As long as man walks the earth, the battle between the old wrinkly master and the young brash pretender to the throne is as inevitable as tomato sauce on a sausage sandwich.
Stuart Pearce v Alex Ferguson fits perfectly in this category. He may be a considered a psycho, but you can’t argue with eight Premier League trophies. Pearce is the up and comer while Sir Alex has been there, done that and banned the t-shirt. Pearce’s time will come, but for now, the old guard retains the edge. United are 4/6 to master the Manchester melee; get on.
Now that Roy Keane has left the country, the Manchester derby just won’t be the same without a career threatening challenge or two. David Sommeil misses the match due to Essiening a Tottenham player, so we’ll have to rely on Alan Smith and Joey Barton to remain true to the memory of the departed Keano. A player to be sent off is a 5/2 shot.
Graeme Souness threw all his eggs in one basket when he signed Michael Owen, there’s a moral there somewhere; buy more baskets. Here’s another Dominoqq moral for you; back Newcastle without Owen? A fool and his money are Soun parted. Fulham receive the nod at 5/4.
What Alan Shearer lacks in pace, he makes up for in elbow piece. If we accept that Newcastle will lose the match, backing Shearer to be booked is a logical follow up. Big Al is more likely to connect with a jaw bone than a cross; he’s 4/1 to see yellow, 50/1 to see red.
The arrival of a Russian billionaire has allowed Harry Redknapp to buy himself a big Pole; Emmanuel Olisadebe. I saw Emmanuel on video a few years ago, a fantastic scoring record. Portsmouth v Everton is a relegation six pointer, back Pompey to take all six points at 11/10.
Clyde were 20/1 to beat Celtic, Leyton Orient were 8/1 to beat Fulham, both won easily. Sunderland are 11/1 rags at home to Chelsea; can they make it a treble of upsets? No. Conventional wisdom would suggest that you can’t back a Premier League team away to another at 1/5. I repeatedly slap the bald head of conventional wisdom; Chelsea have the points in the bag.
If Ian Wright was Thierry Henry, he’d have to consider leaving Arsenal. If I was Mr Henry, I wouldn’t have time to consider a move abroad; I’d be too busy getting Merry. Take 2/7 on the Gunners beating the Boro, it’s a step on the road to happiness.
The long awaited return of Bernie’s Quiff and the continuing wet fart of Boro’s season
Well, as I’m sure none of you have noticed or care but it has been rather a long time since these pages were graced with the wisdom and insight of Bernie’s Quiff so after a move to London, a change in everything and a massive and near-crippling bout of laziness Him is here.
Today we play Arsenal at Highbury – it’s come full circle since my last ramblings on here so it seems a good time to get started again. The last time I wrote on these revered pages was a time long ago, a happy time, last September in fact when the then mighty Boro had just beaten the Arse and not quite yet turned into the shitey Boro we’re seeing now – so what’s happened since then? Well for a start we’re slipping into a relegation battle with 22 points, West Brom just below us and even Everton (for God’s sake, Everton? I mean oway…)above us. We have managed to put together possibly the most inconsistent run of football seen since the dawn of time though, and that’s got to be worth something right? erm…well…Have to admit, I’d be laughing if it was another team. And at least the mackems are still sitting ugly at the bottom.
So, we beat the Arse then what happened? A stormer of a run buoyed by that success, growing in confidence and experience every game? A 1-1 draw with Wigan then Sunderland beat us 2 nowt, their first win in nearly 2 years & 27 premiership games and giving them half of their total points now. Class that like. Then there was the dizzying heights at the end of October when we put in an amazing performance to beat Man U 4-1, and soon after getting beat a goal to nothing by Everton. McClaren’s famous rotation system was stuck to rigidly without anyone wondering why we didn’t stick to the lot that were winning occasionally instead of changing and getting beaten by the dregs of the table. And the slide continued – doing fine in the UEFA cup, beaten a lot in the league, knocked out of the Carling cup by Blackburn (??) then beaten off them again days later for a very merry Christmas all culminating recently by clinging on to a 1-1 draw with Nuneaton in the FA cup. All the while as we plummet down the league McClaren’s thought we’ve been tremendous every performance. 0-0 draw with Man City – Tremendous. 2-0 pasting off Liverpool – Tremendous performance, can’t fault the lads. And after the scintilating draw with Nuneaton – “It’ll be a different game altogether at the Riverside” says sage-like Steve McClaren. Aye, Steve, I bet it will. Bet it’s still shite though…
