Lush Vlad

Prussian e/w and Opinion on the nose in the first at Goodwood. Hopefully better luck than I had in the first yesterday One fell over, the other was cruising, then broke his leg and had to be put down

Beat Ibicenco quite easily I think, he then finished pretty close to Opinion Poll next time out (second to Colour Vision at Royal Ascot, probably should have won). Neeham is a half decent stayer as well. It was her seasonal reappearance and won cosily. Don't be too keen to right here off Roger. Fuck sake, I might have talked myself into backing her now and not doing Estimate (coming off the back of a much weaker race, but gets weight for the age allowance)

I thought that about Estimate, but she didn't beat much last time. Will still end up backing her no doubt, but Hawafez and Midnight Soprano look two quality horses. Estimate is currently 16/1 for the Leger. Might have a small e/w on that, as the price will certainly plummet if she wins well today. Ahern should win, was impressed with him at Newmarket, looked beautiful on the day.

How has this gem been missed? Gerld marra

Guineas meeting, Royal Ascot, Derby meeting, July festival. All fine. Just for whatever reason, I don't think I've ever had a winner at Glorious Goodwood. Yet I'm still betting again today. I really enjoy chasing......

Goodwood is anything but Glorious. I swear I've never had a winner at this meeting

Fuck sake not having much luck like. Backed Luhaif e/w last time out, stuffed. Just come 3rd at 80s Tha'Ir looked like he was gonna win and ended up 4th or 5th in a blanket finish. Olympic Glory was massively overpriced at 7/2 this morning, but didn't do it because I got tipped Tha'Ir In such a sulk right now. Fuck off horses

Hurricane Higgins/Never Can Tell/Defence of Duress I think. Not got the sound on, not sure about 4th mate.

Oh and the other one I've backed just got pulled up Should have stuck to my 'no midweek betting' plan

That's annoying. Romeo Montague went down, so will be losing my tenner Ryan Moore looks dead as well. Got trampled by about 10 horses.

Fancy Tha'Ir in the 2.35 at Goodwood. Strange that Frankie has opted for the other Godolphin horse though and it looks a tough race. £5 e/w on Veiled and £5 e/w on Rome Montague in the 2.00

Fuck sake Knew I should have gone e/w. I am a big fan of Moore, but I was overly impressed with that ride. Tried going through the whole field and I thought maybe dropping him out and going wide was a better option. Was motoring at the finish. Probably pocket talk mind

I've given in £10 on Jack's Revenge at 15/2 as my only bet of the day. Probably should have gone each way and tried to get 8s elsewhere. Would get 1/4 of the odds and 4 places.

Glad I didn't have a gamble. Most of my picks have been absolutely nowhere

If she gets off to a level break, she should win. Fell out the stalls at Royal Ascot and was about 6 lengths off the pace, would have won if she got out properly, lost by a neck in the end. Libranno is gutsy though and is a hard horse to get past when setting the pace. I'm trying not to gamble midweek, seem to do terribly in the week at the minute and good at weekends when I go to Newmarket. Tempted by a few nice prices for e/w multiples though. Danadana & Cai Shen @ 6/1, Farhaan @ 12/1, Libranno at 4/1, Firebeam 9/1, Jack's Revenge @6/1 and Hototo @11/2. Might take a watching brief though. 5 days betting at Goodwood could be fatal especially considering the way the weather has been, reading form hasn't been easy.

I don't even mind Barton TBH. He's a nob, but he's mildly amusing and I liked him when he played for us. However I can't agree with others about that website. I think it looks fucking horrendous and the content is dull as dishwater.

I only saw the first half of the Monaco friendly and I was half cut watching on Saturday. But does it seem like we're under instruction to play a shorter game? Barring R.Taylor (and Williamson vs Monaco), we've actually played some nice stuff in the middle. Abeid and Bigi have looked comfortable in possession when they've been on and Colo and Tiote coming back in helps of course. I noticed against Fener, even Elliot was throwing or rolling it out short and we were looking to build a bit more. There were long balls don't get me wrong, but they often seemed aimed or were a nice diagonal out wide. Not the usual hit and hope approach up the middle. If I'm not imagining it, then well played Pards, we've got so many good quality players, it seems a shame to waste them.

I've been trying to ignore the transfer speculation this pre-season. Had enough of getting my hopes up and thought we'd just go about our business like the last couple of seasons. I wasn't really that arsed and thought we'd get 2 or 3 quality first teamers in, without spending much. I have to say, the old transfer window paranoia is setting in though I can see us losing one of the first team and missing out on most of our first choice targets. Even if we do get Debuchy, a CB and a forward. I have to echo Dave's sentiments, it's getting a bit late in the day already. They're not going to be settled or up to speed and there will be a long bedding in period. I just hope we tie up some deals out of the blue like we've managed in previous years. Oh and I hope we don't waste money signing Carroll.

Erm, that's the joke. Well done on spectacularly missing the point

Free £22 bet from VC on the Open. Didn't even check if you could spread it over multiple selections (which I think you can), so put £11 e/w on Garcia @ 33s Also had £1 e/w on Molinari, Rose, Mickelson, Fowler and Poulter. Ranging between 28/1 and 35/1. No idea what I am doing BTW don't really follow golf bar the Ryder Cup

Really wish we were being heavily linked with Hoilett or Moses, or someone of that ilk that could play as a wide forward, but possibly through the middle as well. As it stands, we have Ba and Cisse, with Shola as back up for the central role and fairly limited options to play wide in a 4-3-3. Obertan, Marveaux, Ben Arfa, Jonas, then the young uns/unproven players. Out of all of those listed, HBA is realistically going to be the only regular starter in a front three. Jonas did so well in the middle of a 4-2-3-1 last season and I'm not sure he'd be effective as a wide forward. Obertan has shown fuck all so far. Marveaux will probably miss a lot of games through injury. It then leaves players like Sammy and Amalfitano. Dreading the thought of signing Carroll, back to a 4-4-2, playing it long, not looking after the ball and bypassing quality like HBA, Cabaye, Jonas, Cisse etc.

I really don't want him back. On loan or otherwise.

Only caught the first half, but he looked great I thought. Very impressed by how casual he was on the ball. I thought Abeid did well, but he seemed to panic a lot when under pressure and didn't seem as assured as Bigi. Mainly just played it simple, but even under pressure he would get his passes off and actually played it with a bit of pace to try and keep the tempo up. Made a crunching man and ball tackle as well and got about the pitch well. So far, so good.

Tend to agree. Don't really want Carroll back here, on loan or otherwise. Don't want that style of player or for us to play in a way that suits him. Would rather we forked out money on a wide forward type, that is capable of playing across the front 3. Ba and Cisse will hopefully get more rotation as a central striker this season. Not sure how someone like Carroll fits into all that. Would take him as back up, but that's exactly what his role will be at Liverpool, so what's the point?

On the consistency thing, I'm not fussed. You'll often see top class players have shitters. It's only really players like Messi and Ronaldo that seem to play well almost every week. Inconsistency seems to go with the territory for flair players like HBA. I've seen the likes of Mata and Silva have poor games and look ineffective, does it mean they're not top players? They're high risk, low percentage players, that can be nullified with the right tactics. I also think our own tactics hindered Ben Arfa at times. Would spend so long watching the ball sail over his head and working up and down. That when he did finally get the chance with the ball, he seemed knackered and like he was still feeling his way into the game. Led to him trpipping over the ball, over-running it and not having the legs to glide past players like he normally does. I doubt his lack of pre season, the amount of gametime he missed out on in the first half of the season and him still regaining form after the leg break helped his cause either! I think the only gripe I have with HBA, is the fact he sometimes tries to do too much on his own, even when he's at the top of his game. Skin 3 or 4 players by all means, but in a lot of those highlight reels, the end product/final ball is missing. The fact he's a bit inconsistent with his form doesn't worry me too much TBH.