Chelsea are rumoured to be in negotiations with Galatasaray to reunite Wesley Sneijder with his former boss Jose Mourinho. This would represent a great signing for Chelsea and give them a natural goal scoring replacement for the aging Frank Lampard. I think this rumour has real legs, no offence to Galatasaray, but Sneijder is still one of the best midfielders in the world and should be playing in the EPL.

Chelsea are attractively priced at odds of $3.20 to win the EPL, and given the Mourinho effect and the likelihood of them signing a raft of new players in the summer, this is a cracking bet.

Arsene Wenger has admitted it would be ‘impossible’ to turn down the chance to sign Wayne Rooney, however we are confident he won’t get the chance. Whilst Manchester United won’t consider Arsenal genuine title rivals anymore, they won’t be keen to sell to another EPL club. Plus Rooney won’t be overly interested in playing for a team that still have to qualify for the Champions League we don’t reckon. Chances of this one happening? None. However….

Arsenal are heavily linked with a ove for Swansea City’s mercurial attacking midfielder / striker Michu and this rumour makes much more sense all round. I think this one has legs.

Arsenal are currently listed as $1.90 to finish outside the EPL Top 4 next season. I think that is a rather decent bet.

And finally, Liverpool seem to be keen on Shakhtar Donetsk’s Armenia international striker Henrikh Mkhitaryan and are apparently not put off by the likey $50m valuation of him. Of who? Exactly. To be fair to Henrikh Mkhitaryan he has scored a record 25 goals in the Ukranian league this term. I hope this one comes to fruition, just to hear the various ways the pundits will try and pronounce his name.

Arsene Wenger, who is French, has revealed that he would be happy to be
an ambassador for the English bid to be the country to host the World
Cup, and he thinks it is unfair that Germany has hosted it twice.

At his Friday press conference, Wenger told the press corps: “I am a big
supporter of the England bid for the World Cup in 2018. If I can help
them, I would be very happy.”

This is all well and good, but Wenger then went on to talk about how
England gave the game of football to the world, and it is for this
reason that the country should be allowed to hold the World Cup. He even
said that it is not ‘normal’ for a country that gave this sport to be
denied hosting the Cup.

However, I think he is forgetting one thing. England may have given the
sport to the world, but, and if you will forgive my expression here, the
rest of the world have picked up the ball and ran with it.

England has had some decent shots at glory in the last ten years, but
every time they have somehow managed to fudge it. And while the country
– as Arsene Wenger quite rightly pointed out – may have ‘the
infrastructure, the stadiums, the passion’ to manage a world class
tournament, it still won’t win it.

As such on the field the side are also deceptive – their odds of 8.40
third favourites for next year’s tournament are odd, given that the
Netherlands qualified in similarly impressive style but are out at 17.00.

In my opinion, England are yet to prove that they are part of the world
stage and can justify hosting it. Causing such a fuss over whether or
not they can host it is rather like crying because the bigger, stronger
boys aren’t coming round to your house to play.