Betnod free cash football comp 2016/17 wc 12/05/17 week 40

Man City v Leicester DRAW @ 5.75
Bournemouth v Burnley DRAW @ 3.50
Middlesbrough @ 3.60
Crystal Palace v Hull DRAW @ 3.60
West Ham v Liverpool DRAW @ 3.80

Man city leicester x 5.75
stoke 5.25
west ham 5
man utd 4.75
reading 5.75

Anyone smell desperation?

West Ham @ 5
Koln @ 3.8
Gladbach @ 4
Bremen @ 2.90
Frankfurt @ 5

Middlesbrough 1 @ 3.60
West Ham X @ 3.80
Darmstadt 1 @ 3.50
Freiburg 1 @ 2.37
Werder Bremen1@ 2.90

FGR @ 3.20
Reading @ 5.75
Huddersfield v Sheff Wed [d] 3.20
Blackpool v Luton [d] 3.25
Carlisle v Exeter [d] 3.25

Hesitating slightly to reveal my thoughts on Chelsea's success due to an impending vitriolic response but here goes:

Manager: Antonio Conte Italian Branislav Ivanovic Serbian

Goalie: Thibaut Courtois Belgian Nathaniel Chalobah English

Cesar Azpilicueta Spanish N'Golo Kante French

David Luiz Brazilian Ruben Loftus-Cheek English

Gary Cahill English Nemenja Matic Serbian

Victor Moses Nigerian Cesc Fabregas Spanish

Marcos Alonso Spanish Willian Brazilian

John Terry English Pedro Spanish

Kurt Zuma French Eden Hazard Belgian

Michy Batshuayi Belgian Diego Costa Brazilian

Azmir Begovic Bosnian Ola Aina English

Nathan Ake Dutch

Well done guys: five English players out of twenty-two. It's all too symptomatic of the Winner Takes All philosophy which has pervaded Anglo-Saxon capitalism for decades and which has exalted a small number to unimagined riches, condemning those at the bottom to food banks whilst the overwhelming majority are left in limbo, forever unable to emulate those at the top, though trying valiantly through the inexorable accumulation of debt. Most of these Premier League players have no rapport whatsoever with Barking and Dagenham kids, where according to the latest figures childhood obesity is now at its worst.

I'm sorry to be the purveyor of truth in such stark terms but is it any wonder the English face a crisis of confidence in themselves, leading in many cases to the desertion of their capital city which Chelsea in days gone by so staunchly purported to represent?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21511904

If English players were any good, they'd be in the top teams. The lack of English players in the top teams isn't the cause of the shite level of English international football, it's just a reflection of that fact that English players are not generally as good as many foreign players. If, as you say, around quarter of the squad that's won the league this season are English, I'd class that as about right.

But in a post-Brexit world how many work permits do we issue to these people? In my day we had a plethora of talent which is why we won the World Cup. How many teenagers of today can even pronounce half of Chelsea players' surnames let alone be inspired by them?

It's not just the football to be fair. We have poached doctors from Third World countries who paid a fortune training them, we have thousands of foreigners waiting at table, working as baristas, working in hotels and restaurants. Can we not invest in our own young people to bring them up to the skills of overseas workers or are we condemned to having poverty blackspots in Liverpool and West Wales which just don't exist in Germany and Scandinavia?