Five Bets You Wish You Made at the Start of the Season
There’s some sports bets that even after a couple of months of the season give you that feeling of ‘well, that was obvious’ but at the start of the season didn’t seem so clear-cut.
1. Ronaldo to be La Liga top scorer: There were many reasons why you might not have backed CR7 to be top scorer in La Liga at the start of the season, could he maintain his super-human run of form? Would he remain injury free for another season? Would James Rodrigues and Javier Hernadez coming in and Di Maria leaving disrupt the flow of the team? But most of all would Messi and co simply out-score the man from Madeira? He’s answered all these questions emphatically with CR7 into double figures and Barca spreading their goals between Messi, Neymar and Suarez it looks certain Ronaldo will finish the season with the Golden Boot. Indonesia M88 spokesperson said “Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world right now by a long way”.
2. Bayern to win the Bundesliga: There was doubt around Bayern at the start of the season after they lost key midfield playmaker, Toni Kroos to Real Madrid. Would the successful but draining World Cup campaign affect the stamina and desire of their Cup stars? There were questions around Pep Guardiola himself too, his obsessive tinkering sometimes left players unsure of their roles and could cause himself to burn-out. However after a quarter of the season there seems to be no sign of mental fatigue in Pep or physical fatigue in his charges, and with nearest rivals Dortmund imploding leaving them in the relegation zone it seems unthinkable that Bayern won’t be coronated champions in May.
3. Burnley to be relegated from the EPL: Sadly Burnley are floundering in the EPL, it looks like watching a long, slow car-crash as the Clarets stumble through the season. However before the season kicked off it was a different picture, Swansea provided a blue-print of how a hard-working team with great spirit and an young talented manager could thrive in the EPL. Unfortunately a lack of goals and too many errors at the back will cost them, proving just how hard it is to get the alchemy right to avoid the drop from the EPL as a promoted club.
4. Liverpool to finish outside the Top Four. The true-story baseball film Moneyball tells the tale of a team losing their star player to a bigger rival. They devise a theory to replace him not with one player but many smaller signings. They go on to have their best season in decades, including a record breaking 20 game winning streak. JW Henry adopted this theory for his Red Sox team and won the World Series, JW Henry now owns Liverpool FC. So it’s unsurprising to see the Moneyball approach used to invest the £70m windfall from the sale of Luis Suarez into several lesser talents. Unfortunately for Henry and Liverpool soccer is not baseball and Liverpool are missing Suarez…badly. Don’t expect them to qualify for the Champions League this year. Vietnam M88 spokesperson said “Last year was Liverpool’s year, which was clear to see from the amount of bets placed on them to win the league, it’s a completely different story this year.”
5. Pellegrini to get the boot at Man City: Okay, so this one hasn’t happened yet, but it will unless two major problems are addressed. Firstly, City have been a damp squib in the Champions League, in two previous seasons they haven’t qualified for the knock-out stages, and this season they are bottom of their group needing miracle from their two remaining games in order t o reach the second round. Secondly, they have gone backwards in the EPL. Only two players have improved on last year, Joe Hart and Sergio Augero. If it wasn’t for these two’s form at the back and up top Pellegrini might have gone already.
