English Premier Odds

2010 World Cup betting players will be seeing a few Liverpool players in South Africa, but how many of them will report back to Anfield at the beginning of the season, when the Reds will open up their campaign against Arsenal?

Word is that Javier Mascherano’s agent is speaking to Inter Milan, and this would be a massive loss for the Reds as Mascherano, the combative central midfielder who is also the Argentina captain, sits back in front of the back four, which allows captain Steven Gerrard to support Fernando Torres.  The Reds have already lost manager Rafa Benitez to Inter, so it’s no surprise that he would try to ransack his former club for players.

That isn’t the only worry for Liverpool fans.  New Real Madrid manager (and former Chelsea and Inter manager) Jose Mourinho makes no bones about the fact that he loves Gerrard as a player, and when he was announced at the Bernabeu, one of the first players he said he would like to bring to Madrid was Gerrard, who almost signed with Mourinho at Chelsea.  There’s also the matter of Torres, and there’s no shortage of teams who would line up to sign the gifted striker who is just coming into the prime of his career.  There are money problems at Anfield, the owners are looking to sell the club, and they may not be able to afford Torres, especially to keep Gerrard, but will their captain stay if there are no other players to help him?  It’s going to be interesting year for Liverpool’s betting odds.

World Cup betting players should still be paying attention to managerial changes happening, and there have been a couple already.  First, Jose Mourinho left Inter Milan after winning the Champions League for Real Madrid, and now Rafael Benitez is on the market.

Benitez spent six years at Anfield, and the highlight was the 2005 Champions League win over AC Milan, when Liverpool stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to stun the Italians.  Liverpool won the FA Cup and the Community Shield in 2006, but he didn’t win the one thing that Liverpool fans want: the league.  Liverpool hasn’t won the Premiership since 1990, and since then, it’s been a combination of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea that has ruled the league.  Benitez often made questionable selection choices, he never seemed to know what sort of style he wanted Liverpool to play, and he was embroiled in a number of confrontations with managers in the Premiership, from Mourinho when he was at Chelsea, to United’s Sir Alex Ferguson and Blackburn’s Sam Allardyce.  To be fair, Liverpool was decimated with injuries in this past season, but after six years (and some terrible signings in the transfer market; Dirk Kuyt is his best buy, if that says anything), his time is up.

So where will Benitez end up?  Some say he’ll replace Mourinho at Inter, or he could be looking for a move back to Spain, where he is from and he managed from 1986 to 2004 with a number of teams.  If we had to lay a sports bet, we’ll say Benitez will be in Italy next season.