I wanted to let you all know about OleOle’s new Fantasy Football game.

Unlike any other fantasy football games where players are on their own, OleOle’s free Fantasy Football game is integrated into OleOle’s social football community so players can interact with each other as they make trades, do player research and check player history.

What’s so unique about OleOle’s Fantasy Football game?

• On the OleOle website, players can catch up on the latest rumors, transfers and stats and use OleOle’s Fantasy Stats Centre.
• Fans can also setup private mini-leagues so they can compete directly against their friends.
• All games are completely free, and available in 7 languages including English.
• OleOle’s Fantasy Football has an exclusive European Super League found only on OleOle and six separate free-to-play league games.

Fantasy team managers have the chance win over €20,000 (£15,000) in monthly and seasonal prizes including the top prize - tickets and travel to the 2009 UEFA Champions League final match in Rome.

For more information folks visit : OleOle Blogs Press Room

Or visit: oleole.com - an EFP Associated site featured in our blogroll.

Also, leave a comment below to let us all know what you think of it if you decide to sign up?

Regards,

The Editor

With all the talk of the Lisbon treaty (Ireland voted no by the way!), what a real pleasure it is to be distracted by this fabulous Euro championships. Despite many missing England’s presence (not Jess it seems in previous post or me for that fact), the tournament thus far has been a rip roaring success & an absolute joy to watch. It just shows the greatness of this continent & the talent that is throbbing & ejaculating from within its pastures - Europe holds the key to the future - Europe Forever!!!

My article on Euro 2008 will follow shortly; but in the meantime, let me treat you all to what I feel has been the goal of the championships so far (& yes I am aware his brilliant team goal against Italy has received far higher accolades, but I feel this wins in the pure spectacular stakes!). Without further ado: Wesley Sneider, enjoy…

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Hey,

Isn’t the best bit about being an England fan savouring that feeling of disappointment and resentment when we inevitably fail? Enjoy it all over again, and without the pressure of having something to lose: England’s staying home!

Check out the video here:

It was made on behalf of Savanna Dry Cider…could this become our new national footie failure anthem?!

I hope you like it!

Thanks,

Jess Gurr

Remember, if you wish to join in with this discussion, or just want to leave a comment, you need to be signed-in; or else complete our simple registration process to become an EFP member.

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In the Premier League…

Last weekend confirmed Man Utd as firm favourites to retain their PL crown, with Chelsea emerging as their closet challengers. The Gunners have lost their way in recent weeks boasting one of the worst recent form records in the league. Fergie’s men swept aside a Liverpool team - overcome by the size of their task - with relative ease winning 3-0. The game was marred by the sending off of the over-zealous Mascherano, but in truth Fergie had already got this match tied up, with his simple yet effective long ball tactics. This ensured his team bi-passed a Liverpool midfield crammed with talent, leaving a defence devoid of any real pace; vulnerable to the speed of Rooney, Ronaldo & later Nani. This was another example where Fergie’s experience & guile were simply too good for his competitors.

Chelsea showed their usual strength to shove aside a wilting Arsenal side, who are starting to look frail as we approach the end of what has been an enthralling season. They had to come from behind at the Bridge with 2 typically taken Drogba strikes. This victory means they have emerged as Man Utd’s closet rivals for the title. It’s not over just yet - but almost.

Elsewhere, Sunderland & Reading recorded important wins. Everton drew a game they really should’ve won & Birmingham subsequently moved closer to the drop zone. But there was great news for Geordies & Kevin Keegan as he recorded his first win since his well-publicised return to Tyneside.

This weekend sees Chelsea play a Middlesborough team who’ve performed surprising well on their travels (just ask Arsenal & Pompey), Arsenal face a tricky fixture away to bogey team Bolton (a few Big Sam 1-0 nil victories spring to mind), & Manchester United have the chance to get one hand on their trophy, if they defeat Villa at Old Trafford. Fergie will fancy his chances against O’Neil after out-foxing Benitez last Sunday, esp. since Villa’s good mid-seaon form has faded somewhat of late.

At the bottom, Sunderland & Birmingham have crucial home games against West Ham & Man City respectively, and Fulham have a must-win away trip to downsy Derby. Reading will fancy themselves at home to Blackburn but Wigan won’t be relishing the trip way south to Pompey.

But the one everyone is waiting for is the Merseyside derby at Anfield; as the two Liverpool clubs battle it out for that all-important fourth place.

This will be the 177th league meeting between the two bitter rivals from opposite side of Stanley Park, with Liverpool just edging out the Toffees. But every encounter is a tight tempestuous clash, packed full of drama & emotion. This Sunday will be no different. In fact considering its significance, with what’s at stake & it being so close to the end of the season, this could well be even more charged then usual. Only two points separate the two clubs from this great football City & it promises to be a belter!

Remember to catch all the scores across the world as they happen on live scores, & check out all the odds for all the matches on Betbrain. Why not even get all the tips from our very own resident tipster Ian Buckley, who is never far away from the money. Good luck.          

As always watch all the weekends goals below on V-player.
    

  Premier League Top 5

Lower English Leagues…

Stoke City remain leaders of The Championship after they drew at home to Blackpool. They had the chances to win the delayed fixture in front of a vibrant crowd at the Britannia. But with all their other rivals slipping up, they remain in top spot going into this weekend’s vital game against Sheff Wednesday who are fighting for for their Championship survival. No games are easy in this league. Hull City are the dark horses in this division after another emphatic victory last week, moving up into third. This weekend promises to be a cracker.

Remember to catch all the scores across the world as they happen on live scores, & check out all the odds for all the matches on Betbrain. Why not even get all the tips from our very own resident tipster Ian Buckley, who is never far away from the money. Good luck. 

 See all the goals, from all the lower leagues, above on V-player.

                                                                                                  Top 5 in the Championship

And In Europe…

In Italy,the Old Lady reared her ugly head heaping more misery on leaders Inter, who have been going through a torrid time of late. Davide Trezeguet was among the goals for the team of veterans. With the Romans victorious once more, the title has been thrown in the balance. Check all this weekends fixtures above.

Likewise, In Spain the title race is back on once again after Barca won 4-1 & Madrid dramatically lost 3-2 to a rejuvenated Valencia side. Starlet Bojan helped himself to a brace for the Catalans & despite two emphatic Raul finishes, Valencia equalised through Villa from the spot & his team completed the comeback just three minutes from time. With Madrid facing an Sevilla this weekend, La Liga is wide open. Keep watching

By the end of last season it really wasn’t much fun being a City fan even by our own standards, not that I’m saying it has been a bed of roses for the last 3 decades, but the atmosphere amongst the fans was extremely low, somewhat disparate to past seasons of failure. We were even issued with paper clips and a rubber band; in a makeshift smile kit by one fanzine, as it was getting that hard to raise one.

The team had ended the season without scoring a home league goal since New Years Day, some 8 matches and 720 minutes of football, scoring only 10 in total the whole season, and missing 2 penalties in the last 2 home games just rubbed salt in our wounds. The football was negative, the team visibly lacked confidence, while we had to put up with the ranting of a rookie manager on the touchline, which though endearing at first, became embarrassing, when you heard some of the nonsense he was shouting, his actions were more akin to an annoying dad at a kids football game. The players simply had no room to breath and express themselves.

Fans were going into the summer praying that we got took over, looking on enviously at clubs such as Portsmouth, Villa, West Ham. Asking why it hadn’t happened to us yet?

Had we shot ourselves in the foot, with too much debt?

It didn’t surprise many when Pearce was told to pack his bags, most blues liked Pearce ‘the man’, but his style of football and failures in the transfer market were his undoing, he’d simply created a very dull side which lacked pace and creativity.

After a period of uncertainty with the club in limbo (which lead to one of the few top quality players in Distin moving on), things started to happen. Eventually the well documented, and drawn out, takeover happened by way of the ex-Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra (nicknamed Frank Sinatra by fans), who after much speculation surprised us all by appointing Erikkson as the new manager, foreseeing all that would have been way beyond the imagination of even the most optimistic blue.

As a result media attention on the club has intensified 10 fold, with the tabloid hacks salivating at the prospect of Sven failing miserably, to justify their stance on his England regime. I expect the witch-hunt against Sven and the team will be prominent in the opening weeks of the season, especially if we start poorly. I also believe we can now expect a proportion of the red top reading public, who have been brainwashed into despising Sven, openly wanting to see City lose, simply because he is at the helm.

I have to admit, I was somewhat undecided on his appointment, but looking beyond the negativity portrayed to us by the media (his personal life included), the hard facts are that England hired one of the most successful European club bosses of the modern era, who’s reputation on the continent is still intact, mainly due to their much more realistic version that England players aren’t as great as English public/media think.

Sven himself has won more major trophies than the club itself! Simply put, City have hired the most high profile and successful manager in the clubs history. Something we wouldn’t have been able to do without the promise of the new chairman’s money to invest in the team. Despite what we are led to believe, Sven is officially the 2nd most successful England manager of all time behind Sir Alf Ramsay, losing only five competitive games, two of which were on penalties.

Since he has took over Sven has been a busy man in the transfer market, quickly realising that the squad lacked quality and had become wafer thin. He has used his pulling power (which is just as good in football as it is with the ladies), to acquire some excellent talent from abroad, who are well known to European and World football fans, but to the average British football fan who only watches the premiership then they are nobodies.

Attracting players of the calibre of Elano and Petrov as well as sort after young players in Corluka, Bianchi and Bonijov, would not have been possible without a high profile manager. It should be noted, all the aforementioned, cited Eriksson being the biggest factor as to why they joined.

I have already read criticism from so called experts, who incidentally, are out of a job in football, criticising Sven for buying abroad and ignoring England players. Totally ignoring the fact that the English market is vastly inflated, so much so that Liverpool want £20million for Crouch, Spurs paid £16m for Darren Bent, West Brom want £9m for Curtis Davis and Newcastle want £8m for an injury prone trouble maker in Kieron Dyer…and on top of that, English players seem to be able to command ridiculous wages. Instead we have looked to get more value for our money, and have bought a mixture of young and experienced internationals, none of whom are over 30, which had been a major failing of the past two regimes, and who don’t cost an arm and a leg in wages.

Expectations of the team have now been raised, and there is a bounce in the steps of the fans again, though most are realistic, understanding that this season is very much a settling in period for team and manager. I expect us to struggle for the first half of the season as the new players acclimatise to the premiership and get to know each other. A top half finish while playing decent football will leave many a blue content this season.

It’s certainly going to be an interesting season at Eastland’s, and the blue half of Manchester can’t wait.       

                                                                                                                                        (9/10)