It's Good To Lie

For reasons that will not interest you, I have my brother-in-law coming to stay with us for a while, and I absolutely know what's going to happen when he arrives. Yes folks, I'm here to tell you that, with complete confidence, I can predict the future.

So what does my crystal ball say? Well it tells me this:

My brother-in-law is a nice enough guy - quiet but likeable. I also happen to know that he has absolutely no interest in football whatsoever. I'm also pretty sure that he's never placed a bet in his life. And that's all perfectly fine of course. There's nothing wrong with either of those things. The problem, however, is that his lack of knowledge and interest in football and betting will in no way prevent him from bombarding me with dumb questions when he sees me sitting in front of a match, clicking away on my laptop.

"What are you doing?"
"Betting."
"Really? How much do you lose?"
"I generally make money.
"Really? How does it work?"
"Well, it's complicated." (it's not really)
"What's that blue column? And what's that pink column?"
"One is backing, the other is laying."
"So what is laying?"
"It's the opposite of backing." (unhelpful)
"Hmm, perhaps you could teach me or give me a few tips?"
"No. It's too difficult (lie) and I wouldn't want to drag you into it." (another lie)

So on an so forth. His rat-a-tat questioning will continue, only to be met with as monosyllabic, disingenuous answers as it's possible to give. But why should I be so laconic and unhelpful, I hear you ask? Well, I'm sure you've had many similar conversations with your friends or members of your family who have visited. And if you're like me, then you'll find yourself in the position of having to defend your activities. Either that or you may do what I tend to do on these occasions, and simply lie.

"I don't do it much."
"It's just a bit of fun."
"I don't make any money doing it."

Lie, lie and lie.

The truth is that they're not interested in how much I make. The only answer they want to hear is that I'm losing money. They have absolutely no desire to hear that I'm succeeding. Oh no, that is the horror of all horrors - and of course they won't believe it anyway.

So my defence mechanism is to try my best to curtail the conversation as quickly as possible. I don't want to be rude, but I also don't want to be given the third degree over my "dirty little secret" as they would probably describe it.

And when they scuttle back to their homes, they doubtless re-tell their tale to their friends. "Oh, by the way, did you know that he's addicted to gambling? Yes, that's right. I don't know how his wife copes with it all."

Actually she copes very well, thanks very much.

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Looks like my hope of Harry Rednapp's court case tarnishing his chances of becoming the next England manager (as detailed HERE) has been well and truly dashed. For some reason I didn't really expect him to be found innocent by the jury, but the timing of this favourable decision has been, erm, shall we say fortunate. On the very day he walks out of court with his name totally cleared, Capello resigns on a point of principal, leaving the way open for Rednapp to immediately take up the reigns.

As a Spurs fan this is all a bit of a bummer, but if he does take the job it will be interesting to see how he gets on. I hope he does a good job and we go a bit further in the European Championships this summer.

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Think I agree with Andrew Atherley's opinion (over at betting.betfair.com HERE) on the forthcoming Premier League match between Sunderland and Arsenal, in which he suggests Sunderland are over-priced. The recent form table has Sunderland riding high, and they are unbeaten at home in their last six at the Stadium of Light. My own stats also show the given odds for a Sunderland win are extremely generous.

Not mentioned in the article but also highly relevant is that Arsenal have a vital Champion's League match away to AC Milan next Wednesday, so there's a good chance of them resting players on Saturday in preparation for that.

Good opportunity for a pre-match trade?