AC Milan will once again kick Manchester United to the European curb

Back man on right to knock man on left out of Europe

Carlo Ancelotti’s work so far at Chelsea can’t really be faulted but we were always of the opinion that his spell as AC Milan boss was often overrated.

Two Champions League winners’ medals overshadowed a decade as boss of first Juventus and then the Rosseneri in which he only won Serie A once. And whereas his last two seasons at the San Siro saw the club fighting - and failing on one occasion - just to qualify for the Champions League, his rookie

Posted: January 11th, 2010 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Manchester City are now evens to sign John Terry

Click here to check out all the latest Sky Bet transfer specials

John Terry is now evens to be at Manchester City by the time the transfer window shuts after the Citizens last night confirmed the capture of another Big Four player, Carlos Tevez.

Sky Bet still make Chelsea 8/11 favourites to keep the England captain, who has on numerous occasions in the past vowed never to leave Stamford Bridge, but are offering their shortest price yet on the 28-year-old moving.

Posted: July 14th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | 3 Comments

Eight steps to identify this season’s Golden Boot winner

Click here for the latest odds on who will be 2009-10’s top-scorer

The bookmakers seem to agree on who the 15 leading contenders to be next season’s Premier League top-scorer are: Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Robinho, Robin van Persie, Emmanuel Adebayor, Dimitar Berbatov, Jermain Defoe, Carlos Tevez, Andrey Arshavin, Frank Lampard and Roque Santa Cruz. We’ve used some trends to whittle down the 15 and leave one man standing:

Over the last decade Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (2000-01) is the only player to have won it in his first season with a new club.
That rules out: Michael Owen, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz

The last nine winners were all playing for a Big Four side.
That rules out: Robinho, Jermain Defoe

Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player to have been Premier League top-scorer without always playing as an out-and-out striker.
That rules out: Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Andrey Arshavin

The last British top-scorer was Kevin Phillips in 1999-00.
That rules out: Wayne Rooney

Still standing: Fernando Torres, Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka, Robin van

Posted: July 10th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Gianluca Vialli emerges as the 3/1 second favourite for the Newcastle job

Chelsea legend backed to take over at St James’ Park

An e-mail from Sky Bet dropped into the chickendinner inbox this morning revealing that Gianluca Vialli has emerged from nowhere to become the 3/1 second favourite to be appointed Newcastle’s new manager.

The former Chelsea boss hasn’t coached for seven years since an unsuccessful stint at Watford but long absences didn’t stop the Magpies from appointing Kevin Keegan and Joe Kinnear.

Reports in this morning’s papers suggested the Italian was being earmarked by potential owners to work as director of football in a “dream team” with director-of-football despiser Alan Shearer - who is still the 4/11 favourite.

However, perhaps sensing that Shearer wouldn’t be too happy about having someone operating above him, punters have backed Vialli for the main job.

Posted: July 9th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

John Terry is 5/2 to move to Manchester City this summer

Click here to check out all of Sky Bet’s latest transfer specials

Photo Credit: Carl Court, PA Wire

Sky Bet have priced Manchester City at 5/2 to sign John Terry this summer despite Carlo Ancelotti’s claim this morning that he will be at Chelsea forever.

The online bookmakers are still fairly sure that the England captain will stay at Stamford Bridge though and have priced that possibility at 1/5. One player who seems certain to choose City over the Blues however is Carlos Tevez, who is 1/7 to move to Eastlands and 4/1 to join Chelsea.

The most open transfer special available on Sky Bet surrounds versatile Turkish forward Tuncay. The Middlesbrough man is 5/1 to stay at Riverside and is the same price to join Chelsea, Liverpool or City. As if it wasn’t already close, Sunderland are right behind at 6/1, with Spurs 7/1 and Aston Villa 9/1.

UPDATE: The Chelsea captain has now been cut to 2/1 to join City and is 4/11 to stay put

Posted: July 6th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

The opening day fixtures make good reading for Arsenal, Chelsea and Wolves

Six Premier League fixture-list related trends and statistics

1. The last five newly-promoted teams to kick their season off at home all avoided defeat, which is good news for Wolves who open against West Ham.

2. However, the last four to start away from home have all lost. That doesn’t bode well for Birmingham and Burnley, who start at Man United and Stoke.

3. Chelsea have won their opening game in each of the last seven seasons and this year they kick-off their campaign at home to Hull.

Posted: June 17th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment