FOOTBALL TIPS AND COMMENT W/E 20/05/12
A GAME BEYOND COMPARE
I have seen some fantastic football games in my time but this match that won Man City the title was without doubt the greatest by far. It had drama by the bucket full and then some. With five minutes of added on time to go City were down 1-2 then wham bang they score two goals and with less than ninety seconds left they have the title in the bag. A colossal effort by a magnificent team. I think that I have probably seen the most exciting finish to a game of football that it will ever be my privilege to see. Thanks to you both, Q.P.R. and new Premier League champions Manchester City .
REVUE OF TIPS GIVEN : W/E 13th MAY
A poor midweek start with Birmingham only managing a 2-2 draw. This draw will cost them quite literally a fortune in lost revenue with their resulting failure in achieving promotion to the premiership. So my small lost was nothing and with my three going in on Sunday it turned out a very good week. The magic target of a 20% profit return was achieved so definitely no complaints here .
BIG 'ECKS UNLAMENTED DEMISE
Alex Mc Leish has been given the old heave ho by Villa after a miserable season where his team played the type of football any footie fan would weep at. I said when he was appointed that he was a proponent of the "Wallie Smith anti football method" Ten players behind the ball then when in possession a huge punt up field and hope for the best. Ye gods the man was a disaster at St Andrews just what were Villa thinking when they signed him up. It could only have been collective hysteria amongst the board members. To be fair the fans knew what they were in for.Question is, why did the board of Aston Villa not listen to their supporters? A fine club with a proud tradition did not and never would need a manager who only knows how to play negative and defensive football. The club is well rid indeed.
RIO FERDINAND'S EXPERIENCE IN LOSING
Roy Hodgson has dropped Ferdinand from his England squad and not before time. No offence intended as he was a very good player but is now well past his best. The same can be said of John Terry and I do think this will be his last tournament.Dropping the golden generation one at a time might be the best way. Less disruption and at the same time it will scare the crap out of the remainder and perhaps encourage them to get the finger out and perform for once at major tournaments. One pundit was on the television saying that England would miss Rio's experience and the thought sprung to mind that maybe losing his past experiences of getting gubbed in major international tournaments might not be a bad thing .
LAST WEEKS BREAKDOWN W/E 013/05/12
WEDNESDAY 1 TIP : LOST :- DOWN £30.00
SATURDAY NO TIPS
SUNDAY BEST 3 TIPS :-3 WON :- UP £54.00
LAID £120.00 : RETURNED £144.00
LAID £120.00 : RETURNED £144.00
PROFIT OVER THE WEEK OF £24.00 = 20%
P / L OF TIPS GIVEN DECEMBER
14 Tips from 20 Won : Laid £600 Returned £696
Profit of £96.00 = 16%
12 Tips from 16 Won : Laid £480 Returned £575
Profit of £95.00 = 20%
PROFIT/LOSS OF TIPS GIVEN FEBRUARY
11 Tips from 17 Won : Laid £510 Returned £575
Profit of £65.00 = 13%%
13Tips from 22 Won : Laid £660 Returned £652
Loss of £8.00 = - 1%
13 Tips from 19 Won : Laid £570 Returned £646
Profit of £76.00 = 14%
PROFIT/LOSS OF TIPS GIVEN MAY UP TO-DATE
5 Tips from 9 Won : Laid £300 Returned £249
Loss of £51.00
P/L ACCOUNT FROM TIP SYSTEM ADJUSTMENT
DECEMBER 2011 TO - DATE : LAID £3,120
TARGET RETURN 20%
DECEMBER 2011 TO - DATE : LAID £3,120
TOTAL RETURNED : £3,393.00
PROFIT : £273.00 = 9%
----------------------------------------------------
PROFIT / LOSS PRE - SYSTEM CHANGE
AUGUST to NOVEMBER : LAID £2755
RETURNED £2,536
LOSS : £219 = 8%
PREMIER LEAGUE'S TOP SCORERS
NO 1 : ROBIN VAN ( THE MAN ) PERSIE - ARSENAL :- 30
NO 2 : WAYNE ROONEY - MANCHESTER UTD :- 27
NO 3 : AGUERO - MANCHESTER CITY :- 23
NO 4 : CLINT DEMPSEY - FULHAM :- 17
MIDWEEK TIP
NO TIP
RESULT :-
LAID :-£ : RETURNED :-£
SATURDAY CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
5/6 BAYERN MUNICH win v CHELSEA
RESULT :- BAYERN 1 - 1 CHELSEA
CHELSEA WIN ON PENALTIES AFTER EXTRA TIME
LAID :- £60.00 : RETURNED :- £00.00
SUNDAY BEST
POSTING SATURDAY
RESULT :-
TAKEN FROM THE GUARDIAN'S FIVER
BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CITY
Sombreros with extra wide brims aloft to More from guardian.co.uk on Manchester City">Manchester City, for so long a Mancunian laughing stock and object of derision, who have finally emerged from the shadow of their more successful neighbours to win their first league title for 44 years.
Yes, of course the Fiver is contractually obliged to churlishly point out that they bought the title, unlike comparative paupers such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Blackeye Rovers, whose transfer policies and wage structures have long relied on their ability to attract top players with the promise of magic beans. But even for an outlay of £800m, the Premier League still takes some winning and when a club and its fans are as inured to self-destruction as all who sail in the good ship City, no amount of money spent can render them immune to the potential for a heroically unthinkable last-day comedy face-palm.
Tasked with the simple brief of having to beat the team with the worst away record in the league in a fortress where they'd won 17 out of 18 league games this season, it came as no huge surprise to anyone familiar with City's history of tragicomedy that they still came within a whisker of making a pig's ear so monumentally embarrassing of the job that no amount of the inevitable silverware they'll pick up in the future would have compensated those associated with and forced to witness the shame.
"I think it was a crazy finish for a crazy season," said a relieved Roberto Mancini, after his side came from 2-1 down against 10-man QPR to snatch the title. "I have never seen a final day like this. The best team won the title. I think we played the best football, conceded less goals, scored more goals, beat United two times."
As Manchester United's players sit down for their end-of-season dinner tonight (menu: humble pie and sour grapes), the new champions will be celebrating through the streets of Manchester on an open-top bus, which the Fiver is going to go out on a limb and predict will end in some sort of headline-grabbing farce involving Mario Balotelli wearing a policeman's hat.
Before taking to the field late doors to pepper QPR's goal with shots and set up a goal, the Italian had a brief cameo in the dismissal of Joey Barton, with a futile attempt to square up to the feckless QPR skipper who was dismissed for swinging a retaliatory elbow at Carlos Tevez, then kicked Sergio Aguero and attempted to nut Vincent Kompany on his way back to the dressing room. "Can do nothing but apologise to the players and the fans. Still don't think its a sending off," Joey said on Twitter, before embarking on a critique of Alan Shearer's critique of his dismissal on Match of the Day, in which he labelled his one-time manager at Newcastle "selfish", "boring", "a pr!ck', "a bell" and then pointed out, for the benefit of anyone who might not have got the hint that he'd "never liked him".
But for all of Joey's ultimately futile attempts to help relegate his team and make yesterday about him (he tried to make today about him by getting stuck into Gary Lineker and threatening to look at his "vast closet of skeletons"), the day belonged emphatically to Manchester City and their fans … apart from those who left the most thrilling game in City's history of comedy pratfalls before its dramatic finale, presumably on the grounds that if they couldn't manage to beat QPR, at least they'd beat the traffic. D'oh!
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"Tarantino could not have scripted it any better" - former Manchester City player Asa Hartford tries to make sense of the amazing title-race twist by saying it could have been scripted by a man who has no reputation for final-reel twists whatsoever.
BYE BYE BIG ECK
Bad news slumber fans: Big 'Alex McLeish' Eck has been sacked by Aston Villa - thus making it 895% more likely that any attempts to snooze at Villa Park next season will be interrupted by things like "goal celebrations", "cheers" and "things of vague interest". In McLeish's defence, he did have injuries and illness to contend with but to offset that he couldn't even be bothered to let his team succumb to entertaining thrashings - instead doling our draw after draw (Liverpool lost as many league games as Villa this season, although that's another story).
"The club has been disappointed with this season's results, performances and the general message these have sent to our fans," said Villa, in a statement almost as dry and lifeless as a McLeish-inspired 0-0 draw. "The board wishes to assure supporters that we are conscious in every sense that Villa expects and deserves more and we will strive to deliver this."
FIVER LETTERS
"I see that Joey Barton has added to his sins by questioning whether St Alan of Shearer is qualified to comment on his misbehaviour yesterday. As some readers may be too young to remember the incident to which he refers, could you do a public service by posting a link to the great one's attempt to 'free his foot' so we can all judge for ourselves? This one will do . I think it's quite clear - after all, when the FA cleared His Holiness the England Captain just before the World Cup, his club manager said that 'the good guy's been vindicated', and when has Kenny Dalglish ever been wrong about the conduct of one of the players in his charge?" - Simon Cherry.
"Pedant patrol here for Mike Wilner. Re Gael Clichy's sudden, and supposed, change in stature (Friday's letters). The Fiver was merely employing the rhetorical device of hyperbole, whereby emphasis is created through a blatant distortion, or exaggeration, of events. Signifiers that this might be the case are the improbability of a grown male changing drastically in height and the statement's reproduction in a half-funny tea-timely e-mail. Next time, please don't call unless it's a real emergency" - Matt O'Sullivan.
"Is Mike Wilner really Paul Jurdeczka in disguise? You never see letters from each of them in the same edition of Fiver" - Chris Threlfall.
Send your letters to the.boss@guardian.co.uk. And if you've nothing better to do you can also tweet the Fiver.
BITS AND BOBS
Gary Neville will be on hand to tell Roy Hodgson exactly how England effed up at Euro 2012, after being appointed to the national team's coaching staff. "I had absolutely no hesitation in accepting this role and I am relishing the opportunity to work alongside Roy and the team at the Euros and through to the next two tournaments," said Neville, even though no one ever actually says "relishing" in real life and only ever uses it in carefully worded press releases.
A sad day for Arsenal fans everywhere: Ruud van Nistelrooy has retired from football at the age of 35.
Dirk Kuyt won't be returning to Feyenoord any time soon, says Dirk Kuyt. "If I returned to Holland, I would have to take an 80% cut in my Liverpool wages," he beancounted.
And Norwich chief executive David McNally is ready to chin anyone who tries to poach their manager Paul Lambert. "We'll do everything we can and fight this as hard as we've ever fought," he said.
