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.

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.

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.

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.