David Beckham’s Loss Could Be Joe Cole’s Gain For England World Cup Squad

All the focus this week has been on the injury to David Beckham which has ruled him out of the World Cup but doesn’t it seem a huge fuss has been made about nothing? He may be a hugely popular player but he was probably never going to play more than an hour in the entire tournament and it could actually be a blessing in disguise.

The Achilles tendon injury clearly isn’t expected to hamper England’s chances at the World Cup as the England World Cup Odds remain unchanged and England are still one of the favourites to win the World Cup. What is much more worrying than the Beckham injury is Aaron Lennon’s groin injury that has kept him out all year. He has looked the complete right winger this season, skinning opponents, setting up goals with great crosses and also chipping in with goals now.

The bookies make Aaron Lennon the odds on favourite to start for England on the right wing against USA and if he returns and proves his fitness then that looks about right. But what if Lennon’s niggling problem continues and he doesn’t make the place to South Africa?

The next players on the list appear to be Capello favourite James Milner, the inconsistent Theo Walcott and also Shaun Wright Phillips, who appears to have booked a spot on Capello’s plans from a decent twenty minutes off the bench against Egypt.

The Beckham injury could be good news for Joe Cole, who is still struggling for form since his injury problems but he remains a great talent and his World Cup 2010 hopes might not be dashed yet, he could still be the twenty third man that makes the squad, which will be announced on June 1st.

Whatever happens it seems England are not short of options on the right wing but they could end up short of top quality options and that can sometimes make the difference between winning and losing.

England are currently the third favourites to win the World Cup, behind Brazil and Spain, and despite not seemingly have the class of those two sides England could still start the World Cup as favourites, with the bookies at least.

The England World Cup Odds are 11/2 with most bookies and just half a point ahead are Brazil at 5/1 and half a point in front of them are Spain at 9/2. That means there is basically nothing in it at this point. There is always plenty of patriotic money for England in the weeks leading up to the World Cup and things at the World Cup 2010 should be no different.

Should England really expect to be favourites for the World Cup though? At the moment they are considered third best therefore should be getting to the semi final and then winning the third place playoff. That would be England’s best performance for twenty years.

To be fair, England’s route to the semi final isn’t really that hard. Presuming England win their group they should then face Ghana, Serbia or Australia in the Second Round, either way it is a winnable game. After that things get a bit tougher against likely opponents Argentina but they have not been at their best recently so England should be able to beat them.

Should England reach the World Cup Semi Final they are likely to play Brazil, which will probably be the end of England’s World Cup hopes, but over one game England are capable of beating Brazil and then it is time to start dreaming about World Cup glory. Unfortunately Spain are likely to be lying in waiting for the winner of the England v Brazil semi final.

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Wayne Rooney Is The Man To Help England To World Cup Glory

Who is England’s best player? At least nine out of ten people would surely answer Wayne Rooney and it is very hard to make a case for England at the World Cup 2010 without their star man. If any evidence was needed that Rooney has improved yet again this season it is his two headed goals against AC Milan as heading was previously his weakest point.

Wayne Rooney already has big tournament experience despite still being relatively young, he burst onto the International scene with a great performance at Euro 2004 but he got injured against Portugal and England ended up going out. At the 2006 World Cup things were looking good for England until, you guessed it, Wayne Rooney got sent off against old friends Portugal and England crashed it. It is simply as if England cannot win without the Man Utd striker.

No surprise really that so many people are backing Wayne Rooney to be the World Cup Golden Boot as a good tournament for Wayne Rooney means a good tournament for England yet the Wayne Rooney World Cup Golden Boot Odds are around three times as high as England’s World Cup Odds. Which bet would you make at this stage?

Of course England have plenty of other good players but they are very much the foundations that allow Wayne Rooney to express himself. The likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and even Aaron Lennon if he plays will all be expected to give the ball to Rooney as much as possible and so strong is Wayne Rooney’s influence that his striker partner, who remains unknown, will probably be picked on the basis of who brings out the best in Wayne Rooney.

Many are stating that this season’s Premiership is the best
Premiership season ever and they might just be right. Every part of the
Premiership is as competitive as it has ever been and at this stage even
the bookies aren’t sure what is going to happen.

We are used to having one or two teams in the title race, whilst many
would argue that this is the case once again it is hard to say that
Arsenal are out of the hunt for the title, they are only three points
off the top spot. You could even argue that Man City could win it, they
have only seven points to make up and bigger leads have been surrendered
than that. The bookies make Chelsea the favourites to win the league,
and rightly so, but Arsenal look the value at 9/2 considering Man Utd
are 11/4 and Chelsea are odds on at 4/5.

There is without doubt the best battle for fourth this year, Man
City, Spurs, Aston Villa and Liverpool are all definitely competing for
that last Champions League place and you could even argue Birmingham
are, although we doubt they have the staying power. Man City’s chances
of breaking into the top four are rated 50:50 by the bookies and they
are favourites, if you believe the bookies then Liverpool will come
fifth with Tottenham and Aston Villa in behind respectively.

And how about relegation? Portsmouth may be four points adrift at the
bottom but there are only three points separating 19th to 13th place
inclusive. Even Stoke in 10th are just six points off the drop zone and
far from safe. The bookies think Portsmouth, Hull and Burnley are most
likely to go, in that order, which means they clearly don’t rate Brian
Laws as a manager.

The beauty of this season’s Premiership is that no one is going to
draw clear in their respective battles because everyone is beating
everyone. It will probably take the smallest amount of points ever to
take the title with Chelsea, Man Utd and Arsenal dropping points
regularly.

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Doesn’t time fly? We are already more than a third of the way
through the Premiership season and whilst there is no surprise that
Chelsea and Man Utd once again dominate the Premiership table, there
have been some shocks so far.

Surely no one could have predicted how poorly Liverpool would perform
this season. The
Bookmakers think there is a good chance that they
will fail to even make it into the top four this season, they are around
the same odds as Man City to finish in the Champions League places and
they seem to have a 50:50 chance at the moment, although you would have
to say Spurs are not without a chance as well. Results over the New Year
will be key for all three sides.

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Burnley have shocked many this season, they have obviously looked at
Stoke last season, who stayed up because of a great home record, and
they have turned Turf Moor into a similar fortress. With some very poor
teams in the Premiership this season it is hard to see them going down
and the bookies make Portsmouth, Hull and Wolves all more likely to
suffer the drop than Burnley.

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Normally by this stage in the season there have been several
managerial casualties in the Premiership so it was a bit of a surprise
it was late November by the time the first head rolled this season. It
seemed Paul Hart had turned a corner with Portsmouth and the bookies
agreed, they had Phil Brown as favorite to be Next Premiership Manager
To Leave when the announcement came that Paul Hart had been relieved of
his duties. Expect two or three more sackings before the Premiership
season is over.

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