiders will come from nowhere and steal the prize.

Football Punter gives his views on this year’s Carling Cup betting.

We’ve been through countless discussions here over whether Newcastle United are a big club and if they are, just how big are they but the answer, from the business world’s point of view at least, could well come over the course of the next few weeks or months.

The Jersey based investment company, The Belgravia Group, have confirmed their interest in mounting a takeover bid for the North East club and have already held talks with the majority shareholders in the club, namely former chairman Sir John Hall, chairman Freddy Shepherd and Sir John Hall’s son Douglas.
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