Manchester City are now evens to sign John Terry

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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

Portugal and Argentina continue to struggle, Peter Crouch maintains his record

Five stats about this week’s internationals

1. Peter Crouch wasn’t too impressive last night but maintained his incredible international goal-to-start record, with 14 goals in his last 14 starts.

2. England’s 21-point haul from their first seven qualifiers is a drastic improvement on 14 from their first seven in the Euro 2008 campaign, although they did have 19 at this stage under Sven-Goran Eriksson in qualification for the last World Cup.

3. Anyone who thought Portugal had turned the corner with their last-gasp 2-1 win over Albania was proved wrong last night when they drew 0-0 away to Estonia in a friendly. That result was particularly worrying as they were actually performing fairly well in friendlies prior to that, winning four of their previous five.

Posted: June 11th, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Crouch’s goal ratio, Ireland’s San Nicola success and more

Five stats about the midweek World Cup qualifiers

1. Peter Crouch has an incredible goal-to-start ratio for England and has scored thirteen goals in the last thirteen games that he has started.

2. Italy had won all eight of their previous games in Bari before being held to a 1-1 draw by the Republic of Ireland last night at the Stadio San Nicola.

3. Northern Ireland have won eight and drawn one of their last nine competitive matches at Windsor Park, compensating for the fact they have taken just four points from their last seven away games.

Posted: April 2nd, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Ten statistics about England’s qualifying clash with Ukraine

England/Ukraine, Wednesday 8pm, ITV1, Free Bets, Best Odds

England fans have a reputation for fickleness but the antics of the Wembley crowd must seem refreshing to Fabio Capello when compared to the actions of some supporters in his homeland. Italy fans in Bari are expected to boo Marcello Lippi, the man who won them the World Cup, tonight and cheer his predecessor Giovanni Trapattoni, the man who twice flopped in international tournaments. The reason? Lippi refused to call up their favourite son Antonio Cassano. Capello on the other hand can expect a hearty applause this evening despite trying to pick even Darren Bent ahead of Michael Owen. Here’s ten stats about tonight’s game with Ukraine:

1. Both teams are unbeaten in Group 6, with England winning all four of their games. Ukraine have won two and drawn one of their three.

2. Ukraine are unbeaten in eight games and have won four consecutive away games.

3. However, they have been seen off easily on their two previous trips to England - losing 2-0 in 2000 and 3-0 in 2004.

Posted: April 1st, 2009 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

chickendinner’s FIFA Club World Cup preview

Man Utd/Gamba Osaka, 10.30am Tues, Five, Best Odds, Free Bets

Everyone’s really excited about the grandiosely named FIFA Club World Cup. TV Channel Five are excited. Manchester United chief executive David Gill is excited. Sir Alex Ferguson is excited. Paul Scholes isn’t so much. Well he tried really hard to sound excited about it but brilliantly, the more he spoke about it, the more his disinterest became apparent:

“It’s a big club competition and we want to win. But obviously, we’d probably rather be here, playing our league game and not have so many fixtures in January like we’ve got. It’s one of those things. We managed to win the European Cup last year and sometimes afterwards you have to do things maybe you don’t want to do.”

Here are five statistics about the big club competition that Manchester United really want to win:

1. Last year was the first time that the European representatives in the tournament triumphed, with AC Milan beating Boca Juniors.

Posted: December 17th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment

Paolo Maldini misses out on career-defining match

The chickendinner preview of tonight’s UEFA Cup matches

When AC Milan were drawn away to Portsmouth in the UEFA Cup, Peter Crouch remarked that “the changing rooms are a little bit smaller than most, but Paolo Maldini can say that he’s done it all now.” Maldini has not travelled to the South Coast however, meaning one of the greatest defenders ever may retire with the bitter regret that despite everything he achieved in his one-club career, he missed out on every player’s dream of playing at Fratton Park. Here’s our preview of each of the Premier League sides’ UEFA Cup prospects tonight:

NEC v Tottenham
The Dutch club’s boss Mario Been created a bit of a stir when he called Tottenham “predictable”, a tag that doesn’t really describe the season they’ve had up until this point.  NEC have lost just one home game this year and that was back in February. Tottenham had lost just one of eleven UEFA Cup away games since the start of 2006-07 before their recent loss in Udinese but Harry Redknapp has lost his last three European games on the road with West Ham and Portsmouth, meaning that Paddy Power’s 11/4 on NEC shouldn’t be dismissed.

Portsmouth v AC Milan

Posted: November 27th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn | Add Comment