Carlton Cole and Lee Bowyer celebrate a placid victory obver Macclesfield this week. The desease at the heart of English soccer probably has its most vivid symptoms at West Ham. The Hammers for those you who are not as yet old enough to recall fed the English World Cup winning team of 1966 with Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters. West Ham used to be known as the academy of football. This was how the game was supposed to be played. They didn’t win much, true but the philosophy was entertainment.

Take a look at this, almost English team, team:

David James, Glen Johnston, Rio Ferdinand, Anton Ferdinand, Nigel Rio Coker, Frank Lampard, Xavier Mascherano, Joe Cole, Carlos Tevez, Jermaine Defoe and Frederic Kanoute. Subs: Benayoun and Michael Carrick…and quite a few others

In fact Fabio Capello could take a look at this team and swap the Argentianians for Wayne Rooney and Owen Hargreaves and you sort of think they could play like a good team at international level

All sold by West Ham. You might say that is a team capable of breaking into the top four instead of scrabbling around mid table. And they they even have an English manager to boot. And you could say ex managerHarry Redknapp has probably got the edge on Alan Curbishley too and might have masterminded just such a bid .

All were sold for less than perhaps they were fully worth in an open admission that this club is just a feeder facility for richer men. The poor men of the East End. Poor in terms of ambition, for sure.

Unlike Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, they have not really swapped like for like. Wenger’s belief in youth relies on a certain amount of churn. It is part of his philsophy. And he has tended to sell on players past their prime, or for outrageous sums of money, or both. West Ham have done neither. Joe Cole was £6million. Lampard looked expensive at £12million but with hindsight he was a snip. And so for the rest too as Manchester United sealed the deal on Carlos Tevez at £32million.

Of all the clubs in the Premiership, this is the one that deserves a new board of directors. For English football’s sake and for Fabio Capello’s sake.

Bet West Ham? There’s £10 for nothing, so you are not risking too much!

Bet Manchester United

The goalless draw played out by way of a friendly by the teams of those wily old soccer assassins Alex Ferguson and Claudio Ranieri last night may give some pointers to events about to unfold. United have a problem scoring goals without Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. These two players above all represent Manchester United’s class, the more so on the pitch than off it where they seem to want to rival each other as spoilt brats of the Premier League. On Sunday, United go to Wembley to play the showpiece Community Shield against Portsmouth who have their own new strike force in Jermaine Defoe and Peter Crouch. They also meet Portsmouth as their second game of the season. Their first is Newcastle in what looks like a leisurely start to the campaign to retain the Premier League and another showpiece game in the European Super Cup against Uefa winners Zenit St Petersburg, probably now without a striking Arshavin. In September they have just three fixtures - Liverpool, Chelsea and Bolton. Ferguson will have needed to have greased the engine by then.

Liverpool are noteworthy slow out of the blocks. They travel to Sunderland for the first day of the season, entertain Middlesbrough who punch above their weight against the better teams, get distracted by the European Cup against Standard Liege and then visit Aston Villa who were scoring for fun at the end of last season. Rafa Benitez will need to find a rythmn quickly. The bad news is that in September they also face Everton.

Arsenal are looking the part again with just the question mark about who will actually tap the ball into the net. They are young, fast and play attractive football on the harder surfaces in the sunshine of early seasons. West Bromwich Albion, Fulham and Newcastle are first up and don’t look likely to be given any change. They also have what should be an easy September before meeting Tottenham and Everton in October. The tough stuff starts in November with both Chelsea and Manchester United.

Luis Felipe Scolari seems to have the charisma to further bond and fuse the Chelsea fighting spirit with impressive wins on their travels. 5-0 against an unfit AC Milan is still 5-0. But they have some testing games against teams that would hope to break into the top four starting with Portsmouth, then Spurs, then Manchester City, then  United, then Villa. These are games that are going to matter and if the Blues can get the points in the bag, they are probably worth more than ther equivalent games for their rivals. It will also be a test of their mettle. If they are top of the league by the end of September, everyone else will fear the worst.

Crystal ball time. The first Saturday of the football season is the hardest weekend to call. Last season was last season, everyone is pumped up, some fitter than others, the sun is shining and it is all very unfootballing, unseasonal and so are the odds. There are historically two things to watch out for if we are going make money betting on football matches this season. This weekend because there is no form at all to go on, it is probably the least predictable of any weekend to come. For the last couple of years you could have kept yourself in beer and sandals by doing a double on Chelsea and Manchester United each week A double at £10 would return £17.20, make it a triple with Liverpool would return £29.74 and pop in Arsenal for a quad and your money might harvest £36.28. That may be a bold bet for a first Staturday.

 The other unknown is what kind of season is it going to be in terms of goals scored. Towards the end of last season Aston Villa were popping goals in for fun. Is that the way to go? Portsmouth have invested in a very sharp looking new attack with Jermaine Defoe and Peter Crouch and reportedly Shaun Wright Phillips on his way and he could make a differernce. United reputedly have a £20million bid in for Spurs Dimitri Berbatov possibly, surely, only if Cristiano Ronaldo is off to the Madristas. Otherwise a forward line of Berbatov, Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez could be falling over each other like drunken ballerinas to actually put the ball in the net? Too much artistry, perhaps or maybe the master Scottish plan is to withdraw Rooney into mdifield, though probably not as far as full back. Nor has Felipe Scolari as yet shown his hand although for sure he must conclude that the only area of genuine improvement he might bring to Stamford Bridge would be on the wings…that is if he has not got so many fullbacks flying up and down the touchline he does not need anymore wingers?

It is interesting that Chelsea play Portsmouth on the first day of the season. A Pompey victory is beautiful odds of 8/1 and maybe it could be that Chelsea are well up themselves coping with some fancy Brazilian system while Harry Redknapp’s boys do the basics and steal it. The end of Jose Mourinho’s unbeaten home run might be just the kind of cathartic, purging experience to launch a new era and genuine attack minded football on all fronts. Look what happened to them at Barnsley in the FA Cup last winter. Hardly looked back.

Another curious tie is the mystery of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal hosting an optimistic West Bromwhich Albion. Is there maybe a draw in this for the Baggies? 9/2 are tempting numbers. 11/1 for a win sounds a little far fetched but any more departures from north London and it could all go boing boing boing.

Aston Villa host Manchester City which says goals if Mark Hughes new striker Jo is as good as reports and City sprung up the league apace in the sunshine last year.

Bolton could destroy Stoke, Hull might surprise Fulham but there is nothing in the astrology that says the Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle can get anything at Manchester United.

Tottenham have a nasty game at Middlesbrough and don’t appear to currently have a forward line or certainly in terms of the rumour mill they have all been sold. Juande Ramos is too shrewd for that to happen, so probably too earkly to bet. Liverpool won’t like a trip to Roy Keane’s Sunderland either and in a reverse sense the West Ham Academy of Footballing Arts won’t get any bursaries out of Steve Bruce’s Wigan who finished very strong last term.  

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There will be no gang of four this year, despite the pundits saying the title is a done deal. All the omens and labrador bones point in other directions. If United lose Ronaldo that is 42 goals off their goal difference which would put them mid table. Even if they get someone in to replace the Portugese, they are unlikely to score so prolifically and if Ronaldo stays nor will he.

Chelsea may take a year off under Felipe Scolari and just focus on the Champions League - but it is a good team and a couple of exceptional wingers could get them off to a flyer but probably Scolari will take his time.  Only Arsene Wenger really knows what his team can do and possibly his visit to the Spain v Italy match last night was a scouting trip to look at David Villa. A straight swap for the African Player of the Year Adebayor going to Milan must be tempting. Meanwhile one wonders how many times Rafa Benitez can mix up his jigsaw puzzle before he gets it right. Or maybe the answer to the conundrum abhout England’s finest player Steven Gerrard is that no one can play with him? Villa would be an obvious Anfield target too. Surely at least one of these teams and maybe more will start dropping points to the teams underneath them.

But behind the familiar miscreants are shaping new forces. Juande Ramos’s Tottenham look interesting as does new signing Mondric who must make an impact. Harry Redknapp is not out of the mix either. Goals win titles and he picked up Jermaine Defoe last year and paired possibly with Peter Crouch and one other they will notch up the points. Aston Villa under Martin O’Neill are tight and organised and only one or two players short of calibre, even if they lose Gareth Barry to Liverpool. Mark Hughes has an interesting proposition at Manchester City, especially if he gets both Jo and Ronaldinho up front- and can get both to play. Everton too are capable and only a couple of signings short of worrying the bigger teams. Anyone of those five might challenge. All seem to have the money and maybe this year the top four will take more points off each other, or even the top eight will scrap it out.

There might also be a case that West Brom make a flying start to the season, again nibbling points off the upper echelons. West Ham will have a better team than last year if their injured team stays fit.  The magician Roy Keane could also start to make his mark if he can pick up a couple of good players. Newcastle look wobbly, as do Middlesbrough but with Hull and Stoke looking like return-to-senders, that leaves just one relegation slot for the teams that escaped last year to avoid.

None of which points to another season of big four domination.

Check the odds out here for the first Saturday, August 16