January 2017 Transfers

January Transfer window is now closed, so here's the facts and figures (as far as I can find out)

Big Spenders - Crystal Palace, Man City, Everton
Big Sellers - Chelsea, Man Utd, West Ham
Nice Profits - Chelsea, Man Utd, Watford
Most Players In - Hull 8, Swansea 5
Most Players Out - Everton 15, Chelsea and Middlesbrough 12
Not Buying - Liverpool, Man Utd, Tottenham

Current biggest transfers :-
Oscar (Chelsea - Shanghai) £51.00m  (Out)
Gabriel Jesus (Palmeiras - Man City) £27.20m
Dimitri Payet (West Ham - Marseille) £24.91m (Out)
Odion Ighalo (Watford - Changchun Yatai) £19.81m (Out)
Morgan Schneiderlin (Man Utd - Everton) £19.47m
Wilfred Ndidi (Genk - Leicester) £14.96m
Manolo Gabbiadini (Napoli - Southampton) £14.45m
Luka Milivojevic (Olympiakos - C Palace) £13.6m
Memphis Depay (Man Utd - Lyon) £13.6m (Out)
Robbie Brady (Norwich - Burnley) £12.84m
Saido Berahino (West Brom - Stoke) £11.82m
Jeffrey Schlupp (Leicester - C Palace) £11.73m
Stevan Jovetic (Man City - Inter Milan) £11.48m (Out)
Patrick Van Aanholt (Sunderland - C Palace) £10.03m
Robert Snodgrass (Hull - West Ham) £10.2m
Jake Livermore (Hull - West Brom) £9.78m

Table includes all the deals I could find and the fees according to the most reliable sources I could find (not the papers who seem to double most prices for a good headline).
There are a small selection of undisclosed deals which have been kept very secret for some reason?

I did read that Jordan Rhodes might have been sold to Sheff Wed by Middlesbrough for £9.5 million, but it was right at the last seconds so might not have gone through? (so not included).

Premier Predictions (Week 23)

With the Cup still going on it's time to think about this weeks Premier league games, 7 on Tuesday and 3 on Wednesday.
Liverpool v Chelsea looks like the big game, Liverpool with only a 1-0 win at Plymouth from 8 games this year against Chelsea with 14 wins from the last 15, should be an away banker but football doesn't always work that way?
West Ham will be hoping for a much better performance than that disaster in the Cup (couldn't be worse hopefully).
Some of the African players will be back this week.

Arsenal v Watford
Bournemouth v C Palace
Burnley v Leicester
Middlesbrough v West Brom
Sunderland v Tottenham
Swansea v Southampton
Liverpool v Chelsea

West Ham v Man City
Man Utd v Hull
Stoke v Everton

F.A Cup Predictions 2017 (Part 2)

Here we go with the second part of the FA Cup predictions starting on Friday night.
1 Game on Friday, 11 on Saturday and the final 4 on Sunday.
The draw has been unkind to the smaller teams but still a few possible shocks, especially if the Premier league teams keep playing under strength sides.

All welcome to join :)
Rules - 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result.
Scores after 90 minutes only (not including extra time and penalties) to avoid complaints.
Not including replays only first matches -

Derby v Leicester
-----
Liverpool v Wolves
Blackburn v Blackpool
Burnley v Bristol C
Chelsea v Brentford
C Palace v Man City
Lincoln v Brighton
Middlesbrough v Accrington Stanley
Oxford U v Newcastle
Rochdale v Huddersfield
Tottenham v Wycombe
Southampton v Arsenal
-----
Millwall v Watford
Fulham v Hull
Sutton v Leeds
Man Utd v Wigan

Current scores after the first part - Paul 23, Paulo 20, Lee 18, Biopunk 15, Longy forgot :)

Good Luck All :)

League Updates

Here's the complete Predictions table for those playing.

Here are the NBTF Fantasy Tables (FPL and TFF)

Premier Predictions (Week 22)

Another exciting week of the Premier League :)
Big game of the week is under-performing Man City against over-performing Tottenham, Pep Guardiola has managed to make a very expensive City team look pretty average, while Pochettino is getting better every year, making some pretty average players play like world beaters.
The rest of the title contenders look to have pretty easy games, but you never know.
West Ham need to build on last weeks excellent performance at smog city, which has not been a happy hunting ground in previous visits (although we did win there the last time we played).

Liverpool v Swansea
Bournemouth v Watford
C Palace v Everton
Middlesbrough v West Ham
Stoke v Man Utd
West Brom v Sunderland
Man City v Tottenham

Southampton v Leicester
Arsenal v Burnley
Chelsea v Hull

Good Luck All :)

Payet

Oh well that's another football love affair ending in a bitter divorce :(
One good season and a good Euro's for France and suddenly he's too good for us, so he's refused to play anymore.
The problem with modern footballers, their only loyalty is to their bank balance.
So he joins the ever growing list of football Judas's off for a bigger pay packet somewhere else.
Hopefully after 6 months of sitting on his arse collecting his £120k a week we can at least get back what we paid for him?

Premier Predictions (Week 21)

Back to the Premier league after last weeks Cup damp squib.
8 Games Saturday and 2 more on Sunday.
Could be a good week with the two Manc v Scouse matches on Sunday, and a possibility of some upsets in the Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea games.
Oh and Big Fat Sam should get a warm reception at the Stratford Bowl :)

Tottenham v West Brom    
Burnley v Southampton   
Hull v Bournemouth
Sunderland v Stoke
Swansea v Arsenal
Watford v Middlesbrough
West Ham v C Palace
Leicester v Chelsea   
Everton v Man City   
Man Utd v Liverpool

Good Luck All (especially Me, Paulo or Longy) hehe :)

François Van der Elst RIP

Sadly another former Hammer passed away today :(
Francois Van Der Elst suffered a heart attack on New Year's day and did not recover.

I first remember him scoring twice in the 1976 Cup Winners Cup Final for Anderlecht against West Ham, but he redeemed himself nicely by signing for us in 1981 and played really well every time I saw him live, although I remember thinking he was much shorter in real life than he looked on the telly (but I've said that about everyone I've met) :)

RIP Francois.

F.A Cup Predictions 2017

Ran this last season and got 5 regular players, totally separate from the Premier League competition.
Last season 2015-16 saw a win for Biopunk with 61 points from the 63 games.

All welcome to join :)

Rules - 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result.
Scores after 90 minutes only (not including extra time and penalties) to avoid complaints.
Not going to include replays only first matches -
Round 3 x 32 games, Round 4 x 16 games, Round 5 x 8 games etc. So a total of 63 games
Winner will be whoever scores the most at the end .. simple :)

First Set - (Copy and Paste)

West Ham v Man City
Man United v Reading
Accrington Stanley v Luton
Barrow v Rochdale
Birmingham v Newcastle
Blackpool v Barnsley
Bolton v C Palace
Brentford v Eastleigh
Brighton v MK Dons
Bristol C v Fleetwood
Everton v Leicester
Huddersfield v Port Vale
Hull v Swansea
Ipswich v Lincoln
Millwall v Bournemouth
Norwich v Southampton
QPR v Blackburn
Rotherham v Oxford U
Stoke v Wolves
Sunderland v Burnley
Sutton U v AFC Wimbledon
Watford v Burton
West Brom v Derby
Wigan v Nottm For
Wycombe v Stourbridge
Preston v Arsenal
Cardiff v Fulham
Liverpool v Plymouth
Chelsea v Peterborough
Middlesbrough v Sheffield Wed
Tottenham v Aston Villa
Cambridge U v Leeds

Good Luck All :)

Africa Cup of Nations 2017

The African cup of Nations (Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football 2017) kicks off on the 14th january.

Group Stages - 14th January to 25th January
Quarter Finals - 28th January to 29th January
Semi Finals - 1st February to 2nd February
Final - 5th February

Being held in Gabon which is on the West coast of Africa.



For those of us interested in the Premier league players who will be missing games here is a list of those called up so far (not confirmed).

Algeria - Riyad Mahrez (Leicester), Islam Slimani (Leicester), Adlene Guedioura (Watford)
Congo DR - Dieumerci Mbokani (Hull)
Egypt - Ahmed Elmohamady (Hull), Mohamed Elneny (Arsenal), Ramadan Sobhi (Stoke)
Gabon - Didier N'Dong (Sunderland)
Ghana - Daniel Amartey (Leicester), Andre Ayew (West Ham)
Ivory Coast - Eric Bailly (Man Utd), Lamine Kone (Sunderland), Max Gradel (Bournemouth), Wilfried Bony (Stoke), Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace)
Mali - Bakary Sako (Crystal Palace)
Morocco - Nordin Amrabat (Watford), Sofiane Boufal (Southampton)
Senegal - Mame Biram Diouf (Stoke), Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Idrissa Gueye (Everton), Cheikhou Kouyate (West Ham)
Tunisia - Wahbi Khazri (Sunderland)
Burkina Faso - None
Cameroon - None
Guinea-Bissau - None
Togo - None
Uganda - None
Zimbabwe - None

Possible Bans for not playing?
Benik Afobe, Joel Matip, Brendan Galloway, Allan Nyom, Diafra Sakho 

Games potentially missed -
Premier League -  Week 20 to Week 24
FA Cup - Rounds 3 and 4 + Replays
League Cup - Semi Finals (Both Legs)