Everton V Newcastle United (30/09/13)

"If we want to be serious about being in the top ten or look to bigger things, or be a big team in the Premier League, we have to start to take the chances we have." ...Fabricio Coloccini

As you'd expect given our disappointing result against Hull on Saturday, my Newcastle tips were a total washout last week.  My general football tips performed quite well, however, as I correctly predicted QPR to beat Yeovil 1-0 and Swansea to beat Crystal Palace.

Last season the trend was for my general football tips to regularly outperform my Newcastle tips, and things have started off once again in that vein of form.  I don't know whether that means it's therefore wiser to keep your emotions out of your betting choices, or maybe it just means Newcastle are an unpredictable side who often lose the games we should be winning.

I've come to the conclusion that when Newcastle play, a lot depends on which side turns up on the day, and by that I'm not necessarily referring to who Pardew picks in his starting eleven.  We just don't seem to have any consistency, and our performance can vary quite considerably even throughout the ninety minutes.

Despite that unpredictability, however, I'm still going to try to pick out some winning Toon bets.  I'm skipping our League Cup tie against Leeds and instead making a few predictions for our match against Everton on Monday...

Aston Villa V Newcastle United (14/09/13)

A round-up of which bookies are offering the best prices for Villa V The Toon.

Here are details of where you can find the best odds for Saturday's game...

Match Betting:

Aston Villa - 2.15 (Bet Victor, Coral)
Draw - 3.4 (Bet Victor, Coral, BetFred, Stan James)
Newcastle - 3.8 (32Red)


The best odds in the First Goalscorer market are as follows...

Newcastle United V West Ham United (24/08/13)

A round-up of which bookies are offering the best prices for The Toon V West Ham match.

After the lack of summer signings and the performance away to Man City, it's hard to be overly confident about the forthcoming season.

Of course it's worth keeping things in perspective and remembering that we were playing one of the best three sides in the country away from home, but even allowing for this you have to ask which match Alan Pardew was watching when he remarked in his post match comments that "we gave a decent account of ourselves in the first half".

We're priced as favourites against West Ham, but it's hard to back us with any great deal of confidence, so once again I'm going to avoid making any predictions on the match.

Instead here's a round-up of which bookies are offering the best odds on various betting markets for The Toon V West Ham match...

Match Betting:

Newcastle - 2.3 (William Hill)
Draw - 3.4 (Coral, Bet Victor, SkyBet, Bet365, Totesport, BetFred, Sporting Bet, Paddy Power)
West Ham - 3.5 (Bet Victor)

Man City V Newcastle United (19/08/13)

A round-up of which bookies are offering the best prices.

We couldn't have been given a tougher opening fixture, and therefore even the biggest optimist would find it hard to confidently tip Newcastle away to Man City.

So instead here's a round-up of which bookies are offering the best odds on various betting markets for The Toon's opening fixture...

Match Betting:

Man City - 1.33 (Coral, Bet Victor, Paddy Power)
Draw - 5.5 (SkyBet, William Hill, Ladbrokes, Bet 365)
Newcastle United - 11.0 (SkyBet)

Reasons To Be Cheerful...

Miscellaneous Toon Bets For 2013/14

I think it's fair to say that so far this summer hasn't gone the way most of us would have liked, with the appointment of Joe Kinnear and the lack of signings being the two most obvious disappointments.

However, the optimist in me always wants to find reasons to be cheerful and so I've been looking at the odds involving the Toon for the coming season in various betting markets to see if we can take encouragement from the bookies' level of confidence in us.

I have to admit there aren't overwhelming reasons to be confident, but here are a few odds to take slight encouragement from...

1) Top North East Club

Despite Sunderland making several signings, every bookie offering odds on the 'Top North East Club' have us as favourites to finish above Sunderland.  That's SkyBet, William Hill, Paddy Power, Totesport, YouWin, BoyleSports, BetFred and Ladbrokes who all think we'll finish above Sunderland.

If you fancy a bet on Newcastle to be the Top North East Club then the best odds are currently offered by SkyBet who have us priced at 1.8.*

* Please note, SkyBet also include Hull in their 'Top North East Club' market.

Premier League Match Bets Featuring The Toon

Newcastle United Versus...

SkyBet are currently offering a variety of Premier League match bets on which of two teams will finish higher in the Premier League next season and The Toon feature in four match bets.

Specifically, SkyBet offer prices for us against Everton, West Brom, the mackems and Southampton.  According to SkyBet, we're favourites against the mackems, West Brom and Southampton and only Everton are regarded as more likely to finish above us in the Premier League next season.

Here are the odds for each of the match bets:

Newcastle V the mackems
Newcastle - 1.4
the mackems - 3.0

Newcastle V Everton:
Newcastle - 2.63
Everton - 1.5

The Latest Transfer Odds

Transfer Rumours: Who Will Be The Ins and Outs At St. James Park?

We're only a couple of weeks into the close season and already the transfer rumour mill is into full swing with new potential transfers being reported every day.  A lot of the time the stories make no sense at all and you get the impression sometimes that the papers have just plucked a player out of one hat and then plucked a team out of the next hat when coming up with their stories.

I think sometimes a better guide to potential transfers are the odds being offered by the bookies, as obviously bookies have a lot more to lose than newspapers if they get it wrong.

The latest rumour in yesterday's papers was that Monaco are interested in Hatem Ben Arfa and according to SkyBet the current odds on a move for Ben Arfa are as follows:

2012/13 Season Round-Up

"No football for three months!"

It's been a season to forget and one with very few positives, but despite the poor standard of football on offer this season, I still found myself yesterday morning thinking, "Ar, no!  No football for three months!"

Obviously the eternal optimist in me wants to hope that next season will be better, but for that to happen changes clearly need to be made.  I've gradually lost patience with Alan Pardew and his constant excuse making as the season has gone on, but I'm not necessarily as desperate to see him go as some fans are.  I just want him to start accepting responsibility when things go wrong.

Managers are susceptible to good and bad form, just like players, but if things are to improve then Pardew needs to recognise his mistakes.  He needs to be more ambitious.  He needs to realise that avoiding relegation isn't a success.  He needs to realise that all clubs suffer from injuries so the time to complain about a lack of depth in the squad is pre-season when you can do something about it, rather than halfway through the season when the damage is already done.