City Stunted in Struggle to Rid Players

Roberto Mancini’s comments this week over his frustration Manchester City are yet to make a hallmark signing exposes the future problems the club will face after their rise to superstardom.

City, who have spent over £420m on players since Sheikh Mansour bought the club in 2008, have seen their summer transfer dealings restricted as UEFA’s Financial Fair Play comes into effect. The biggest deal the Eastlands club have managed this summer is the six-year contract extension of captain, Vincent Kompany.

The problem for City is one various other clubs have had, once the intoxicating spending sprees come to a close. In four years, City have bought a squad ready to challenge for titles, a goal achieved last season by winning the Premier League.

But City’s swift rise up the footballing ladder has now come at a price. Over the years, the club has bought to replace undesirables, in order to move to the next level. These players have been lured to the club not on history, but money and title promises alone. But, players on long-term, big-money contracts like Roque Santa Cruz and Edin Dzeko have quickly fallen out of favour.

With their initial rise came the need to bring in better players on even bigger contracts, and the club now has a reserve squad of fallen stars, still on big wages.

With FFP, City are finding it difficult to bring in players unless they shift their rotting stars of the past. These former stars are unwilling to leave Eastlands and their huge contracts, with few clubs able to rival what City pay them.

It took Chelsea five years to overcome the Mourinho era and Madrid just as long to rid themselves of their Galacticos hangover. City have spent too much too soon and now have a backlog of players they cannot shift. Unable to bring in fresh talent, their financial books will spiral out of control while performances on the pitch only worsen.

The Betfair Champions League webpage expects City to be one of the top teams in Europe, next season. However, the Betfair Olympics Football site is seeing the most activity from fans, as Team GB struggle to get the London 2012 campaign off the ground.

Di Matteo Confirms Moses Interest

Roberto Di Matteo admits that Chelsea are in the hunt to sign unsettled Wigan forward, Victor Moses, but have yet to match the Latics' valuation.

Wigan chairman, Dave Whelan, recently revealed to the news sport on Bet365 that the club had rejected a third bid from the Blues, thought to be £5million, and are holding out for a more substantial fee for the talented 21-year-old.

Moses is entering the final year of his contract at the DW Stadium, and is thought to favour a move away from the club.

Di Matteo has confirmed his interest in the former Crystal Palace star, and says talks are ongoing. 

"[It is] something that the clubs are discussing but, at the moment, he is a Wigan player," said the Blues boss. He had a good season, last season – he is young and an interesting prospect."

Meanwhile, Di Matteo, currently with Chelsea on their pre-season tour of the United States, plans to hold talks with winger, Florent Malouda, over his future, this week, amid speculation that the Frenchman is on the verge of leaving the club.

The 32-year-old has only one year left to run on his current deal, and is expected to be down the pecking order, next term, following the arrival of Eden Hazard and Marko Marin, and the recent interest in Moses.

Malouda has been linked with a move to Brazilian club, Santos, a club that will be able to offer him more soccer games per season.

"Florent is back with us now, and I will have a talk with him this week. We cannot name more than 25 players in the squad, so we will have to make some decisions," added Di Matteo.

"Pre-season gives me a great opportunity to look at the new players and see how they develop. The final decision on who will go and who will stay will be made at the beginning of August."

Walcott backs Wenger Leadership

The wait continues for Arsenal to secure a piece of silverware but winger, Theo Walcott, believes there is the potential in the squad and the right man in charge to bring titles to the club.

Despite the fine football we constantly see coming out of the Emirates year after year, the Gunners are still looking to claim their first title since the FA Cup back in 2005.

Arsenal are 12/1 to win the Premier League in the online betting from Bet Victor, behind City, United, and Chelsea.  

As much as the majority of fans love and respect manager, Arsene Wenger, for the work he has done with the north London outfit, another season without silverware will mean those headlines will start to return regarding the Frenchman's future.

In a campaign which will be more competitive than ever, with the likes of Manchester City, Manchester United, and Chelsea looking like the frontrunners for the Premier League crown, and Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool looking set to improve, things will be tough for Arsenal.

However, Walcott, who is still negotiating a new contract at the Emirates, believes that Wenger is still the right man for the job, and feels the upcoming season could be exciting for the Gunners faithful.

He told Sky Sports News: "The manager has got so much faith in the young players. He's developed them. Every single one of them that comes in seems to suit the way that Arsenal play football.

"It's the next step that we need to go on to now. Everybody says that we're a young team but we've got a lot of experience now - Champions League quarter-finals (in 2010) and so on.

"So, we just need to try and prove people wrong and show what we can actually do and find out what we're made of."

Get great odds with www.betvictor.com.

Forest fans preach cautious optimism

After several months of inertia that threatened to destabilise the club, Nottingham Forest have finally found new owners – the Kuwaiti Al-Hasawi family.

They have bought the Championship club from the estate of Nigel Doughty, the previous chairman and life-long Forest supporter, who died last autumn.

The two-time European champions endured a difficult campaign last season, with Doughty’s decision to appoint Steve McLaren as manager proving disastrous, Steve Cotterill was later appointed to try and lift the club away from danger.

He did so, though with limited funds thanks to Doughty’s decision to put the club up for sale and later his untimely death significantly hampering efforts to secure vital investment. The deal has now been delivered though, with the Al-Hasawi’s promising to take Forest back ‘to the top’.

After several years in the footballing wilderness Forest fans are understandably excited as to what their new ownership can bring. Manchester City are the standard bearers as to what Middle Eastern oil money can do to a club. Though, it has to be pointed out that investment on that scale has not been promised at Forest.

They did though pledge to get them back into the Premier League, something a number of foreign owners are trying to do. And fans from within the bet365 community will watch on with interest.

Turned off by the debt ridden sides currently in England’s top flight, owners are seeing potential for a profit by buying Championship clubs for low price and then investing £25million or so in the playing staff with a view to getting them promoted.

Once in the cash-rich Premier League, they can be sold on for a handsome profit - Bernie Ecclestone and Flavio Briatore at QPR are two recent examples of businessmen making cash from promotion.

The only worry for Forest fans is that they are not the only club to have fallen into foreign hands – look at Leicester, Cardiff or Watford as examples. The owners of Cardiff are even going as far as changing the team’s shirt colour in return for investment. While Venkys of Blackburn as well as the ongoing sagas at Portsmouth and Birmingham are examples of when foreign owners go bad.

So therefore the supporters, while welcoming the new era, are holding back on their excitement and waiting to see whether the owners will deliver on their promises before celebrating their famous old club’s belated return to the big time.

The bet365 Ray Winstone advert will soon be back on our screens as we usher in the new football season. It promises to be another exciting few months at every level.

Van der Vaart to Stay a Spur

Rafael van der Vaart has played down reports linking him with a return to Hamburg, this summer, as “just gossip”, the playmaker insisting that he is thoroughly enjoying his time in the Premier League.

The Dutchman has been a revelation at Spurs, since his arrival in 2010, but rumours had begun to surface since Euro 2012 that the midfielder could be tempted to rejoin his old club in Germany.

While Hamburg coach, Thorstan Fink, went public to admit his interest in welcoming back van der Vaart to the club, Spurs have been strong in their view that the Dutchman is not for sale.

New Tottenham manager, Andre Villas-Boas, has made it clear that van der Vaart is crucial to his new plans for the team, which has seemingly convinced the 29-year old to stay in London.

"It's kind of incredible how my name has been mentioned across Europe in the last few days. But I just want to say that this is just gossip talking.

"I am about to play for Tottenham Hotspur in the new season. I have had two good campaigns in England and I am enjoying it.

"It's amazing the people of Hamburg and Hamburger SV still hold me in such kind regard. I enjoy this; it gives me a big boost."

After narrowly missing out on Champions League football, last season, van der Vaart will be integral to the club’s plans to get themselves back into European football’s top competition.

Not many clubs can boast a player of van der Vaart’s quality or experience, and Spurs will do everything they can to make sure the Dutchman does not join Luka Modric in looking to leave White Hart Lane.

Spurs are 25/1 to win the Premier League in the football betting on Bet365. The Londoners also have favourable odds in the Europa League stakes, according to fans placing online bets on the competition.

BETFAIR LAUNCHES NEW ANDROID APP

Continued investment in Android highlights future potential of platform

BETFAIR GROUP PLC (LSE:BET) has today launched a new native Android App that features a completely revamped user experience customised to the Android operating system.

The launch of the Betfair new Android App highlights its continued commitment to enhancing its mobile offering, and in particular improving the betting experience of customers who use Android devices, the majority of whom currently use Betfair’s web app on their browser rather than the current native App.

Betfair for Android v2.0 builds on the recent intuitive interfaces launched on Betfair’s iPhone and iPad Apps and includes a highly responsive look and feel, a superior visual home screen, Betfair’s ‘Cash Out’ tool, price graphs and market view enhancements.

Betfair’s mobile division continues to grow at a rapid pace. At its Full Year results on Friday 29^th June Betfair announced it has 275,000 active mobile customers who placed 44 million mobile bets in FY12, an increase of 122%. This activity resulted in £22.7m mobile revenue being generated from £2.2bn worth of bets being traded across mobile devices.

With Android now one of the leading operating systems for smartphones across the globe, today’s launch is a step towards capturing the significant commercial potential of this channel in future.

Commenting on the launch, Raj Vemulapalli, Vice President of Mobile said: “This is another exciting launch for Betfair which again highlights the benefit of our Silicon Valley Development Center, who have worked round the clock to build a product that is very engaging and reflects the needs of our customers and business.

“Due to the popularity of the Android platform, this app will provide a huge number of existing and potential Betfair customers with a fundamentally improved experience. This product is another example of how Betfair is leading the way in mobile gaming.”

He added: "This App will build on the already formidable performance of our mobile division, which recorded £22.7m of revenue in FY12 and saw a 122% increase in the number of bets placed. 

We have already seen the benefits of significant product investment- with our new native iPhone and iPad applications winning industry awards and featuring in wider reviews, like the Sunday Times Top 500 Apps and a ‘Best of British Apps’ report in association with the UK Trade and Industry.”

-Ends-

 

The infographic, above, released in celebration of Betfair's latest venture, suggests that the iPhone is the most popular platform among gamblers making online bets.

For further information, please contact:

James Midmer  Corporate Communications Executive Tel:  +44 20 8834 6843 Mob:  +44 (0)7801 133 510 james.midmer@betfair.com

About Betfair: (www.betfair.com)

Betfair is one of the world’s largest international online sports betting providers and pioneered the betting exchange in 2000.

Driven by cutting-edge technology, Betfair enables customers to bet at odds sought by themselves or offered by other customers. The company now processes over seven million transactions a day from its four million registered customers around the world. In addition to sports betting, Betfair offers a portfolio of innovative products including casino, exchange games and poker.

Betfair has twice been named the UK’s ‘Company of the Year’ by the Confederation of British Industry and has won two prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise, being recognised for Innovation in 2003 and most recently for International Trade in 2008. Betfair currently employs over 2,000 people worldwide. The company holds betting licences in Gibraltar, the US, Tasmania, Italy, Denmark and Malta.

 About Betfair Android v2.0

 New Features include:

• A native, Android standard, and highly-responsive look & feel
• A superior landing experience that highlights In-Play and Popular markets and provides re-sortable modules for Horse Racing, Football, and Tennis
• An in-line betting experience within market view that enables the user to see his P&L & What if in real time
• Live score information for Football and Tennis markets
• Market Graphs for all markets
• Market depth and liquidity info (in landscape mode)
• The ability to bookmark markets for faster access
• Support for both portrait and landscape throughout the app