miracle

Indeed. Also as something of a journeyman he's going to have a lot of contacts in the game who might reveal what's been going on at their clubs over a pint; their training drills that week, new formations being practised ahead of a big match, the manager's plan to park the bus and take it to penalties in the cup final... He's really made a rod for his own back but as usual it's everyone's fault but Joey Barton's.

Just noticed one of the bets he published was lay Samaras/1st goalscorer when they were both at Man City together. Only a fiver but you could see how the FA could see the potential for a player to rig the result by not passing to Samaras until a goal went in. Silly boy.

Then there's trying to get the last touch on a goalbound strike, perhaps when you're in an offside position. Insisting on taking direct free kicks and penalties, getting booked for diving trying to win a penalty then being on eggshells for the rest of the match, getting caught out of position because you're so far upfield chasing a goal... There's all sorts of ways that bet could affect a match.

He bet on himself at first goalscorer in one of those bets. Betting on yourself to be the first goal scorer might appear to be trivial but it could result in a player taking ridiculous shots at goal instead of passing to a team-mate who is in a better position or even 'accidently' getting his body in the way of a teammates goal bound shot.

Chelsea now being linked, Marseille are the centre of the French investigation. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-4446818/Newcastle-United-West-Ham-face-HMRC-transfer-proble.html

It did seem harsh to me at first but it's over 1000 offences over a ten year period. He knew the rules and broke them repeatedly.

Barton statement http://www.joeybarton.com/betting-statement/

I wonder what the connection is there?

Crikey, I thought that was a joke. Then in another article on the same game in the same paper he brands the Hibs performance pathetic

He was so completely unremarkable I have no remark to make.

Nail on the head mate. This squad don't know how lucky they are to be at Rangers, we would give our right arm to swap places with them, and put up a hell of a lot more fight.

My favourite player last season when he was playing with real confidence. Hasn't hit the heights this year, whether that's down to him, coaching, or the lack of a decent centre half pairing or a covering midfielder or a combination of all of these i would give him another season.

I've always found that sitting at an angle to the pitch like that plays havoc with perspective making it hard to judge the flight of the ball, who's nearest to it etc.

Should have had him when he was on a free in the close season.

A fair few Scotland internationals have come through Auchenhowie since it was built; McGregor, Hutton, Adam, Ferguson, Burke, McCormack.. Scottish players just aren't that good anymore and the idea we can suddenly become the Ajax of the North because we have a training ground is fanciful to say the least.

Badwillie.

Oh I'd rather have Hemdani..

As an aside it does seem a little strange that the genetics to be a top footballer in today's athletic game aren't shared so much between family members, take Pogba and Schneider's brothers who were released by Partick and Dundee Hibs respectively.

Sandy & Nicky Clark

Your Lampards and Gerrards of this world.

I mostly arb on my gubbed accounts and bookies who are stingy with their offers. One that you can do for football is Over X goals before a game and when a goal goes in watch the lay odds plummet, assuming there's a goal of course. I also only do them at low odds to try to seem as muggish as possible.

There's also bankofbets.com which has a free forum and free oddsmatcher; the problem being the odds only update every 15 minutes whereas OddsMonkey (paid) is up to the minute, handy if you bet on horses.

I use it. It's pretty good. The odds matcher is great for arbing. The horse racing matcher and acca matcher never seem to generate anything more than a couple of quid profit when I look at them but there's some good resources on the site and a decent private forum with the latest offers, which tend to be EV casino offers these days. It's pretty cheap and you can cancel your subscription through Paypal so you could try it for a month, download all the guides and chuck it if you don't fancy it.

JJ Confirmed

Vegan Cafe for the handwringers.