Players who could get a big move after the World Cup

Obsessive football fans have a tendency to watch the stuff that happens around football as much as they do the games themselves.

For many of us, this means betting odds like this option, and also transfer gossip and actual transfers, and those of us who take an interest in the transfer market know that there are two times when the rumour mill cranks into gear with a vengeance: after a major tournament, and in the January transfer window.

In these periods, we see some of the best moves, and also some of the most ill-fated. Hello, Stephane Guivarc’h, hello Fernando Torres.

Of course, sometimes these moves come off with a vengeance, like when Luis Suarez moved to Liverpool or when Dan Petrescu followed his World Cup ‘94 performance with a move that brought him to then-Premier League side Sheffield Wednesday. Both of those worked out. And if the players included in this article do get the moves that are deemed likely should they have a good showing in this World Cup, then this first-ever post-World Cup January window might not be the swirling vortex of bad moves that some expect it to be.

Lukas Nmecha (Werder Bremen, Germany)

Nmecha is an old-fashioned centre-forward who came through the ranks at Manchester City, but never really had a hope of breaking into the first team. Their loss was Wolfsburg’s gain, as the perennial Bundesliga strugglers picked Nmecha up for just £8 million. His eight goals in 25 league games last season may sound pretty ordinary, but were essential to his club’s survival, and enough to see him brought into the national setup. He will likely see some playing time in Qatar, as Germany lack a lot of competition in the striker role, and he could attract interest from bigger clubs in need of a target man – there’s always at least one in January.

Jonathan David (Lille, Canada)

Lille aren’t exactly short of quality – and are the only team in France to have deposed PSG as champions in recent years. However, a solid showing for Canada in matches that are broadcast outside of the chilly North American nation may be what it takes for David to be recognised by what we are bound to refer to as the “elite” of European football. He’s been a prolific scorer at any level he’s played at, and it’s safe to assume that should any of Europe’s top clubs open their wallet to get him on board, he’d repay them in goals within no time whatsoever.

Guilherme Arana (Atletico Mineiro, Brazil)

If you’re a risk-averse chairman with a bit of cash to spend, one way to be confident of getting a decent player is to look at the Braziian national squad and seeing who isn’t already playing in Europe. Arana is probably the best answer to that question, especially for any team lacking a top-level left-back.

He’s already played for Atlanta and Sevilla, two of the better sides outside of the very top echelon in Italy and Spain, and he could do a job at most clubs in the big five leagues. This is not a prediction, but we wouldn’t be shocked to see him turn up at moneybags club Newcastle in January.

Top Candidates for Roland Garros 2022 

The French Open is already here and we must talk about who will be the best positioned to win the Coupe des Mousquetaires.

The top tournament for tennis on clay starts this month and the world’s best tennis players will fight to become the champion.

With odds wide open and many feeling unsure about who will be the winner, bets are going off for those who visit Bonus-promotion-code.com to try and predict who will be lifting the trophy.

Let’s take a look at who are the top candidates for Roland Garros 2022. 

Rafael Nadal

Until the day he retires, you can’t discuss potential Roland Garros winners and not mention Rafael Nadal.

The Spaniard must always be in the list for potential winners, simply for the fact that he is the all time record winner. He may not get to the tournament 100%, feeling a lot of pain in his left foot (although he has denied any big issues) and arriving without having won any of the prior titles that are played ahead of this tournament (like the Conde de Godó at Barcelona or the  Masters of Monaco, Madrid and Roma) but, despite all that, his name will always appear among the main candidates because Roland Garros is synonymous with Rafael Nadal, and Rafael Nadal is synonymous with Roland Garros. 

Novak Djokovic 

Much in the same way, we can’t forget about Novak Djokovic either. At one point enemy number one for the ATP with his stance on several issues, he has gone from strenght to strenght and silenced the doubters and the critics.

Little by little he has improved on his early year faillings and stands today as the main favorites to win in Paris, particularly when taking into account Nadal’s foot problems.

Djokovic is a different player when it comes to Grand Slams and the Serbian transforms when he plays these big tournaments.

He’s surely thinking of going after Nadal’s record and equalizing things again, leaving both with 21 Grand Slams each.

It’s important to keep in mind that Nadal will be the fifth seed, so Nole could meet either Rafa in a heated quarterfinals matchup. 

Carlos Alcaraz 

It seems amazing, and it would have been unthinkable just a year prior, but Carlos Alcaraz is another of the top candidates to win at the Court Philippe Chatrier. It seems almost unbelievable considering that this will be just his sixth Grand Slam participation, but the year is 2022 and you’ll be very mistaken not to consider him among the key candidates.

Winner in the ATP Tour 500 of Barcelona and the ATP Masters 1000 of Madrid, he has only lost one match so far this year.

He beat Nadal and Djokovic consecutively in the Spanish capital, showing that he is ready to challenge for tennis’ most prestigious tournaments and that he can endure pressure of being at the top.

Alcaraz has been a sight to be seen on a tennis court this year, playing with confidence ahd showing great personality and immense quality.

Having recovered from the ankle issues that took him out from the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome, he’ll be fresh to tackle his biggest challenge since breaking out and will most assuredly be a man to take into account. 

Chelsea will look to spend big this summer if they can appoint a new owner in time 

Chelsea is being rumoured to have a 200m war chest to spend in the summer transfer window although they will not be able to do any business unless they appoint a new owner in time for the window to open.

There are lots of football fans placing their transfer bets this season on platforms such as independent casinos uk as these are providing independent uk casinos at TBC that have become popular platforms for millions of football fans to visit during the season. 

The summer transfer window 

The summer transfer window is expected to be a busy one for all football clubs across the world with them looking to improve their squads and sell or loan out the unwanted players.

Many clubs are looking to spend big this summer transfer window to help them either push for a title or avoid being relegated to a lower league. 

The most recent transfer window saw Newcastle United spending over 100m on new players and this has turned out well for them as they are now out of the relegation zone and look like being in the Premier League next season. This summer transfer window looks set to be one of the busiest on record with clubs looking to make up for the lack of business that they conducted during the winter transfer window. 

Record transfers

There have been a few record transfers in recent windows with players such as Lukaku moving back to Chelsea for a deal worth around 90m and Grealish moving to Manchester City for a fee of over 100m. This summer transfer window we are expecting to see these transfer records broken with some big named players expected to move clubs. Players such as Haaland are looking for a set to leave Dortmund for a few of over 200m which would be a record transfer fee for any player. 

The summer transfer window is not far off now and football fans are excited to see what new players their clubs will bring in. Deadline day is always an exciting time to be a football fan as there are usually some crazy last-minute deals being done across the world with teams looking to sign new players before the transfer window slams shut.  

You should now have a clearer understanding of the football transfer window and what is to be expected during the up-and-coming summer window.

Dean Smith: Taking Norwich job is not a risk

New Norwich City manager Dean Smith believes his side should not be written off as relegation certainties, as he attempts to guide them away from the bottom of the Premier League.

The Canaries sit rock bottom and are already five points adrift of safety, but with plenty of the season remaining, Smith will be keen to oversee a huge turnaround.

Smith joins having been sacked by fellow PL strugglers Aston Villa only two weeks ago.

Norwich did win their first match of the season before the international break, defeating Brentford 2-1 in a match that brought them back within relative touching distance to safety.

It was after that win that Norwich decided to part ways with Daniel Farke, but the Canaries new manager is confident he can keep the club in the top flight.

“We’ve got 27 games left in the Premier League, so there’s a lot of points to play for and we’re just on the back of a win.”

Norwich’s next game poses a decent opportunity for the club to make it two wins on the bounce, as they face Southampton.

Currently the odds may be in the Saints favour, but with a betting offer from free-bets.uk.com, it may be a good time to back Norwich, should they receive the famous ‘new manager bounce’.

Talking about the clubs season so far, Smith said: “I’ve seen how progressive this club has been.

“Yes, it’s been difficult in the Premier League so far. Mine and Craig [Shakespeare’s] job, along with the rest of the staff and Stuart [Webber], is to keep us in the league this season and that’s firmly what we believe we can do.

“We’ve got a great belief that we can get as many points as we can in 27 games to stay in this league and I believe the squad is capable of doing that.

“The club got their first win away at Brentford in their last game and we can build on that confidence that the players should’ve got from that.

“I think there is enough quality [in the squad]. I’ve looked at the squad with Craig [Shakespeare] and we both believe it’s a squad that probably isn’t producing the results they need.

“Our job is to improve their performance levels, if we do that then we’ll get the results.”

Where Does Anthony Joshua Go From Usyk Defeat?

The heavyweight division in boxing has been shaken following Anthony Joshua’s defeat to Oleksandr Usyk.

AJ lost all three of his heavyweight belts to the Ukrainian, who was very impressive as the underdog in what was only his third fight at the weight class.

This was Joshua’s second defeat since turning professional: he was beaten by Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019 but was able to avenge that loss in his rematch with the American. However, the struggle will be substantially more difficult this time around and AJ desperately needs to bounce back from this latest disappointment, to prove his worth.

Rematch Looks Likely

Joshua has the chance to meet Usyk again for all three major belts due to the fact that a rematch clause was added into the contract and he has already said he will exercise that option.

If the British boxer does take on the former undisputed cruiserweight champion, he will need to change his game plan in order to reverse the result. After all, Usyk was in control for the vast majority of the 12 rounds. The Ukrainian has now proved that he is a big force in the heavyweight division as only the third boxer in history to win world titles at both cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. Evander Holyfield and David Haye were the other two men before him.

A lot of pressure will be on Joshua’s shoulders in the rematch. Defeat again would really damage his reputation and it would push him further back in the pecking order in the division.

Joshua-Fury Bout Off For Now

Boxing fans were hoping to see an all-British clash between Joshua and Tyson Fury finally come to fruition in 2022, having been heavily rumoured for a number of years now. A date had actually been set for this meet, however, Joshua’s defeat may have scuppered those plans. Without the three major titles, this huge showdown would no longer crown the undisputed heavyweight champion. Promoters of both men are likely to hold off talks for now and it’s highly likely that Joshua will need to beat Usyk in his rematch for discussions to begin again.

The two heavyweights look destined to meet at some point in their careers, and belts or no belts, it would still be a huge fight. However, Fury has aspirations of unifying the division so his attention could now rightfully turn to Usyk.

Other Names He Could Fight

If Joshua prefers taking in a fight or two before facing Usyk again, there are lots of options. For example, Dillian Whyte has been keen to take him on again, though Whyte will be focusing on his upcoming bout against Otto Wallin for the time being. As it stands, Whyte is priced at odds of 2/5 in the outright boxing betting markets to come out on top. Another all-British contest would certainly attract interest as a high-profile bout.

Another option could be Joe Joyce, who’s another British boxer with a growing reputation. He is currently ranked number two with the WBO and is the Commonwealth champion, though Joshua would be the heavy favourite to win the bout.

There is also the option of going back out to America for Joshua. Deontay Wilder and Michael Hunter are both highly ranked in the heavyweight division and would be difficult opponents, particularly in their backyard.

Whatever Joshua decides to do next, this moment is an important crossroads in his career. He needs to bounce back with a big performance to return to the summit of the division.

Who will succeed in the Championship – Parker or Silva?

Scott Parker guided Fulham into the Premier League in his first full season in charge of the Cottagers, although it was a brief stay in the top flight as the club descended back into the second tier after only one campaign.

Despite his achievement in lifting the Cottagers into the Premier League, owner Shahid Khan deemed that Parker was not the right man to take the team forward. Parker left Craven Cottage by mutual consent and joined Bournemouth as their new manager. The Cottagers moved on to former Hull City, Watford, and Everton manager Marco Silva.

The fortunes of the two clubs will be fascinating to watch over the course of the season. Both will have ambitions of playing Premier League football in the 2022/23 campaign, with Fulham installed as the favourites in the Championship betting odds to finish top of the second tier. Bournemouth will also be vying for the crown, having narrowly missed out on promotion last term after suffering a defeat at the hands of Brentford in the play-off semi-final.

The two managers will play a decisive role in the success of their respective teams. The question is, which team has made the right choice?

Parker

Bournemouth is banking on the experience of Parker to emulate his previous success at Fulham. After the Cottagers were relegated from the Premier League in the 2018/19 campaign, Parker restored their confidence using the majority of the squad that crashed out of the top flight. Aleksandar Mitrovic was on point in front of goal, while the defence was solid enough to earn the Cottagers a spot in the playoffs after just failing to clinch automatic promotion. Their nous was evident in the post-season to beat out Cardiff City and Brentford to return to the Premier League.

It was a difficult challenge to remain in the top-flight amid a truncated summer, but Parker will be richer for the experience. Now at the Vitality Stadium, the former England midfielder has a raft of talent at his disposal with a squad that is not too dissimilar from his Fulham team of two years ago. Dominic Solanke will provide the thrust in the final third in the mould of Mitrovic.

The Cherries’ resolve is further bolstered by the standout forward Arnaut Danjuma, who was sensational last term. Danjuma is a valuable asset to the squad and with him on board, Parker has an outstanding strikeforce at his call.

The middle of the park is equally strong with the likes of Lewis Cook, David Brooks, Jefferson Lerma, and new signing Emiliano Marcondes in place. There is also ample talent in the backline.

Therefore, the pressure will be on Parker to deliver, although as he proved at Fulham he can handle the expectations of a promotion race.

Silva

Silva has not managed in the Championship before and a promotion race in England will be a new experience. He has been out of the game since December 2019 when he was sacked by Everton with the club in peril in 18th place in the Premier League. The Portuguese did earn plaudits for his initial work with Hull City, although he failed to keep them in the top flight in the 2016/17 term. Outside of the Greek Super League win with Olympiacos, he has not been overly successful and seems to have a solid reputation despite his failings in the dugout.

Fulham has been attracted to his potential and will be hoping that he can deliver. Parker set the standard for the minimum expectation two years ago by reaching the playoffs. Therefore, Silva will be under pressure to at the least match that achievement and all eyes will be on the Portuguese leader to push the Cottagers into the automatic promotion spots. There will be no excuse for Silva given the talent available in Fulham’s squad.

Transfer sagas to look forward to this Summer in the Premier League

With the Premier League season in the final couple games of the season, and Manchester City being crowned the Champions this year after Leicester beat Manchester United, the fans will be looking forward to next season already.

However, the football calendar has a busy summer lined up, as we have Euro 2021 to take place after it was cancelled last year due to the global pandemic caused by Covid-19, and the summer transfer window, and we thought we’d investigate some of the biggest rumours of transfer sagas that might just happen this summer.

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One of the most exciting transfer sagas that we are looking forward to this summer is one that is continuing from last year in which Manchester United will be looking to see if they can finally capture the signature of Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund and bring the Englishman home.

Sancho has been one of the stars of the Bundesliga for three years now, having registered a combined 30 goals and assists in the past three seasons for the yellow wall.

Last year the transfer didn’t quite get over the line due to a dispute on the transfer fee, but it has been reported that Dortmund is willing to lower their asking price this year.

Another saga that we are certainly looking forward to this summer is where Erling Haaland is going to end up come the end of the summer.

Haaland has quickly become the golden boy of European football and has already been speaking to several top clubs including Barcelona and Real Madrid to see if they are interested.

However, due to the ridiculous price that he is going to cost, we only believe that Manchester City will be able to afford him and what a signing he would be.

And finally, there are rumours about Harry Kane looking to leave his boyhood club Tottenham and stay in the Premier League as it is his goal to become the leading goalscorer in the history of the Premier League.

Kane is 27 years old now and will know that he probably isn’t going to win any major trophies at Tottenham, and with rumours flying around that he might leave for United, it might be his final chance.

 

How The European Super League Is Going To Change Football Forever?

Over the weekend, the entire football world witnessed a bombshell that is going to totally transform the football world forever, and something that certainly shocked a lot of us.

Reports are now emerging around the world that there are plans for there to be a European Super League in which there will be 15 founding clubs starting this summer, but how is this going to change the beautiful game forever – below we look into this further.

So firstly, what is the European Super League and how will the competition work? The intention of the European Super League was to rival the Champions League format in which there will be up to 20 teams competing.

The format would see two groups of 10 in which they would play home and away, with the top four from each group going into a two-legged knockout series to determine a winner from each league and then they would compete against the finalists of the other league. Although this might seem like a good idea at face value, there has

The main way that this will impact football is that domestic football will be totally transformed due to this as many major authorities including the FA has threatened to throw out the clubs who are looking to join the European Super League which includes Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, and Arsenal.

This would totally take away from the essence of the Premier League in the first place as many teams each year attempt to break into the top 6 however with the introduction of the ESL, this will take away any attempt of this moving forward.

Another way in which this is going to impact football moving forwards is that the big corporations are now threatening to ban players from the clubs of the teams moving into the ESL.

This will mean they will no longer be able to play in any of their competitions which including the Champions League, Euros and World Cup which will take away any ambition for many players to be able to do what they dreamed and set out to do when they first become professional footballers.

Whilst we await the outcome of the legal battles within the governing bodies and the ESL, many football punters are migrating to online casino sites, with a list of them here, which are offering a 24/7 gambling experience to make a profit from the comfort of their own homes.

 

Lee Westwood Proving Age Is Just A Number

Former world number one Lee Westwood has had a fantastic career in golf.

Not only has he won 25 European Tour events, but he has also been inside the top-10 of the Major Championships on 19 occasions.

At the age of 47, Westwood is now in the twilight stages of his career. His form in 2021 is up there with the very best players on the PGA Tour. His most notable performance came in the Players Championship where he finished second behind Justin Thomas.

A week prior to his result at Sawgrass, Westwood was also second in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. On that occasion, it was Bryson De Chambeau who he was involved in a fantastic tussle with on the back nine on the Sunday.

Westwood has always been renowned for being a clean striker of the ball. He is an excellent iron player whose tee-to-green game has been up there with the leading players of the last three decades. If there is one area that has let him down at times, it is his putting. His numbers this season are better than average, which is why he is consistently at the top end of leaderboards.

The Englishman will be hoping he can win his maiden Major Championship in 2021. He is generally considered as one of the best players not to lift one of the four big trophies. It would be extra special for the man from Worksop if that was in the Open Championship where he is 28/1 in the golf betting for the tournament at Royal St George’s Golf Club.

Order of Merit Success

Westwood made history last December by becoming the oldest player to lift the European Tour’s Race To Dubai crown. It was the third time in his career that he had won the Order of Merit in Europe.

The Englishman was second in the DP World Tour Championship behind Matt Fitzpatrick, but it was enough prize money to secure the end of season merit ahead of the likes of Patrick Reed and Collin Morikawa.

Although it was his consistency across the season that helped Westwood lift the Order of Merit trophy, he was successful in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. That success helped him to climb up to the top end of the prize money charts very early into the campaign.

Ryder Cup This Year At Whistling Straits

Given how well he is playing, Westwood will be hoping he returns to the European team for the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits later this year. He has not appeared in the playing team since Europe lost to the USA in 2016 at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

Westwood is very experienced in Ryder Cup golf. He has featured in 10 different Ryder Cup matches stretching all the way back to 1997. With 23 points, he is one of the most successful golfers in the history of the bi-annual team competition.

It is set to be an exciting year ahead for Westwood. He has started 2021 very strongly and with so many big tournaments to come over the next six months, he could be set for one of the best seasons of his career.

Is Major Sporting Considering an Online Shift?

Many of our favourite forms of entertainment are increasingly shifting online – this year could see the movie industry make the big change following the announcement from Hollywood Studio Warner Bros and see a huge changing of the guard, gaming has already made the shift as many non gamstop casinos look to replace brick and mortar locations, and other forms of sporting already have with the huge success being found in the esports market.

One of the big hold outs so far has been within traditional sporting, but with major broadcasting deals set to expire in the coming years, are the big names considering an online shift?

It’s a tough question to answer, as there are clear benefits and drawbacks to both approaches, but a lot can be learned from current examples that have already tested the waters – one of the most popular being the UK Premier League which back in 2019 made its first approach to an online change as a contract was signed for 20 games to be played exclusively on Amazon Prime – initial numbers saw a good increase in viewership, and the three year deal was deemed a success from the offset.

The sum for Amazon to acquire the entire season however is a different story – as it stands, three broadcasters now have the rights with Sky Sports holding the majority, and BT Sport and Amazon holding the rest totalling a sum over £3bn, quite the fee to cover without much knowledge of whether success can be found.

There’s also the other drawback of expanding too quickly into multiple different services – many users in recent years have been cutting back on their different digital subscriptions as a huge number of services have become available each with unique titles, if too many of the different major sporting titles decide to move in different directions that will only add to this problem, the current example of the Premier League being split between three services has the costs add up with many looking at which games will be broadcast where and only choosing to pay for that one service instead of three, and this will likely only continue.

On the other hand, the good news certainly shows the support for change is there – other markets like esports have been so widely successful simply because of how easy to access the content is, and if major sporting can do the same it can certainly help bring in a huge number of new viewers – the next two or three years will be the key changing point as that’s when the big deals start to expire, and decisions will need to be made around whether many stick to the slowly fading television platform, or start a major shift to an online audience instead.