Every Little Helps

There is a rumour that Tesco might be the new sponsor for the Olympic stadium?

So I've come up with a possible new cheap and cheerful 3rd kit for when we play in the new EFL Cup competition.

50 Years Ago

30th July 1966, 50 years ago today.

50 years of hurt? didn't know at the time that would be the last time England would win anything :(
I've watched virtually every competitive game since in the hope it would happen again but excluding 1990 and 96 we've never even gone close .... one day?

Here's a video I put up about 10 years ago :)



308 views in 10 years? not exactly gone viral :)

Silly Season

Four weeks to go before it all kicks off again :)
About six weeks until the first round of the big spend up is done and dusted, Premier league teams now have so much money they will all be struggling to spend it.
Here's my first round up of who is doing the spending.

Man Utd have been spending early as they did last season, and Southampton have once again been selling off the family silver.
Liverpool although spending heavily again have been balancing the books with some big sales.
West Ham have brought in some decent players on the cheap with the only major outlay on making Lanzini's transfer permanent.
Arsenal have actually spent some money on Xhaka who hit one of the worst penalties in the Euros?

Top Transfers so far (up to 15th July)
Granit Xhaka (B Monch'bach - Arsenal) 38.25m
Henrikh Mkhitaryan (B Dortmund - Man Utd) 35.7m
Sadio Mané (Southampton - Liverpool) 35.02m
Michy Batshuayi (Marseille - Chelsea) 33.15m
Eric Bailly (Villarreal - Man Utd) 32.3m
Ilkay Gündogan (B Dortmund - Man City) 22.95m
Vincent Janssen (AZ Alkmaar - Tottenham) 18.79m
Ahmed Musa (CSKA Moscow    - Leicester) 16.58m
Nolito (Celta Vigo - Man City) 15.3m
Jordon Ibe (Liverpool - Bournemouth) 15m
Andros Townsend (Newcastle - C Palace) 13.26m
Nampalys Mendy (Nice - Leicester) 13.18m

Wales

Good luck Wales in their Semi Final against Portugal :)
James Collins looks likely to play so a Hammer to cheer on.

One thing that crossed my mind before the Tournament kicked off was "does having a really good song help you?" thinking of New Order's brilliant tune in 1990 which helped us get to the Semi's.
I love the Manic Street Preachers so the official Wales tune was a big favourite of mine, considering once again most of the England songs are crap.

Seems to have worked :)

Euro 2016 Predictions (Part 4)

The Semi Finals ... Nearly forgot to post these .. oops!

Portugal v Wales
Germany v France

The Final
Portugal v France

90 Minute rule again, and please post your final results when we know who it will be :)
Looking like Longy did enough in the group stages to win, but still open with a possible 9 points to play for.
Good Luck All :)

England Disgrace

I've seen some ropey England performances but this has to be the worst ever. Iceland are a decent team but can never have expected such an easy passage to the next round.
The first half was poor but everyone expected us to take control in the second half, but we actually got worse? Rooney had been reasonable in the first half but seemed to forget how to play the game in the 2nd half, Harry Kane was an embarrassment and should have been hauled off at half time to allow Sturridge to play in the centre.
At least Vardy looked like he was trying when he came on unlike the rest of the team and Marcus Rashford did more in 5 minutes than the rest had managed all game.
Here are my over generous ratings - Hart 2, Walker 2, Rose 3, Smalling 3, Cahill 3, Dier 3, Alli 4, Rooney 4, Sterling 1, Kane 0, Sturridge 3, Subs - Wilshere 2, Vardy 5, Rashford 6

Hodgson has gone and I think the majority of this team should be banished from the national side as punishment.
Now really glad he didn't pick any West Ham players who would have got tainted by this shower of shit.

Euro 2016 Predictions (Part 3)

Well that's England out of the way :(
On with the rest of it.
Germany v Italy looks like the pick of the games and the Italians looked really good against Spain today.
3 of the 4 West Ham players still involved :)

Poland v Portugal
Wales v Belgium
Germany v Italy
France v Iceland

Current scores with 7 games left.
Longy 39, Lee 32, Biopunk 30, Paulo 28, John 21, Paul 0, (Lawro 36)

Once again the Rules - 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result (comment before kick off's)
Scores after 90 minutes only (not including extra time and penalties)

Euro 2016 Predictions (Part 2)

Last 16 games start on Saturday through till Monday.
All the big names in England's half of the draw so if they beat Iceland it could be France followed by Germany, Spain or Italy in the Semi's?

Switzerland v Poland
Wales v Northern Ireland
Croatia v Portugal
France v Rep of Ireland
Germany v Slovakia
Hungary v Belgium
Italy v Spain
England v Iceland

Current Scores - Longy 39, Lee 28, Biopunk 26, Paulo 26, John 15, Paul 0, (Lawro 29)
Longy with at least a 4 game lead and only 15 games to go?

Good Luck All :)

Rules - 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result (comment before kick off's)
Scores after 90 minutes only (not including extra time and penalties) to avoid complaints.
** Extra time and penalties do not count **

Euro 2016 Progress

All the teams have played twice and France, Spain and Italy are the only ones with 2 wins each.

Spain have probably been the only team to look good in both games, Italy struggled against Sweden after the terrific win over Belgium. France have had to rely on Dimi Payet's late brilliance to win both games after struggling against Rumania and Albania.

Of the rest Germany have played well but struggle up front, England have not hit top gear, Portugal have played well but Ronaldo is having a nightmare.

Favourite game was Northern Ireland's win over the Ukraine.

Teams that have disappointed so far - Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Poland.

Teams doing better than expected - Hungary, Iceland, Northern Ireland.

Euro 2016 Predictions (Part 1)

The Euro 2016 Prediction competition.
Anyone welcome to join in on this (just leave a name, no anonymous).

Rules - 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result (comment before kick off's)
Scores after 90 minutes only (not including extra time and penalties) to avoid complaints.

Group Stages - Here
Round of 16 - Will post 23rd June
Quarter Finals - Will post 28th June
Semi- Finals - Will post 4th July
Final - Will post 8th July
A total of 51 games, Winner will be whoever scores the most at the end .. simple :)

First Set - Group Stages - (Copy and Paste)

France v Romania
Albania v Switzerland
Wales v Slovakia
England v Russia
Turkey v Croatia
Poland v Northern Ireland
Germany v Ukraine
Spain v Czech Republic
Rep of Ireland v Sweden
Belgium v Italy
Austria v Hungary
Portugal v Iceland

Russia v Slovakia
Romania v Switzerland
France v Albania
England v Wales
Ukraine v Northern Ireland
Germany v Poland
Italy v Sweden
Czech Republic v Croatia
Spain v Turkey
Belgium v Rep of Ireland
Iceland v Hungary
Portugal v Austria

Romania v Albania
Switzerland v France
Russia v Wales
Slovakia v England
Northern Ireland v Germany
Ukraine v Poland
Croatia v Spain
Czech Republic v Turkey
Hungary v Portugal
Iceland v Austria
Italy v Rep of Ireland
Sweden v Belgium

Good Luck All :)

Euro 2016 World Rankings

If it goes to World rankings, these would be the Quarter finals

France v Spain
England v Portugal
Germany v Belgium
Switzerland v Austria

With the Semi's ...

Spain v Portugal
Belgium v Austria

With Belgium beating Spain in the final.

But I've got a feeling it won't work out this way :)

Euros 2016 Fantasy Football

The Telegraph (Torygraph?) have launched their Euro 2016 Fantasy game.
£25k in prizes, with £10k for the winner.

If anyone wants to join the Nothing Better Than Football league? the details are -
League Name: NBTF EUROS - League Pin: 8111097
Sadly no prizes/medals for winning this league unless you finish top 10 overall, but you will get my gratitude :) Hopefully we can get a high placed finish to challenge some of the big groups?

Personal stuff - probably did well in the regular fantasy football league last season as I was out of work for a lot of it after being made redundant/laid off twice in 2015 :( 
Just a handful of part time jobs to interfere with this serious stuff :)

But sod's law I've got a nice new full time job starting tomorrow which will totally interfere with all the early kick off's in the Euros, meaning not only will I miss all the 2pm kick off's and maybe some of the 5pm ones if the traffic is bad? also I won't be able to tinker with my teams in this competition between matches, meaning I will probably do rubbish ... excuses made :)

Honours 2015-16

It's finally finished, so here are the winners and losers.

Premier League
Champions - Leicester City
Champions League Place - Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City
Europa League Place  - Man Utd, Southampton, West Ham
Relegated - Aston Villa, Norwich, Newcastle

Championship
Champions - Burnley
Promoted - Middlesbrough, Hull City
Relegated - Charlton, MK Dons, Bolton

League One
Champions - Wigan Athletic
Promoted - Burton Albion, Barnsley
Relegated - Doncaster, Blackpool, Colchester, Crewe

League Two
Champions - Northampton
Promoted - Oxford Utd, Bristol Rovers, Wimbledon
Relegated - York, Dagenham And Redbridge

National League
Champions - Cheltenham
Promoted - Grimsby
Relegated - Halifax, Altrincham, Kidderminster, Welling

FA Cup - Man Utd
League Cup - Man City
Charity Shield - Arsenal
Paint Trophy - Barnsley
FA Trophy - Halifax

Champions League - Real Madrid
Europa League - Sevilla
Super Cup - Barcelona
World Club Cup - Barcelona

Fantasy Champions League

One more table for the season.

Congratulations to Ray for winning this, he also won £250 for finishing 2nd overall with a different team.
But he was only a point behind the winner so he must be gutted :(

The League finished 13th overall, but had reached 8th a few weeks back so could have been better.
27 teams overall which was reasonable. Personally had a bit of a 'mare never troubling the leaders.

Champion - Ray (RCL 2) 490 Points
Starting XI - Ray (RCL 7) 9th
Goals - Richard (Ricks Raiders) 23

NBTF League

The Winner of this lovely medal was Ryan.
Now I'm not sure if Ryan ever reads this blog? but if you do please leave a comment with some contact details (don't worry comments are moderated by me, and I won't post your details on here) so I can send it to you :)

Alternatively Rich from Rick's footy challenge has offered to send you the one that I won in his league, and I keep this one.
Sounds confusing but makes sense :)

Fantasy Football End Of Season 2015-16

Slightly overdue but here are the final tables from the 2 NBTF Fantasy league

FPL - Just 4 of us this year, Gary has led most of the way but I caught him right at the death.
Although the Premier league have decided I was 2nd, I'm calling it a draw :)
On a personal note I managed to win the Fan Footy league (which is supposed to be where all the good fantasy players hang out?) didn't get a mention on their site so obviously not impressed :)

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TFF - 32 Teams, we finished 58th overall which is down on last year but better than expected as it's the first time we've hit the top 100 all season.
Ryan is the winner, deserved as he has led since week 6. I tried to catch him but as it turned out my best 3 teams were in other leagues, but you can never tell at the start :(
At least I beat John at something this year :)

Full Table (with surnames removed to protect the innocent) :)

Champion - Ryan (Morris Dancers) 2035
Starting XI - Simon (Izzy's Bees) 1534
Goals - Lee (Riders On The Storm, Kypton Supermen) 120
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Self congratulation bit, My blog my rules etc :)

TFF - As far as I remember the best I've mangaged before this season was in the 300's a couple of times, and just a handful of top 1000 finishes in 16 years of playing.
This season (41 Teams) - 3 in the top 40, 12 in the top 1000, 36 in the top 10,000, and just one bad team which finished 20,670th but was the one I selected for the supporters league :(
(one to remember for next season, go with top team not one that sounds right for the West Ham league).

Should get £50 for 17th, and hopefully some more cash from being top 5 in the top 2 leagues?
Missed out on the Twitter top 3 at the death by 2 points, 3rd paid £50, 4th Nothing :(

FA Cup Predictions 2016

That's the end of the first FA Cup predictions competition.
The final game played today, game no. 63
Paulo grabbed the only points with his 1-1 prediction thanks to my 90 minute rule.

But with a brilliant performance Biopunk is the first winner with an impressive 61 points, including 13 perfect scores.

Here is the virtual FA Cup trophy :)

Congratulations Biopunk :)

FA Cup Final 2

Interesting afternoon for Louis Van Gaal, wins the Cup then gets the sack?

The game itself was a bit of a non event until Puncheon scored for Palace late in the game, which finally woke United up. Mata scored 3 minutes later after a great run by Rooney which left it at 1-1 at 90 Mins.
Extra time seemed pretty even until Smalling rugby tackled Bolassie to get sent off, that should have seen Palace get on top but they had run out of ideas.
Nice goal by Lingaard to win it, and it finished 2-1.

Then the news comes through that Mourinho is taking over and Van Gaal is gone.
I sort of expected this in January, but I can't believe it happened today after LVG finally won something.
Considering the serial whinger was a disaster this season for Chelsea, it seems an odd move considering virtually every top manager in the world would jump at the chance of managing Man Utd?
I've always had a soft spot for the Mancs but they're going to be hard to like next season.

FA Cup Final

Just watching the pre match build up and for the first time in years I haven't a clue who to support?
A Man Utd win means West Ham get into the early stages of the Europa League again, also most of my fantasy football teams have a selection of Man Utd players so I need them to score a few points.
Palace are the under dogs, but I still really like Alan Pardew and would be great if Palace could grab their first major Trophy,
So probably hoping for a high scoring match going to penalties? :)

Predictions 2015-16

Congratulations to John for winning this year's competition.

7 players this year, although Gobby seems to have left us after a couple of weeks :(

It looked like Paulo would be running away with it after a 3 week winning run earlier in the season, but John came back with a 4 week winning run in weeks 19-22 meaning we were all playing catch up.
John grabbed another double in weeks 33-34 and sadly for Paulo the last 3 weeks were all drawn with me being the main culprit.

Anyway it's time to award the NBTF virtual trophy :)

Hopefully one day I will get my name on it?

John's record this season was 8 outright wins, and 1 shared win. With a total of 228 points from 371 games predicted.
Although only the 3rd best total overall he put together 8 really good weeks.




The Minor Trophies

Outright Wins - John 8
Most 3 Pointers - Paulo 43
Most 1 Pointers - Lee 136
Highest Week Score - Lee 15
Most Points - Lee 256
Best Points Per Game - Lee 0.661
Most Games Predicted - Lee and Paulo 387

The Final Table

Thanks Everyone for playing, and hopefully you will all be back to do it again next season :)