Did the unthinkable and backed Rangers to win tonight at 7/5. I used some unusual investigative methods to determine the relative strengths of Malmo vs any ordinary SPL team... I fired up Football Manager 2011 (updated database) and checked the Malmo squad plus wages bill... It seems Malmo have a wage bill of about 28k a week, as opposed to the wage bill of Hearts at 65k a week and Rangers at 200k+ a week. Their players are all rated very weakly as well. If Rangers were playing Hearts (who have twice Malmo's wage bill) away they would be 4/6 to win, yet they are 7/5 in Sweden. I know these figures are based on best guesses from media reports and the confirmed wages that some decent players are on vs weaker colleagues - but still Rangers should be pumping a team that has 1/10th of the estimated wage bill, currently lies 9th in the Swedish league and lost 3-0 at home to Helsinborgs a couple of weeks ago. After the Football Manager comparison fails miserably tonight, I'll use different methods next time
Anyway, you Tims should be backing us to do well in Europe along with Hearts. We need all the Scottish (and Irish) teams to do well for all our benefit.
I do actually use FM11 as a little guide to see what teams have what players etc on my betting but I play the handheld version so it's a limited database. TBF you would expect Rangers to beat them over 2 legs, if they get an early goal I expect them to see Malmo off with ease.
These things are usually pretty accurate. Was it not Everton that used FM as a scouting tool? They used it to identify players and scouted them in real life based on their FM attributes. Might be an urban myth though. Or I might be getting told utter ****e.
The thing with FM is you would probably be ridiculed for using it for anything serious, since it is a game - but they've done some of the most basic maths in the game for you, for instance they know for a fact that the average price of a ticket in Sweden is 12 quid a game, the stadium holds 22,000 and is usually about 3/4 full - so they can easily work out how much revenue the club generates on match days and how much it's wage bill should be. Hopefully not a bad way of judging relative strengths of club's across leagues. Although Rangers were absolutely gash last week.
If I flick a coin 10 times I can get 10 heads in a row, doesn't mean it's more likely to be 10 heads in a row straight after the last 10. Rangers were gash but **** happens, if they have built a better football team than you with less than 1/10th of the resources then you truly are ****ed.
It isn't just down to who has the better players though. It's about fitness, coaching, tactics and match sharpness. How many times have Celtic and Rangers suffered exits from Europe early doors? At this stage of the season it's all a bit of a lottery and only a fool would gamble on a winner.
It'll be 4-0 Malmo now. Mick bankrupted Uncle Tommy with his tips for the nags. Poor auld **** couldn't afford a half cutter of Grouse and his fig rolls. A trip to Dignitas and a last glimpse of a cuckoo clock before he went to the big war in the sky. R.I.P Uncle Tommy.
The people who make the game are Everton fans I know that, thats why so man of the Liverpool team are injury prone
It might not win, indeed the odds I took suggest there is only a 42% chance of Rangers winning tonight - but better footballers win matches over time, everyone suggested that Chelsea could not buy the league 10 years ago, everyone was suggesting that City won't be able to do the same thing three years ago (it's a matter of time in my opinion) - but if you have better players you are more likely to win matches.
Surely Rangers should be 25/1 tonight , they have only won one of their last 25 European games , come on the Malmo
Rangers have never won the away leg after losing the home leg. However they have no fans tonight, so that should help them.
