Apr 26
Need information to help you make a decision over whether Arsenal will win their Premier League clash against QPR? No worries – it can be available to you, all for free with a new football app; it is called SpoW football and is available for download from the App Store.
Mar 22
The last eight years have been a tremendous struggle for Arsenal and their fans. While they are still among the top four clubs in England, they are no longer a force at the latter stages of competitions. The last trophy was won in 2005 while a challenge for the Premier League title is beyond Arsenal these days. There was the embarrassment of losing to Birmingham City in the League Cup and the trauma of a Champions League final defeat to Barcelona. And every season the club’s best players depart for pastures new, to be replaced by inferior talent. How long can this continue? The answer is not particularly long. Arsenal must adjust their policies or witness the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool, and Everton surpass them in the Premier League. Tickets for Arsenal fans do not sell as well as they used to, because of the team’s decline.
Financial prudence is essential at Arsenal, given the debts incurred during the building of the Emirates stadium. However, there is more to their decline than that. The wage structure Arsene Wenger and Stan Kroenke have approved is a paramount reason for the club’s decline. A look at the club’s wage structure from 2012 proves this point:
In 2012, Arsenal’s highest wage earner was Robin van Persie. He earned 90,000 pounds a week. This is a modest sum, considering van Persie was among the best players in the world at the time. The likes of Rooney, Messi, and Ronaldo are on twice that amount.
The reason van Persie’s wages were so low was not because Arsenal do not have the money, it was because they believe in a “socialist” wage structure. This means that a large part of the squad earns a similar amount, instead of having a greater disparity in wages (the model that almost every other top team employs).
With this socialist wage structure, reserves and substitutes earn wages that are comparable to the team’s most valuable players. Manuel Almunia, reserve goalkeeper, was on 60,000 pounds a week. Sebastien Squillaci, reserve centre back, earned the same amount. Nicklas Bendtner, Marouane Chamakh, Andre Santos, Carlos Vela, Denilson, Johan Djourou and Lukasz Fabianski are all either reserves or impact substitutes. However, all of these players earn 50,000 pounds a week or more. These are absurd figures for players who contributed little to Arsenal’s 2011/2012 campaign.
Arsenal need to follow the model of wages set at clubs such as Manchester United. At United, players who enter the first team earn wages at around 20,000 pounds a week or 30,000 pounds a week. These are their wages until they make a significant contribution or have a breakout season. As soon as a player has a top season, their wages are either doubled or tripled without hesitation. This gives players the incentive to up their performance and gain a greater role within the team.
If players know that they will get top wages no matter how they perform, what is the incentive for them to improve? They reach a level of comfort that leads to poor performances and insignificant contributions.
Had Arsenal followed a more prudent wage model, they would have saved close to 200,000 pounds in wages for the 2011/2012 campaign. This amount could have been spread among their top players in the following season. The likes of Robin van Persie, Vermaelen, Walcott, and Alex Song could have gotten tremendous wage rises without disrupting the overall wage bill.
If Arsene Wenger wants his team to be among the best in England again, he needs to realise the folly in his current wage structure. Then he may start to see more fans at the Emirates as opposed to the low sales of 2013 sports tickets at the Emirates Stadium.
Dec 28
Arsene Wenger is the second longest serving manager in the premier league, with him achieving such a long stay by not only having consistently good performances on the pitch but also thinking outside of the box and ensuring that big picture is taken care of.
In terms of a poker tournament, he is thinking a long way ahead, not making rash decisions for the now but ensuring that by the time he gets to the final table he has the best weapons he could possibly have. He would make an excellent poker player, a deep thinker and person who have the ability to put on the very best of poker faces.
Van Persie!
Just this year Wenger decided to let Robin Van Persie go to Manchester United in a deal worth £24 million, which led to many Arsenal fans believing it wasn’t the best move made during his reign. However, despite the fact that Arsenal lost one of their best players, Wenger certainly made sure they got the very best price for him!
Alex Ferguson himself was the first to admit that during the transfer, it was difficult to read exactly what Wenger was thinking during the haggling process.
Poker Face!
This is exactly what Ferguson meant, the ability that Wenger has at keeping all of his emotions under control through the use of a poker face. Any good manager will need this type of skill set when negotiating the purchase or sale of any player, so that the manager on the other end really does not know what the other is thinking. Wenger didn’t show anything, he didn’t get over excited which would have made it obvious that he thought he was getting a better price than he should, whilst on the flip side he managed to do all of this without annoying his opponent Ferguson.
Odds!
Buying a player is about calculating the odds and risks, much in the same way that players do in poker before placing a bet. The odds involved in buying a player would involve aspects such as what they can bring to the team, whether or not they have the right attitude, what their resale value might be in three years time etc.
It’s all about doing the maths and coming up with what they believe is the right amount to risk, just like a poker player would calculate how much they should risk on their particular hand. Wenger has an upper hand in texas holdem poker and can play the game very well.
Tactics!
Wenger is one of the masterful tacticians in the English Premier League, with him knowing exactly how to exploit may of his opponents weaknesses. Tactics are relied on heavily in poker too, with every opponent having differing strengths and weaknesses, so a good opponent will know exactly what to take advantage of and what situations to avoid when up against each and every other player.
Nov 07
Betegy.com is a brand new precise football prediction tip service which can tell you the outcome of games with a probablity of over 75 per cent.
I had the privilege of having behind the scenes access to their predictions and tried it out for myself last week.
I’ve never bet against my own team before, but was tempted with the odds that Betegy offered on their website.
They predicted a 2-1 win for Manchester United, which looked possible with Arsenal’s injuries across the pitch.
The game at Old Trafford finished 2-1 to United and it made me realise how finely tuned Betegy’s prediction service actually is.
As always, there is a degree of risk in any form of betting, but the results look broadly correct. Betegy is definitely worth checking out.
You can check out the Betegy Facebook app by clicking here.
Sep 21
Football shirts change from season to season with much hype around the anticipated new looks for the team. Sometimes these new kits are greeted with enthusiasm and hordes of sales amongst fans, but sometimes it can go horribly wrong…. We look at some of the biggest blunders made by kit manufacturers!
Jun 03
Euro 2012 is generating much excitement amongst football fans around the world. Euro 2012 is the 14th time the event is being held by UEFA. In anticipation of this event, casinos have become involved. One way in which they have honoured Euro 2012 is to feature a slot machine designed around this major world football event.
The slot machine is known as Euro Reels. It features five reels with a maximum of 20 paylines. Players may choose to play only one payline or they may choose to play as many as 20. The maximum payout in this Euro Reels slot machine is 15,000 coins.
The bonus symbol used in this slot machine is the Goal Keeper Bonus symbol. When players get three or more of this symbol on an active payline, the Euro Cash Cup Bonus feature is activated. The scatter symbol in this slot machine game is the European Football. For a player to win off of a scatter symbol, it does not have to be found on an active payline; it can be anywhere on one of the reels.
In this game, the wild symbol is the symbol for the European Football Team. This will substitute for any of the other symbols in the game with some exceptions. It cannot be used in the place of the European Football scatter symbol, nor can it be used to enact the free spin bonus round games. It can also not be used to substitute for the Goal Keeper bonus symbol. This symbol is the one that leads to the triggering of the Euro Cash Cup Bonus Feature.
If you’re an avid football fan, or simply someone who enjoys playing a well-designed slot machine then check out the slot machines found at www.ladbrokes.com.
May 25
It’s a common sight nowadays to see highly paid sports stars strutting through the city wearing the latest designer clothes, especially if you read the gossip magazines. But the real truth of the matter is that any publicity is good publicity for any celebrity in any line of work.
At the end of the day, they are paid the big money for being well known. Getting their face in the paper can only bolster sales of clothing lines, aftershave products and any other items they may be touting. It is also good news for the club that they play for, since a famous face, and the chance to see them in person, will always draw big crowds. Ticket sales mean bigger stadium potential, which means more people can come to see the games. It’s a cycle that begins and ends with the very notion of celebrity.
It used to be that the people in the public eye had to be spotless and above reproach. This was what was expected of role models. Nowadays we are more inclined to accept that famous or not, these people are still just people and so we are more able to forgive mistakes they make. We are also very pleased to see them doing normal everyday things like food shopping, trying to find a parking space or playing casino games online during their free
time.
So for as long as we are watching sport, we will be happy knowing that the players are just like us. The dream that one day it could be us playing for our favourite team is always within reach as long as we remember that sports stars are just people, the same as us, except that they are much better at sport than we are.
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Check out top bookmakers at www.bookies.tv and read free betting tips at www.betting.me.
