robwoolford.com

New, and awesome, Nike advert - premiered yesterday before the United/Barce game.

Man Utd 1-0 Barcelona

Oh I love Paul Scholes.

He is just the best player ever. So, so good. And I couldn’t be any happier with him putting us into the final that he missed out on in ’99. Fergie has already said he’ll be the first name on the team sheet, and boy does he deserve to play in a final like this because he’s never managed it with England or United. That’s probably the reason that people abroad don’t consider him in the same league as Zidane and such, but I’m sure that will all change when the little ginger wizard retires. Which I hope is never.

Barcelona were quality last night. It was head in your hands moments for a lot of United fans for the last half an hour or so of that game. They could have broken us down at any point, but thankfully we were up to it. Barcelona are unbelieveably good at shifting the ball around the pitch, and they’ve proved it in both legs of the Champions League semi-finals, having far too much possession at Old Trafford last night but United have made so many strides defensively in the past year or two. I think we haven’t conceded a European goal for 5 games now, so make no mistakes as to the importance of Rio and co this season.

Wes Brown definitely came of age in last night’s game. He has been playing right back all season but he showed just how good he can be at centre back last night. Whilst Rio does seem to prefer a more aggressive, go-to-the-ball defender next to him so he can sweep up any problems, Wes is a bit more reserved, but made some absolutely vital and key defending last night against the Catalans.

Unfortunately, despite being offered a ticket to goto Moscow (at £1,500), I just can’t go. It’s a shame because not only is it a monumental occasion, but I’ve always wanted to visit Moscow, so I think me and a few United fans are going to head to Manchester to watch the game. Maybe somewhere near Old Trafford, maybe somewhere near the city centre. Who knows? But I expect if United go on to win the Champs League final then there will be an all-night party in Manchester with muchos beer and muchos singing… something I don’t want to miss out on!

WE’RE GOING TO MOSCOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Follow, follow, follow! ‘cause United are going to Moscow!
There’ll be thousands of reds, and we’ll be pissed off our heads,
‘cause United are going to Moscow!

It’s finally here!

Just picked up two copies for me and Lee. It’s a good thing I took Amy out last night as I don’t think I’d be able to concentrate knowing this was sat next to my Xbox waiting to be entertained.

Surely going to be game of the year, regardless of whatever else comes out… right, time to go raid Liberty City.

Amy turned 19 today, and we celebrated in Newcastle last night.

I know what you’re thinking and no, I didn’t buy her lessons in how not to take blurry camera photos.

I got her a ring, a necklace, ear rings, nice bath stuff (we love our bath stuff) and took her out for a nice meal/drinks. I had to step my game up after she blessed me with an Xbox 360 back in January (which consequently opened up the door for me to get my hands on GTA IV).

Happy birthday baby :).

And so it is, Cristiano Ronaldo is 2007-08’s player of the year, his second consecutive season as the Premier League’s best player. And it couldn’t have gone to anybody else, could it? Ronaldo has blown every single player on the planet out of the water this year - he’s scored more goals from midfield than 90% of top level strikers across Europe. A staggering thought really. When you consider the amount of assists as well, it is scary to think just how many goals he has contributed to United this season.

Perhaps more impressive for me, is the range and the mix of Ronaldo’s goals. Free kicks and penalties, sure, but also long range shots, goals from outside the area, skillful runs ending with easy finishes, tap-ins and headers. It seems there’s nothing he can’t do (on the attacking front, atleast).

Turning my attention the other awards. I suppose it makes sense that Cesc Fabregas is voted the ‘Young Player of the Year’, although for me Ashley Young would have been a really could candidate. What we must bare in mind is that the nominations and the voting is done nearer to the new year than now, so, with Arsenal top of the league at the time, Fabregas would have been a great shout for player of the year. It also would seem slightly unfair if Ronaldo was to win ‘young’ player of the year again, having won all the awards last season (including young player).

A lot of people were expecting Fernando Torres to scoop Young Player of the Year, but my arguement against Torres would be that he only performs at Anfield, and even then, despite his impressive goals tally, he hasn’t made a huge difference to the Liverpool team this year (they’re still 4th, and they’re still a long way off catching the top 3). Don’t get me wrong, he’s a fantastic player, but Fabregas has helped turn a poor Arsenal team, who then lost Henry, from a team that could slip out of the top 4 into title challengers once more. And Fabregas was the driving force behind this (along with Adebayor’s goals), whereas Torres hasn’t quite made that transformation to the Liverpool side, even if his goal return is quite remarkable.

As for the team of the year, which was: James; Sagna, Vidic, Ferdinand, Clichy; Ronaldo, Gerrard, Fabregas, Young; Adebayor, Torres - I have few qualms.

James is a great shout for goalkeeper, he’s been fantastic, particularly in the first half of the season where it looked like Portsmouth could push themselves into the top 5 or 6 teams in the league. Joe Hart is the only keeper I can think of that could push James for the nomination, but then again Hart faded after Man City’s good start.

Clichy is a good, and often overlooked, choice at left back. Statistically he has been great for Arsenal this year. Lots of assists and he’s played the majority of their games. Sagna on the other hand, has played a lot of games but I can’t say I’m impressed with him in any way, shape or form. In fact, I think the mere fact that there are no other stand out right backs might be the sole reason he has earnt the right black slot in his first season. Whilst I agree with Clichy at LB, I don’t agree with Sagna, and would have opted for possibly Mellberg and lest we not forget that Carragher has been playing right back a lot this year. Lescott might also be a decent alternative to Clichy at left back, which is where he’s been playing all year.

At centre back, you can’t really argue with the partnership of Vidic and Ferdinand, who are so strong together and you couldn’t really have one without the other. Although, Martin Laursen of Villa would have been a good shout at centre back, as would Lescott/Yobo/Sol Campbell.

In midfield, Ronaldo was an obvious choice, but Bentley has had a really good season at right midfield and can feel hard done by not to be included. It’s great that Ashley Young’s contribution was recognised, and he really deserves to be voted in as the other winger, although it should be noted that just like Bentley Ashley Young is a right winger.

In the middle of the midfield, Fabregas is a must, but despite Gerrard’s obvious quality I don’t know if he has been the second best central midfielder going? … Flamini has a very good season, Scholes has been incredible again, Lampard has silenced a lot of critics throughout the season, Ballack/Essien have been good. Michael Johnson of Liverpool has been excellent, and should definitely have been considered. I can’t help but feel Gerrard has won it purely on reputation.

Up front, Adebayor and Torres have been picked simply on goal returns. Sure, strikers should score goals, but that’s not the whole picture. Rooney/Tevez have been overlooked here when in actual fact either or both could have been in the team. Shame really, as Rooney doesn’t score 20+ league goals a season I fear he might not break into the PFA team of the year for a while as members of the PFA continue to highlight goals. Berbatov and Robbie Keane, as well as Roque Santa Cruz, should also feel agrieved that they haven’t been mentioned. Adebayor was a must for me (he’s been Arsenal’s main ingredient in the wake of Henry), and Torres has had a very, very good season, but the strikers I’ve mentioned should feel that they could have been involved.

My PFA team of the year would have read as follows…
David James (Portsmouth); Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa), Rio Ferdinand (Man Utd), Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd), Joleon Lescott (Everton); Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Michael Johnson (Man City), Ashley Young (Aston Villa); Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal), Wayne Rooney (Man Utd).

With a subs bench of… Joe Hart (Man City), Martin Laursen (Aston Villa), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Fernando Torres (Liverpool) and Carlos Tevez (Man Utd).

Thoughts?

I don’t have much on my mind today. I spent this morning and this afternoon at work, and then when I got home I cleaned the three bathrooms in the house in meticulous fashion. This is the first time its been done for months, so it was no easy task, I’ll assure you.

Today’s blog is more of a reflection of a conversation that I had with a friend the other night. He was looking into betting for the first time, and had come across a number of schemes where you sign up to win free bets at a website, then bet the opposite to happen on another website, thus neutralising any profit but winning yourself a free £25 bet or whatever. Nice, sure, but you need capital, lots of betting accounts and patience as well.

My two betting avenues of choice have always been Roulette and Football accumulators.

Roulette I’m so-so at. It’s a game of probability and I spend most my time covering as many numbers as possible (often only leaving 2 or 3 uncovered) so that I have 33 or 34 numbers of the 36 covered. You win hardly anything, maybe 50p each spin, but at the same time you’re very unlikely to lose (although it is soul destroying when it happens! and takes a long while to reaccumulate everything).

Football accumulators on the other hand, are something which I’ve been doing for a few years, and I usually make a fair bit of money. There was a point last year when I had a 25-bet accumulator, with ridiculous odds, and my 20p bet would have returned somewhere in the region of £5,000. 23 teams won and two of them drew (Roma at home to Ascoli, and York City at home to Forest Green). Unlucky, I know, but my smaller accumulators are always coming off!

Football betting is pretty easy if you have a bit of knowledge and you do a bit of research (previous meetings and league standings). Betting on Man Utd to beat Derby is almost pointless, I mean it’s almost certainly going to happen but betting a fiver on it might only return six quid, if you’re lucky. Is it worth risking so much just for a 20% profit or less? Probably not.

However, couple Man United with say, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Barcelona and Real Madrid to win (and more often than not they all win each weekend) and betting five quid on that could return anywhere between £10 and £20 (I’d reckon around £15). So you more than double your money.

Accumulators on favourites is easy money. Of course, favourites don’t always win (see Liverpool this weekend drawing away to Birmingham, or Arsenal’s numerous draws at home in the past few months). You need to be good at picking out the dead certs, but if you can, and believe me there are much more than five or six every weekend (there’s five or six every day in fact) then you can make a pretty penny doing this.

The other night for example, I bet £5 on Flamengo, Sao Paulo and Nacional all of Brazil to win at their home grounds. They were all favourites, and they all won comfortably, earning me £10.50. The same night, I had also bet £5 on Thisted, OB Odense and Hajduk Split to win their home games, a bet which won me just short of £10 as well. So that’s £20 made in a night without even leaving my house.

Sure, £20 is nothing, but like I said if you pick out these bets on a daily basis you can make money like that every day. Do the math, say you place an accumulator-a-day with the chance to earn either £10 or £20 then if five of them come off a week (they won’t all win, they never do) then you’re anywhere between £50 to £100 up each week. And who couldn’t do with £50 to £100 tax-free every week? I must confess I don’t quite make this much, because I bet much smaller amounts, but winning 5 accumulators a week is a regular occurance to be honest.

Football happens across the world on a daily basis. Most people associate it with Saturdays and Sundays and those are the days that your accumulators really do come in to play. I do much bigger accumulators on a weekend, but they rarely come off. However, during the week, you’ll often have European or Continental fixtures on a Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, Scandinavian leagues often play on Mondays, lower league games are often scattered throughout the week, and random foreign leagues crop up every day. Every single day you can be presented with as many as fifty to a hundred bets, or as little as five. But there’s always options.

Then comes picking out your favourites. The odds are always an indicator of who is going to be walking away victorious, and the more shrewd the odd (1/4 for example) the better they are for your accumulator. As I look at tomorrow’s games (Monday 28th of April) I see that an Arsenal away win is 1/4, and in all fairness, is more than likely going to happen. If I couple this with a Djurgarden home win (3/10 - something I fancy because the away team are at 9/1) and a AaB Aalborg home win (1/2 for one of Denmark’s best teams) I will win £2.43 for every £1 that I put on, well over double my money. If I throw in IFK Gothenburg, one of Sweden’s better teams, to win at home (2/5) and also West Brom (8/15), title chasing in the Championship, to win against lowly Southampton, fighting for their lives, then I will no win £5.23 for every £1 that I bet. I don’t need to tell you that if I bet £5 on this one I’m walking away with £26.
AAB AALBORG v AC Horsens
GOTHENBURG v Sundsvall
DJURGARDEN v Ljungskile
WEST BROM v Southampton
Derby v ARSENAL

On paper I fancy that bet, but at the same time I’m always wary about including too many teams. One game out of five will almost certainly go against the run of play.

A quick look at the league standings, coupled with the odds, should tell you that they’re all relatively safe bets. Although I wouldn’t throw a fiver at it everytime the return looks good. Remember, you’re trying to pick out DEAD CERTS rather than likely games, but I still don’t think that’s a bad accumulator at all.

South American games often run throughout the week, and most weeks if Boca Juniors or River Plate are at home then put your money on them. Same can be said for the top teams in Brazil (just look at the league table). Away wins in South American are MUCH, MUCH rarer than we’re accustomed to in Europe. Seriously, you’re talking maybe one or two in ten games ends in an away win. The continents are much bigger so traveling is a factor, as are the different environments… we don’t need to get into it. Basically, if a top South American team is at HOME then they’re relatively safe (Boca, River Plate, Flamengo, Corinthians, Santos, Sao Paulo, etc.).

Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV are good bets in Dutch football. Bayern Munich will win most of the team, especially at home, in German football. Dynamo Kiev & Shakthar Donetsk rarely lose in the Ukraine. Porto, Sporting Lisbon and Benfica usually win home or away in Portugal. Fenerbache & Galatasary are the same in Turkey, as are Panathinaikos & Olympiakos in Greece. Rosenborg are a ridiculously safe bet in Norway, as are FC Copenhagen in Denmark to name just a few. Like I say, a quick look at the league tables will show you the teams that win 30 out of 38 games a season, and those are the teams that win home and away. So pick out the best three or four and you can often win £2 or £3, maybe more, for every single £1 you bet. Relatively easy money.

You can make killings at the start of the season especially on UEFA Cup day, where Tottenham will get drawn against some random Bulgarian team without a hope in hells chance, on the same night that Lazio host a team from the Faroe Islands. Find a few of these and you can make yourself a shit load of money. The same can be said for the FA Cup and any domestic cup competition across the globe. If giants get drawn against minnows you’ve found some pretty easy dead certs.

However, there are a few things to bare in mind;
1. Don’t bet on a team after they’ve played in Europe because more often than not they’ll stumble regardless of whether they’re at home or not. The other team might have had twice the amount of time to prepare, they have had more rest and generally these are when the upsets occur.
2. Don’t bet on ridiculously low divisions (for example, League Two or the conference in England because these are leagues where anybody can beat anybody for a number of reasons)
3. Top of the league v Bottom of the league often has an unpredictable outcome. You don’t need me to explain why, but you’ll often see teams in the relegation places pull off victories against teams top of the table who get complacent.
4. Don’t think that just because FC Copenhagen are top in Denmark that it’ll be a walk in the park against teams at the foot of the table. FC Copenhagen, realistically, are nowhere near the standard of the British Premiership or the other top continental leagues. When they have a bad day they don’t have the quality in the team to reverse the problem, so betting on lower quality leagues can often lead to bizarre results too.
5. Never EVER bet on derby games. I don’t care if Everton are bottom of the league and Liverpool are top, unbeaten all season, the form book goes out of the window and all the players up their game. Derby games are always too close to call, regardless of what standard and what competition. Just don’t do it.

With that being said, teams are made favourites for a reason. You just need to pick the right favourites for your accumulators and you can triple your money, and then some. It’s a piece of piss really. Just look at today… Roma won at home, so did Inter Milan and Juventus, AC Milan won away, Real Madrid are winning as I type this, Bayern Munich won at home, FC Porto won emphatically, River Plate won 4-2 at home… and they were all games that I would have called to be honest. 8 easy favourites there. Hell, a fiver on that probably would have returned somewhere in the region of £50-60.

There isn’t long left of the footballing season, but still, if you know a bit about football then why not make a bit of money from it?

I’m a bit late with this one, it’s been sat in my bookmarks for a few weeks now but I MSN’ed it to everyone rather than posting it here. This is the Paul McCartney/Heather Mills tale as told by Wiley. Enjoy.

I forgot to post this the other day, a new video from one of my favourite groups - The Roots.

This is taken from their new album, “Rising Down”, which is out next week. If you want a link to that record then drop me an e-mail.

This track, entitled “Rising Up”, features one of my favourite up-and-comers Wale as well as the ever-so-soulful Chrisette Michelle. And some quality Black Thought rhymes as usual!

Gutted.

Absolutely gutted.

Gutted with everything about that game. The timing of Chelsea’s goals, our performance as a whole, Chelsea dictating the whole first half, gutted we couldn’t hang on for another five minutes…

From the off the game was looking in their favour. They came straight out of the blocks and had 65% possession. The whole United team simply sat back and tried to contain them. It looked like we had done so, quite luckily I might add, but then a bad bit of marking and Ballack was gifted a free header at the back post. Right on the stroke of half time.

We were a little better in the second half, but we had to be to push on and get a goal. And the goal that came was a lot more than fortunate. Great finish from Rooney, especially given the fact that he could barely walk.

Then we gave away a stupid penalty as Chelsea exerted more pressure. I thought Silvestre was fantastic at left back today, but he was given absolutely no help from whoever was left midfield (Nani, Giggs, Ronaldo - take your pick) and as a result he was exposed by overlapping players all afternoon. In the first half it was Paulo Ferreira swinging some pretty dismal crosses in, but one of those was always going to count at some point in the game, and surprise surprise with only five minutes left someone (Essien?) overlaps Silvestre and the cross bounces off Carrick’s arm. I don’t blame Carrick, those things happen, but why did Silvestre spend the whole afternoon handling two players down that flank?

We created no real chances other than the last five minutes, where we had two cleared off the line, which left me throwing a fair few things around the living room. But why do we have to wait until that point? Why wait until you’re 2-1 down with 5 minutes to go before piling on the pressure up front? I just don’t get it. Caution was necessary today, but sitting back and waiting for Chelsea to attack was not going to work today like it did in the Neu Camp on Tuesday.

With Wigan and West Ham still to play our chances still look good, however our last three away games have turned out two draws (Middlesborough & Blackburn) as well as today’s defeat. I don’t think I need to remind anyone that Wigan’s pitch is less than pristine, and that won’t be an easy fixture. West Ham won’t be a walkover either, considering they have beat us in the last three Man Utd-West Ham fixtures.

I’m not filled with confidence anymore. I thought that if we were to get a draw today that we could put all our efforts into the Champs League final in the midweek, and then depleted sides could deal with Wigan/West Ham whilst still having a 3-point cushion from Chelsea. Now I just hope that we can slide past Barcelona on Tuesday and then there’s three or four days to knuckle down and concentrate on doing the business in the league again, because that was clearly playing on our minds today with Tevez, Ronaldo, Scholes & Hargreaves all rested.

I will end this blog by saying “I hate Stamford Bridge”.

P.S. Nani was shit today. Really, really awful. I lost count of how many bad decisions he made today. Whether it was trying to out-sprint Ashley Cole to no effect, trying to out-smart some of Chelsea’s midfield veterans or simply deciding to go alone when Rooney/Giggs/Ronaldo all had acres of space, and could have been put through on goal.

If God made music festivals, he would probably create something along the lines of the ‘Rock the Bells’ festival:

I have always wanted to attend the Rock the Bells festival, which is a yearly event in America. It tours a few of the country’s major cities - New York, Los Angeles - and always brings in some of the most respect hip hop acts going. Always focusing on integrity rather than record sales - so no 50 Cents in sight.

I always envisaged my first Rock the Bells festival would be four or five years away, perhaps more, when I have the funds to travel to the States or even the fortune to relocate there. But thankfully, this year the Rock the Bells tour is going international. Tickets and line ups haven’t quite been confirmed, but Rock the Bells will be visiting London and Tokyo for sure, as well as a number of other cities outside the States. It’s fantastic news for all real hip hop fans who will get to see legends like Rakim, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas and more on the same stage, in the same day.

Apparently the London leg of the Rock the Bells festival will take place on September 20th in the O2 Arena, so if you want to attend then keep an eye on your favourite ticketing sites, the O2 website and other appropriate places. The tickets won’t sell out at an alarming rate, but still, you want to get in there quickly!

Don’t expect all the names on the flyer above to kick it on the international legs - but A Tribe Called Quest, Nas and Mos Def will apparently be doing all the legs. But other than that, the line-up is a dream come true. I can’t speak for the atmosphere of the festival, but I imagine it must be a lot more relaxed than the one-off gigs that we’re accustomed to in the UK, where after queuing for hours on end there’s lots of shoving and aggression amongst the crowd. With a couple of stages and lasting all-day, this will hopefully be a much more stress-free affair.

Artists I’m really looking forward to seeing include Wale, The Cool Kids (who I’ve mentioned in previous posts) and Jay Electronica. Drooling at the sight of seeing Rakim, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul and Mos Def too as I’ve never had the chance to see any of them (but I doubt they will all come over to London). Raekwon/Ghostface and Meth/Redman will be good too. I saw Nas a few years back in Manchester and I have to say it was one of the best nights of my life, so naturally I’m looking forward to him too! Dead Prez & Murs should be good, as will Immortal Technique. And that’s before the rest of the line up has been announced. Simply put, it’s going to be a whole day of incredible, live hip hop music.

I wanted to get to Leeds fest this year, but Rock the Bells is much more up my street!

Hopefully this won’t be a one-off.

If you’re a hip hop fan, and you’re from Great Britain, mark down Saturday the 20th of September on your calendar. I hope to see you at the O2 Arena.