World Cup Review

Life has been too busy for blogging but I have been asked to post my World Cup Rant regarding England’s performance which made up a large part of Saturday’s World Cup Trading PDF. I have copied that below but I also, may as well take the chance to go over a few bits.

Firstly the World Cup in general. I thought it was absolutely superb. The English media built the tournament up as one where we would see trouble and empty stadiums and it was the total opposite. The match time searly on obviously suited us and to be able to sit and watch 3 games a day was great sport. For me as a viewer it was the best World Cup I have watched.

From a trading point of view it was superb, I increased my starting trading bank I set aside for the World Cup by over 150% through the tournament. Most of the trades were in the Free PDF’s I produced for each day of the tournament and had some great emails of good results come in which is what it was all about. The PDF’s went down so well they will now form part of the FTS set up for this season as clear instructions and games to trade obviously help people

We have a week watching the Open Golf now (the Golf Guru had a timely across the pond double win last week with Na at 45/1 in the US and Knox in Ireland at 25/1 so we are hoping for some good tips from him this week). and then we will be back into the throes of a full football season.

The season preparations have long been underway and FTS Ultimate has launched for the season with several new arrivals and I have an intro video showing thos eparts at the link below

Intro to Ultimate 2018/19

The sign up page is at this link below

JOIN ULTIMATE 2018/19

If you are thinking of joining then it is earlybird price at the moment also to the option to include a full season of around 200 trading PDF’s and I do genuinely have very few spaces available. The service starts on 3rd August ready for the first weekend of the Championship.

I am also holding a couple of Q&A sessions, Manchester Piccadilly on 28th July and London Canary Wharf on 29th July and I have a few spaces at each of those if anyone wants to turn up, they are aimed at the season set up so FTS Ultimate members would get a benefit. These are only small attendance, more intimate, days to go over people’s set up staking and approach for the new season.

If you wish to come to one of those they are £65 to include all the daily refreshments, lunch, wifi and the room hire

Book A Place at a Q & A Day HERE

That is all the notices done, so below id the unedited version text of the England rant PDF. It does contain some expletives, I apologise if those offend anyone now, I write and speak truthfully and always will as those who have met me know and I have long thought this country is going barmy, the World Cup experience has just cemented that view. I have had some great dialogue since publication on Saturday,  I understand it is a polarising view.

This is the full text remember it was written before the Play off game on Saturday

14th July

Right let’s get this out of the way as there is a hysteria gripping England and a mindset developing that is placing an expectancy on our young that England may actually win something. Let’s nip it in the bud now, no they won’t not in my life time and certainly not with the current set up, more of that in a minute.

Let’s also nip in the bud the fact that 25 Premier League stars who all earn multi-millions went to Russia for 4 weeks, played 6 games of football, won 3, drew 2 and lost 1, by what on earth Jesus f**k Christ thinking and by any definition, makes a nation declare them heroes. Sort yourselves out.

Before we get to the match itself on the point above I am of a generation that his national team means a lot to him. I have grown up right through the 52 years of hurt. I have been to live football for 41 years, not a plastic fan sat at home watching a 42in screen (I guess it is more like 55in these days). I am desperate for our country to host a World Cup let alone win one. We are historically one of the greatest football nations on the planet, I believe that, we have good leagues, great crowds and it is part of many an Englishman’s (sorry Englishpersons) everyday life. If England got to a semi-final and Donald Trump was in charge the country would still be doing backflips at the thought of it, the pubs would be packed, the beer would be thrown up in the air if we scored, it is what we do we let ourselves get excited.

The truth about this team is, yes, they are all nice young lads and the thought of having a nice, young team is great. The manager is a lovely man, he dresses perfectly, he speaks superbly and gives measured thoughtful responses. He is a lovely polite man – exactly what the blazers at the English FA require. A lovely man who goes along with the plan. Problem is, he is tactically naive and not a f****** winner. This is not after timing somewhere on the FTS blog you will find within days of his appointment I said it was wrong, plain wrong and I am right, and he should be got rid of asap.

The sad thing is the opportunity England had, it has gone, been wasted, been naively given away, denied the fans something they craved for so long because the man in charge is not up to it. Harsh but true, we should be booting the guy out not lauding him up.

We all watch football Does, Mourinho lose that game? Does Conte lose that game? Heck does even ******* Sam Allardyce lose that game? I tell you the only other manager who probably does not qualify from that game is Pochettino, and before Spurs fans start screaming – Juventus, Wembley, March 2018. Man Utd Wembley, April 2018. (Martinez would be a banker also).

If we declare the FIFA World Rankings as garbage which many do then as a measure lets look at the betting fields, bookmakers, Betfair, millions of collective minds rating the teams.

England were 16/1 (19.0 Betfair) pre-tournament. There were 3 teams pre-tournament that were 1000 on Betfair, two of them were 2000/1 in bookmakers. England played 2 of those teams, one of them they beat within injury time winner and the other they did duly paste. Clap clap, well done you beat a 1000/1 shot, twice.

The Belgium game (only team England played ranked above them and priced shorter than them) was a non-match and I am still not sure we did not contrive to lose it, the prize to do so was great but at that time no one envisaged Spain’s demise.

Next up Colombia, 50/1 bookies and 51 on exchanges. We play them by the way with their star man not playing.

Poor game management and man management again and we let in a last-minute equaliser. The one positive is we did manage to get through on penalties and bury a few hoodoos or at least media soundbites. Manager should have had the set up to see the game out.

Next up Sweden 100/1 generally, 151 Exchanges. Despite the media building it up, it was a mis-match, we should have won comfortably, and we did.

Next up Croatia 33/1, 40.0 on Exchanges. On the day itself they are still bigger than us, we were match favourites, this is collective clever people, we were shorter than them because we are ******* better than them. Even factoring the over backing of England, add 10% on to England’s price, if you think the market has Croatia wrong, take 10% of their price, we are still ******** shorter than them. We are better than them, period.

So, we get to the game itself. I just want to reaffirm that I do not think England are world beaters. I think they are an average team with a way below average manager. The annoyance is the stars aligned and gave that set up a fantastic opportunity that we gave away, didn’t lose, we gave it away. You will never see an opportunity arrive like that again, never.

First half we battered them, why? Because they are not very good. Yes, they have a couple of good players, they are not very good simple, this is a team that in qualifying, could not beat Greece, lost to Turkey, lost to Iceland, drew with Finland, lets get the facts down, they are average.

We are battering them, we should be 2-0 up, 3-0 up at HT. Kane must score, he must score, he does not have to pass to Sterling, he must score, apparently, he is one of the best strikers in the world, he must score plain and simple. Lingard must hit the target, not the Croatian in seat B4, he must hit the target, it is football 101 not rocket science. Chances gone last 5 minutes of first half Croatia look stronger, writing is on the wall.

Having got to the HT at only 1-0 you then know that whilst Croatia are average, their manager is saying the same to them – “this is a fantastic opportunity guys, you need to give everything and try and grasp it or you will regret it for the rest of your lives” – Croatia’s destiny though is in our hands.

Within 5 minutes of the second half people can deny themselves whatever, there was only one thing happening and it was plain to see, Croatia were going to score, plain and simple. We need one man to step up at that time and he is not on the pitch.

Ditch the stupid waistcoat, ditch the tie, roll your sleeves up and get a grip of this thing before it is too late. No of course not stand their keep doing exactly the same and give it all away you numpty. I personally don’t give a shit about soundbites, politeness and waistcoats (I mean who on earth is running out to buy a ******* waistcoat to watch football – grow up), I want to win football matches.

Southgate has one system, he tries to copy Pep with three at the back in a team that is not as good and thinks (as do other people) that he is a genius. Walker I said would be found out when we played good opposition, he was, all over the place second half.

We do not have a creative midfielder plain and simple, will we ever who knows. To the people who wanted to take Wilshere, he is let go by a top 6 club, who were his suitors, West Ham and Fenerbahce (which is where footballers go to die by the way). There was not a clamour of top clubs for him, why? He is not that good!

Back to Southgate, he has this one system and he is watching that same game as the rest of us and still thinks he can do it.

Here is how it played out over that half.

GS – Gareth Southgate – manager, SH – Steve Holland – Assistant

GS – “Steve who is that fast guy up front?”

SH – “That’s Raheem boss”

GS- “He is looking a bit tired and gets his feet tangled a lot, have we any other fast players”

SH- “Marcus boss?”

GS- “Ok swap them over might be an idea”

SH- “Ok boss”

GS- “Steve the guy in the middle been running his arse off, his legs look gone. Have we got any other guys on the bench that can run around a lot in the middle and boot it forward”?

SH- “Jordan is the one who looks knackered boss, we have slightly worse version in Eric but at least he is not tired”

GS – “Ok Steve swap them over”

SH – “Ok boss”

It was same old England, Kane not getting the best out of him as not playing him as he should be played, having to come back into midfield and get the ball, Alli being played out on the left to accommodate Sterling, against Panama you get away with it, against proper teams you don’t.

Henderson had a good tournament, he is an ok player not world class, however I felt sorry for him. He just needed help not running into the ground and taking off. 10 minutes into the second half go four at the back, take Sterling off but bring Dier on to play alongside Henderson, shore it up, deny the one player they have in Modric space to do anything, stop him you stop Croatia, not retreat and give him all day to play football. Take Alli off and bring Loftus Cheek on, strong, quick agile can carry the ball and offer threat rather than punt it up to a back four that we end up making Lovren look good, watch the tapes people we were lumping aimless balls I have watched the game 3 times in its entirety, I have paused it played it back, it is ********amateur hour from the bench. Move Kane up further forcing their back 4 back and if he gets a chance he will score, he will.

No stand there and do exactly the ******* same for not just 90 minutes but 120 minutes, replace like for like in your substitutions and give it away. It is pathetic at best, I think it is totally ******* negligent personally and arrogant.

The manager needed to step up and whilst at it anyone feel free to explain to me what the ******* point of assistant managers are except to nod and say yes. If Holland had anything about him he says “hang on boss we need to change this”. W****** the lot of them.

So, the chance is gone, the stars will not align and good luck to Croatia, I think they will get pasted but 90 minutes you have a chance and all you can do is give yourself a chance and they did.

Our young squad will meanwhile regret that opportunity for the rest of their lives, tomorrow they should have been stepping out with a chance to win the World Cup. If they had sure they would have been branded lucky as the path was unbelievable, that was the time to then say can only beat what is in front of you. Now it is all meaning less and the one man who is meant to guide these young players, may be a lovely guy but I tell you now he is no winner and never will be.

People thinking, we will win the Euros, quick brain check needed, Spain, Germany will never be that poor again, Belgium are there, France are there probably as World Champions, we have Netherlands and Italy to come back. Quick reminder we have never ever got to a final of the Euros let alone win it.

4 years’ time the teams mentioned above are better, so are Brazil, so are Argentina. Rose tint your glasses as much as you like, what you should do is sit with a pint of English beer and curse the man who took away a fantastic opportunity from us and these young players whilst watching the suddenly more appealing Wimbledon final, Come on Djokovic. #Southgateout

(who replaces him? I hear you ask – a winner, same as needed at Spurs get a proven winner and you have a chance. I am good at what I do because I win, I go to bed knowing someone else lost and I love it and sleep like a baby for a few hours. Support winners, crave winners and be a winner and you get somewhere. If only)

Feel free to publish this and give me credit and point people to my Twitter, feel free to tweet me, feel free to email me, call me whatever you like, I have felt like a pariah for days speaking to people who crave losing, I am right up for it. It ain’t coming home – ever. @FTSincome

Today’s Games

15.00 England v Belgium

The most pointless game in World professional football. Complete and utter waste of time. It is a game that historically averages over 4 goals per game and rarely ends in draw. I guess it is all a bit gung ho as it does not mean much.

Market expects goals, Over 2.5 just 1.65.

I am not having a bet but if I was pointing you in any direction this Belgium team is much better and is big at 2.32. Maybe back them and take off the liability if they take the lead.

Nothing official I am going to a BBQ and watch the tennis. **** football.

Back tomorrow I do have a bet tomorrow to end this saga.

Love you all!