Now you can go shopping girls! (Premier League 2000 - 2001)

Member Name: thedevilinme

Product:	Premier League 2000 - 2001
Date:	06/08/07 (168 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Its back and its the best

Disadvantages: Too many foreign players

Football is probably the only thing that brings the world and all its religions together, Iraq’s amazing victory in the Asia Cup an example of, the nation unified behind their astounding success. That’s why America suck at soccer.
With no international football tournaments of our own to keep us going through this so called summer and having no young ladies to keep my mind off the boredom I’m gagging for both the Premiership and some crumpet. Footy cant come soon enough! My idea of foreplay and fantasy in July has been rearranging the defense in my fantasy football teams. By the way if you like you’re footy and play fantasy league, dooyoo run a league on premierleague.com and the yahoo fantasy football league. I’m pretty good at the first one so if you’re up for a challenge then follow the links. Its good fun and easy to enter…

These links are free to enter games...

http://fantasy.premierleague.com/

Dooyoo league code: 118845-27585

http://uk.premiership.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

To map up my appraisal of the coming premiership season I’m going to lists the teams in order of the bookies listing to win the handicap league. I’m also going to put the handicap betting odds by the side of each team. Handicap is the best value betting on the premiership and is well worth a punt. If you haven’t done this bet before all you have to do is calculate who will win the league with their added handicap. Reading won last year with a final point’s score of 53 plus their handicap of 50 points, totaling 103 points. Man united finished second with their total score of 96 points. Its good fun and 15-1 price for every team.

(Scratch) MANCHESTER UNITED

With Gigg’s, Scholes and Solskjars future replacements on board in Danni, Hargreaves and Tevez you just can’t fault Uniteds attacking ability. But what you can question is the back four, Sir Alex only recalling loan players to cover. With Heinze wanting out and Silvestre a headless chicken at times you have to question that decision not to strengthen. I still think they will win the premiership though. Putting away Chelsea last week helped; although only one in ten Charity Shield winners go on to win the league.

IN: Owen Hargreaves (Bayern Munich, £17m), Nani (Sporting, £14m), Anderson (Porto, £17m), Tomasz Kuszczak (West Brom, £2m) Teves (Holding company, 3m)

(+2) CHELSEA

Its hard to split the top two at the best of times but the growing rift between Morinhio and Abramovich is being reflected in the drift away from United in the premiership come May. With the club shifting their resources to finally win the Champions League you have to see United seeing them off again.
I’m concerned abut Lamps playing with a broken little toe, an injury I had for ages and a very painful and untreatable injury. I don’t expect him to be effective in early season.

IN: Tal Ben Haim (Bolton, free), Claudio Pizarro (Bayern Munich, free), Steve Sidwell (Reading, free), Danny Philliskirk (Oldham, und), Florent Malouda (Lyon, £13.5m)

(+8) LIVERPOOL

Although Benitez has bought well and big, to get within eight points of United and Chelsea is a big ask. The young Spanish striker Torres will take a year to bed in and I still feet the midfield isn’t right yet. New guys have to settle and there are lots of languages here.

IN: Andrey Voronin (Bayer Leverkusen, free), Kristian Nemeth & Andras Simon (both MTK Hungarian), Nikolay Mihaylov (Levski Sofia), Lucas Leiva (Gremio), Sebastian Leto (Club Atletico Lanus, £1.7m), Mikel San Jose (Athletic Bilbao, £270,000), Fernando Torres (Atletico Madrid, £20m-£26m), Yossi Benayoun (West Ham, £4m), Ryan Babel (Ajax, 11.5m), Ryan Crowther (Stockport, free)

(+12) ARSENAL

Will the Gunners breakout of their slump now Henrys gone or will they dip further. I think they will dip further, the stadium costs weighing the team down like an anchor now.
They have a great young squad and seemed to perform better without Henry towards the end but I think Wegner has fallen out of love with Arsenal and the fact he hasn’t renewed his deal means he will be off, creating more tensions.

IN: Lukasz Fabianski (Legia Warsaw, £2m), Eduardo Da Silva (Dinamo Zagreb, £7.5m), Havard Nordveit (Haugesund), Bakary Sagna (Auxerre, £7m)

(+18) TOTTENHAM

So, are Spurs ready to make the top four, Berbatov and Keane a big hint that way? With Arsenal distracted by the champions League early on the Cockerels can steel a march on them.Im not sure why Bent has come in with Defoe still there but we will see. I always feel teams are unsettled with too many big name strikers. What a player Berbatov is though. But for me their defense is why they have been fifth and not fourth for the last two seasons. Although Bale is in they still need some decent wing-backs to give them width.

IN: Gareth Bale (Southampton, £5m), Adel Taarabt (Lens), Yuri Berchiche (Athletic Bilbao), Darren Bent (Charlton £16.5m), Youness Kaboul (Auxerre, £8m), Danny Rose (Leeds, undisclosed), Kevin-Prince Boateng (Hertha Berlin, undisclosed)

(+26) NEWCASTLE

Its big handicap to add on paper but still not enough for me. I think the fraud investigations will weigh down on them and the fact they have bought Alladyce in from a likewise club can only mean trouble. With Dyer going and Owen likely to be sold once he is scoring goals again I can’t see it happening this year either. Viduka and Smith up front will be broken by red cards. What price Joey Barton clumping Smith!

IN: Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough, free), Joey Barton (Man City, £5.8m), David Rozehnal (Paris St Germain, £2.9m), Geremi (Chelsea, free) Alan Smith (Manchester United, £6m), Claudio Cacapa (Lyon, free)

(+28) ASTON VILLA

Big money coming in, big manager in place, big ambitions-but O’Neill hasn’t really bought anyone yet? Like Newcastle, there’s no way these are going to get over 60 points this year. Harewood and Cocker will just try and take over the dressing room. These are not guys wanting to join a good tram but get away fast from another one.

IN: Nigel Reo-Coker (West Ham, £8.5m), Harry Forrester (Watford, und), Marlon Harewood (West Ham, und), Eric Lichaj [unattached] free

(+28) EVERTON

You juts can’t tell with Everton as they always have an iffy start to the season. Beattie was dragging the wage bill down last year so it’s all dependant on Moyes new signings. There hasn’t been many.

IN: Tim Howard (Manchester United, £3m), Phil Jagielka (Sheffield United, £4m), Lukas Jutkiewicz (Swindon Town)

(+34) BLACKBURN

52 points last year but still not enough here to get them up there.

ON: Gunnar Nielsen (BK Frem Copenhagen), Maceo Rigters (NAC Breda), Roque Santa Cruz (Bayern Munich, £3.5m)

(+34) BOLTON

No Big Sam no progress for me. Really over valued here and with Sammy Lee in charge they may go down. Anelka could get bored outside of the top 8 and clear off. The romance is over.

IN: Gavin McCann (Aston Villa, £1m), J Lloyd Samuel (Aston Villa, free), Gerald Cid (Bordeaux), Blerim Dzemaili (FC Zurich), Zoltan Harsanyi (FC Senec, undisclosed), Danny Guthrie (Liverpool, season-long loan), Mikel Alonso (Real Socieded, loan), Christian Wilhelmsson (Nantes, loan)

(+34) PORTSMOUTH

Again, the fraud has to affect them and, like Newcastle, they have been named in both the bungs and money laundering scandals. That has to affect Redknapp and the fact he’s apparently involved surprise no one in the game. I think they will struggle this year.

IN: Sulley Muntari (Udinese, £7m), Sylvain Distin (Manchester City, free), Hermann Hreidarsson (Charlton, free), Martin Cranie (Southampton, und), Paris Cowan-Hall & Callum Reynolds (Rushden & Diamonds, comp fee), Arnold Mvuemba (Rennes, und), David Nugent (Preston, und), John Utaka (Rennes, und)

(+34) SUNDERLAND

A very optimistic handicap here, regardless of the Roy Keene factor after that amazing first season. He’s been unable to temp any quality players this far north and is already looking at the bottom four. Two of the three that come up usually go down.

IN: Dickson Etuhu (Norwich, £1.5m), Kieran Richardson (Manchester United, undisclosed), Greg Halford (Reading, £2.5m), Russell Anderson (Aberdeen, £1m), Michael Chopra (Cardiff City, £5m), Paul McShane (West Brom, £2.5m) £2.5m), Stephen Elliott (Wolves, undisclosed)

(+34) WEST HAM

Well they are still here and lucky at that, although it was the Teves/Mascherano tension got them in stuck in the first place in January. Its sweet justice they can’t make money for the player now or they will be relegated.
With Kieran Dyer on the way and Ashton fit they should settle mid-table. Even better is to get rid of trouble making ‘bling twins’ Harewood and Coker, the Times man describing the dressing room as ‘like a Public Enemy Video’ last season. Scotty Parker is a lovely player to get for 7 million.

IN: Scott Parker (Newcastle, £7m), Julien Faubert (Bordeaux, £6.1m), Richard Wright (Everton, free), Craig Bellamy (Liverpool, £7.5m), Freddie Ljungberg (Arsenal, £3m)

(+38) MAN CITY

The extraordinary decision to sell the club to a despot is where British football is these days. This guy’s war on drugs in Thailand has put anything Bush has done to shame. But the fact he was also in charge when thousands of Muslim extremist disappeared maybe why we let him in to fit Browns fit for purpose tick sheet! I think he will be gone by this time next year, money successfully laundered, City down the bottom as usual.
Erickson, too, could be a problem. To me Sven has waited until the FA stopped paying him and then taken the first big money job that came along. The speed he’s buying those foreign players this month would suggest he had list made out already, buying the same guys regardless of the club he has ended up in. This isn’t going to work. You can judge a player by a video.

IN: Geovanni (Cruzeiro, free), Rolando Bianchi (Regina, 8.8m), Gelson Fernandes (FC Sion) Martin Petrov (Atletico Madrid, £4.7m), Javier Garrido (Real Sociedad, £1.5m), Vedran Corluka (Dinamo Zagreb, undisclosed), Elano (Shakhtar Donetsk, £8m)

(+42) MIDDLESBORO

Boro will need 50 points with this 42 on offer to win the handicap money. But Vidukas left for Newcastle and no one has come in to move them up the pile. They may be worth an E/W punt.

IN: Tuncay Sanli (Fenerbahce, free), Jeremie Aliadiere (Arsenal, £2m), Jonathan Woodgate (Real Madrid, £7m), Luke Young (Charlton, £2.5m)

(+42) READING

The second season hoodoo and the loss of Sidwell may cost them but I still feel Coppell is the best English manager in the Prem and he will replace the guys he needs to. Any boss that can get a guy he picked up from Weymouth for 20k and then have him in the England side three years later knows his footballers. A full season of Doyle will terrorize defenses, which can’t be said of Lesroy Lita! One catch will be Majeskis taking a back seat and not putting as much in the transfer kitty as he looks to sell rather than buy. I’m sure there is hidden depth here.

IN: Kalifa Cisse (Boavista, £1m) Emerson Fae (Nantes, £2.5m)

(+44) FULHAM

I don’t know how they managed to stay up last year and without Coleman they may not this year. Jimmy Bullard coming in is a bonus but I believe he’s already crook. David Healey coming along with Sanchez will be the big story at the Cottage.

IN: Aaron Hughes (Aston Villa, £1m), Steven Davis (Aston Villa), Diomansy Kamara (West Brom, £6m), Chris Baird (Southampton, £3.025m), Paul Konchesky (West Ham, £3.25m), David Healy (Leeds, £1.5m), Lee Cook (QPR)

(+48) BIRMINGHAM

Straight up and straight down? They could be this years Reading, or they could be last years Watford. Bruce is buying guys that have been around a bit and sometimes that just doesn’t gel.

IN: Garry O'Connor (Lokomotiv Moscow, £2.7m), Stuart Parnaby (Middlesbrough, free), Fabrice Muamba (Arsenal, undisclosed), Olivier Kapo (Juventus, £3m), Daniel de Ridder (Celta Vigo, free), Richard Kingston (Antalyaspor, free), Rafael Schmitz (Lille, season-long loan), Hossam Ghaly (Tottenham, £3m)

(+48) WIGAN

It’s a safe bet that these will go down, the love affair over, Chairman Dave Whelan throwing everything into it to stop relegation, even selling off his beloved Rugby League team after being hit on the salary cap rules. Paul Jewell was right to get out when he did. When you’re buying Titus Bramble you are in trouble.

IN: Antoine Sibierski (Newcastle, free), Titus Bramble (Newcastle, free), Mario Melchiot (Rennes, free), Andreas Granqvist (Helsingborg, free), Carlo Nash (Preston, £300,000), Jason Koumas (West Brom, £5.3m), Michael Brown (Fulham, undisclosed)

(+50) DERBY

Straight up and straight down…the play-off winner rarely making twenty five points in the Premiership. I have no clue who they have bought and so I don’t care.

IN: Andy Todd (Blackburn, undisclosed), Robert Earnshaw (Norwich City, £3.5m), Tyrone Mears (West Ham, £1m), Andy Griffin (Portsmouth, free)

MY BET!

£2:00 Each/Way on MIDDLESBORO

The on the nose premiership betting isn’t best generous and so the above bet is more fun. It does look good for United and I hope Chelsea finish third and Abromovich falls out with Putin and gets some plutonium Weetabix.

Champions: Man United
Runners Up: Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham.

UEFA CUP:
Arsenal and…who knows!

Relegated…
Derby
Wigan
Birmingham

Summary: Put the kettle on girls!