Current relegation betting has Reading priced at 1/4, QPR at 4/7, Villa at 10/11, Saints at 13/8, Wigan at 15/8, Newcastle at 13/2. Reading and QPR (they're bottom, they've got 14 points, it's the middle of Jan) are gone, so it leaves one from us, Villa and Wigan with Newcastle as the long shot. Sounds about right.
They also have some kind home fixtures - in particular, I wouldn't be surprised if the bookies have taken specific note that it's Wigan vs Saints, and Wigan vs Villa, rather than the other way around. Their remaining home fixtures are: Sunderland Saints Liverpool Newcastle Norwich Swansea Spurs Villa
Good point they have probably also looked at our next four or five games. Will be nice to prove them wrong!
Bookies must be loving the harry Houdini b*llocks, if it wasn't for the media, everyone would agree QPR are down. They still need to go on Champions League form, so for every defeat, they will need to win the next 3, lose to us on Saturday and all the work against Spurs and Chelsea is worth nothing.
Mustn't forget that bookies odds are heavily weighted by the money bet on it...doesn't reflect reality nor do I think bookies go in for heavy analysis of who the relegation candidates have to play. If people piled money on to Saints staying up, the odds would shorten and yet our chance of staying up wouldn't really have changed.
Betting exchanges are now just about the single most accurate predictor of outcomes, and not only in sport. Betfair prices outperformed most pollsters and pundits for every state during the US election. Only Nate Silver made more accurate predictions than the betting markets - and he includes exchange prices in his weighted data.
It's staggering what has been going on at QPR this week - effectively they are letting Harry mortgage their future on the premise that they will not get relegated. I don't know anything about either of the two signings other than the fact that they are supposed to be high quality players. Seeing that many other members of the squad seem to be of circa £60k /wk (and allegedly without any relegation clauses) and I can't see the new recruits earning anything less. Assuming they go down, it will destroy their club financially. QPR have now only conceded one goal in their last four matches. Of the reports I have read, everyone is saying that Redknapp has totall transformed the team and although I understand they need 26 points from their remaining 16 league games to get to the magical 40, quite a few matches are against relegation rivals. With the added depth to the squad, I think they are more likely to survive under Redknapp than any other team in the bottom six but I would also add that the money being spent on assembling a squad that the 15,000 attendance cannot support is surely steering this club to a Portsmouth-like disaster as a future stage. This is a huge gamble by Tony Fernandes yet I am convinced the consequences will ultimately prove to be catastrophic.
We have moved to 5th favourite for relegation. Never felt so confident...we are so consistent and look as if we can get something from most teams. Too many draws, but think it must be great for team morale not to lose...better than a good win followed by 2-3 losses.
Yep, huge psychological boost to stay unbeaten. Stay hard to beat, and the wins will come. 5 wins and 3 draws from our remaining 15 games will seal it.
We should save the trixy abuse till after Saturday. They are either going to stop Qpr in their tracks (preferable) or they shall find themselves skiding towards a relegation battle that they seem ill prepared for.
Hardly abuse HR just returning a bit of banter. Fair point though let's see where we rae after the next two or three games!
It was tongue in cheek young sir, I'd never stand in the way of real internet abuse let alone fake when theres a hammers fan standing in the way!
