Ladbrokes are the biggest about Valencia at the moment (22/1). I will wait and see if you get anywhere near 40’s.
I have not noted you write much about football on your sites. How come?
I don’t write much on my sites, although a few people have mentioned that i should, it’s because i have over 50 sites and writing, analyzing, etc, would take quite a bit of time to do regularly
In the future i plan to cut down on my sites and keep only the best performers, then i can start writing, i still have about 10 unfinished projects i’m working on at the moment
Actually Betfair is giving out 24-1 on Valencia, which is probably why i use them for most of my action, futures in particular, Lyon is 13-1, another impressive team, who have been knocking at the door of late, just getting a little bit better each time around as they gain experience.
As usual, Barcelona and Chelsea are the favourites, that’s 2-3 years in a row now, FIFA was very friendly to Barca last year, kicking out the opposing teams players and enforcing the benefit of the Ronaldinho dive rule, they were a good team, but a questionable champion, they looked very beatable at times
Liverpool misplayed Morientes, just like Real Madrid and the Spanish national team did, he is the type of player who has to be in the game always, his greatest assets are instincts and timing, when these teams relugate him to bench duty it throws off his timing and dullens those instincts, which is why he was unproductive, given regular duty like he had at Monaco, and now Valencia, and at times with Real and Spain, he is an awesome goal scoring machine
He was a key addition to Liverpool when they won the Champions League, although he was club tied and unable to compete in the tourney, he did bring 3 Champions League titles to the dressing room, and gave Garcia, Cisse, Baros, some good rest subbing in for them in the Premiership, i honestly don’t believe Liverpool could have won without him
These new age coaches like to keep their forwards fresh by subbing and resting them constantly, and in most cases it is a great tactic, however, Morientes is an exception to this rule because, as i said earlier, his greatest attributes are timing and instinct, whereass other forwards rely on speed and power, so they benefit from the freshening, Morientes doesn’t.
I get overly analytical and critical at times, but for me the most important thing is not who has the best players, but who gets the most out of the players they have, paper teams like Real Madrid, Chelsea, AC Milan, who appear unbeatable from looking at their lineup seem to eventually get run off the field by my overachievers at big odds, at least this has been the trend of late, you need to run, you can’t be like Real and think you will free kick your way to glory
Let me get out my little tribute to Morientes here, who seems to get the rolly eyes when i mention him as possibly the best striker in the world
Wins the Champions League with Real, then Real loans him to Monaco, where he scores 2 goals in the decisive semi-final match for Monaco and eliminates Real Madrid from the tournament
Scores winning goal in Champions League final for Real Madrid
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/history/Season=1999/intro.html
Another Champions League win, scoring the winning goal in the semis to get Real there
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/history/Season=1997/intro.html
Singlehandedly eliminated Chelsea from the Champions League in the semis while playing for Monaco in a huge upset, led the tournament in goals, prior to that led Monaco to an upset elimination of Real in the quarters, they were down by 3 goals to Real with 45 minutes left
http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/UCL/history/Season=2003/Round=1715/match=1063677/index.html
http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/UCL/history/Season=2003/Round=1715/match=1063680/index.html
http://www.uefa.com/Competitions/UCL/history/Season=2003/Round=1714/match=1062128/index.html
The man is a Champions League highlight reel, appearing on more Champions League cover pages than any other player in the games history
30 Champions League goals
http://www.futbal.org/EC1.scorers.php?year=0&ignoreQuals=1&firstYear=27&player=Fernando%20Morientes
http://www.futbal.org/EC1.scorers.php
Top 10 all time
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Cup_and_Champions_League_statistics
Bio & career stats
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_Morientes
http://www.footballdatabase.com/index.php?page=player&Id=567&b=true&pn=Fernando_Morientes_Sánchez
25 Goals in 38 matches for Spain in International competition
Morientes made his debut for Spain against Sweden in 1998, scoring twice in the first five minutes. He scored twice more against Bulgaria in the 1998 FIFA World Cup finals but was left out of the UEFA EURO 2000™ squad. The striker returned for Korea/Japan and was in the goals again, registering twice in the 3-1 win against Paraguay and once in the second-round defeat of the Republic of Ireland. At UEFA EURO 2004™, Morientes scored one of Spain’s two goals. However, after coming off the bench for a September 2004 World Cup qualifier against Bosnia-Herzegovina, he was dropped due to his lack of club football
I just call buddy “Cash”, cuz that’s what he’s been to me, i cashed big with him on Monaco’s huge run as 100-1 shot, and on Real Madrid, back in the day when they were good
Interesting that Valencia were beaten finalists in this tourney twice in the last seven years, beaten once by Morientes’ goal in the finals against Real Madrid, i remember that game very well, Valencia was the favourite and i had bet on Real
So i guess you can see why i’m giving this team a shot to win this thing, aside from the obvious Morientes factor, they have a very solid and creative midfield, and fellow striker Villa was impressive in the just completed World Cup, he was the betting favourite to lead the World Cup in goals at the start, those are both key additions, as well as Portuegese international Viana who played huge for Portugal in the just done World Cup when they eliminated England, former Arsenal man, Brazilian Edu is also a new face, Portuegese defender Miguel, another huge World Cup performer has also been added, former Chelsea man Del Horno is another new face, Argentinian Ayala with 100 international caps for Argentina is back from injury, Albiol, the impressive youngster who just scored in their prior Champions League match is making his debut this season as a starter, $25 million transfer(that should be Euro currency)Joaquin has also been added to the midfield, alongside Baraja, Albelda, Vincente, and the rest
Its a solid team, captained by goalie Canizares with over 500 games to his credit, just a nice blend of youth, experience, creativity, and running ability on this team
I’m gonna put a little bit on them at 24-1, just in case i never see those odds again, but i suspect i’ll get over 40-1 at some point, then i’ll really dump on them
Also looking at the “first time winners” odds at +116, i’m getting both Valencia and Lyon there, as well as Chelsea and Arsenal, and a couple decent Portuegese teams, so i’m gonna take that too
And i also put some money on Carew from Lyon as top scorer at 170-1 odds, thats as high as i’ve ever seen his odds, he has a slight hamstring injury, but should return soon, not a great bet since Lyon like to circulate their forwards, Govou, Fred, Wilthord, but he does have 17 career Champions League goals from limited play, and there wasn’t a lot of value on the other players in the market, i would rather have taken Morientes but he’s listed at 9-1 now and wasn’t even on the original list of contenders prior to match #1.