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It barely seems like yesterday that Diego Milito fired Inter Milan to their first European Cup win since 1965. But here we are on the cusp of the group stages of the Champions League once again. So how do I rate the chances of the English clubs? I really think that Tottenham have a very tough task but it is one that they can pull through. Inter Milan are the reigning champions and you do not get much tougher than that.

But questions will be asked if they can match the performance levels under new coach Rafa Benitez that they attained under Jose Mourinho. Werder Bremen will also provide another stiff test as will Dutch champions FC Twente. My gut reaction is that Inter will win the group with Tottenham coming second.

Even though Valencia will be a weakened team this year then I do not see them not qualifying from Group C along with Manchester United. I just do not see Rangers and Bursaspor coming ahead of these two teams over six games even though Rangers versus United will provide massive interest.

I also expect Arsenal to top group H even though they have a couple of tricky ties. Chelsea also have a couple of potential banana skins in Spartak Moscow and Marseille. Chelsea have also picked up some key injuries as well during the early part of the season but I would be very surprised not to see them qualify. So for me then Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea will all make the knock-out stages and even though I expect Tottenham to do so, I cannot say that with any great degree of confidence.

There were numerous sporting events that I always watched in my youth that I always looked forward to immensely. There was the Grand National, FA Cup Final, Open Golf Championship, US Masters, Ashes Cricket and then there was the Tour de France which started being screened on Channel 4. I knew nothing about cycling but I was enthralled by the tactics and the mountain climbs and the sheer almost super human effort.

The riders that I recall watching during those early years were people like Miguel Indurain, Sean Kelly, Robert Millar, Greg Lemond and Laurent Fignon. So to hear that Laurent Fignon, the two time winner of the Tour de France had died at the relatively young age of only 50 then I was shocked and saddened. It also is a first class example of just how fragile life is. When you look at professional cycling then you are probably looking at some of the fittest people in sport.

But supreme fitness does not carry any weight when it comes to diseases like Cancer which was what struck Fignon down after his long bout of chemotherapy. I would like to send my condolences to his family and even though I never knew Laurent Fignon personally I think that I can speak for millions of people worldwide when I say that he brought immense pleasure and excitement to my life for several weeks in the summer. Even though I knew nothing about cycling, I started watching professional cycling and Laurent Fignon was a major reason for that.

Colin Montgomerie is clearly going through one of the toughest selection processes ever for the Ryder Cup which begins at Celtic Manor on the 1st October. In past tournaments then the selection process has been pretty straight forward but not this time. Usually there is the problem over one or two wild card picks but as Monty said himself today, he could pick as many as twenty players who would do justice to the team.

When you look at players like Luke Donald, Paul Casey and Padraig Harrington probably all requiring wild cards then it is clear just how tough the process is going to be. I think that the USA team basically picks itself but what will be interesting will be to see how Corey Pavin reacts to all of the adverse publicity surrounding what is supposed to be an “automatic” pick of Tiger Woods.

Personally I do not know which is the best way to go with regards Tiger Woods? If you cannot pick him on merit based on form then do you pick him purely for the effect that it would have on team morale? Or would you deem it to be a wasted selection if Woods is not performing well enough?

We are only just over a month away from the start of the Ryder Cup so the chances to impress the two captains are going to be at a premium. The Johnny Walker event at Gleneagles this weekend should give Monty some more information but then again it could easily make things just as confusing for him.

There is a given fact in sports betting and horse racing and it is that something or someone has to be favourite. Usually this favouritism is justified by the competitor or team or horse being superior to their opponent or the field. However often the favourite is only favourite because the market makes them so! What do we mean by this? Well simply there is no stand out competitor in a sporting event but either the bookmaking firms or the betting public move the price by weight of money and something becomes favourite.

Sometimes of course a competitor can become favourite by default and this can be caused by the betting public losing faith with the original favourite. So it is always a good policy with any sports betting and horse racing is a great example to try and find negatives as to why a particular favourite will not win. Usually if you look hard enough then you can spot them and especially with horse racing because there are so many races on any one day.

For instance if you see a horse that has had a lengthy lay off and that may be coupled with maybe running on a certain type of going for the first time then this could be a factor for this horse getting beaten. This is especially the case where there are strong cases for the second or third favourite stepping in and winning the race. Usually in competitive races then a particular favourite can be vulnerable and often gets beaten due to it having several negatives against it.

This summers longest running transfer saga ended yesterday and James Milner finally joined Manchester City to take their summer spending past the £100 million mark. This comes hot on the trail of Mario Balotelli joining earlier in the week. Along with Jerome Boateng, David Silva, Alexander Kolarov and Yaya Toure.

All of these players are quality players but Stephen Ireland and Craig Bellamy have been moved out with Bellamy going out on a season’s loan to Championship side Cardiff City. The big question of course after all of this spending will be can Roberto Mancini turn that into a winning formula and bring a top four finish? Some people are touting the light blues as possible title challengers and they could be dark horses this season.

But to win the title this season then they have to hit the ground running and do that very quickly. Saturday’s 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane against Tottenham was encouraging but City were on the back foot for long periods of that game and keeper Joe Hart was man of the match which sort of told its own story. At the end of the day, Chelsea and Manchester United are settled sides which I think will make the difference.

I think that realistically, City will need a season to settle down but do not write them off as top four material as I think that they will do that this season. But I also feel that it will be the 2010-2011 season that sees them have a serious tilt at the title. I think it is only a matter of time before City win the league but the Chelsea and Manchester United teams look past their best of a few years ago so do not rule City out this season.

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Just like to congratulate the German Martin Kaymer on winning his first major at Whistling Straights yesterday when he won the USPGA after a play off. Many people miss the final major of the season and treat it almost like a diluted major.

It certainly has less appeal than the other three majors that’s for sure. But there has now been three consecutive majors without an American winner and that rarely happens when you consider how heavily weighted the US majors are with American players.

What was revealed though yesterday was that Tiger Woods failed to qualify for the US Ryder Cup team and is now relying on a wild card pick from Corey Pavin. I think European Golf is at a very strong point now and with two European winners of majors this season then that just underlines it even more.

With people like Martin Kaymer and Graeme McDowell coming to the fore then Europe have some big experience in there along with people like Lee Westwood, Padraig Harrington, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey. I really fancy Europe’s chances at Celtic Manor and will be watching the entire event as it unfolds.

After getting soundly beaten in 2008 when Nick Faldo was captain then I think that Europe will be thirsty for revenge and I expect them to win it by a score of something like 15.5-12.5.

But once again, well done to Martin Kaymer and many top players in the world will be looking enviously at his major win this morning even if it was won in slightly controversial style but that will not bother Kaymer.

After watching the England vs Hungary International at Wembley stadium last night then I really cannot make my mind up what is happening inside Fabio Capello’s mind. He seems to have changed his story about why England failed so dismally in the World Cup several times. Which is it Fabio? Is it because the players are not fit? Is it because the players cannot handle the pressure of the World Cup or is it the disallowed goal vs. Germany?

I think the blame lies at Fabio’s door first and foremost and I also think that the retirements of Paul Robinson and Wes Brown may have been connected to not wanting to play under Capello. The way that he announced that David Beckham would no longer play for his country in competitive games was poor. If Beckham did not see that interview then it would have been possible for some football fan on the street to have told him and that cannot possibly be right.

England played well in patches against Hungary but I never really expected a great performance to be honest. I thought that the crowd were very forgiving all night apart from the odd booing directed at John Terry and Ashley Cole. I also thought that the attendance of 72,000 was marvellous given that it was so soon after England’s worst ever performance in the World Cup finals. There were encouraging signs from players like Theo Walcott, Ashley Young and especially Adam Johnson.

However if England really are turning to youth then I do not expect England to be a major force at the next European Championships or the next World Cup in 2014 which will be in the heat and humidity of Brazil.

With both Paul Robinson and Wes Brown announcing their international retirements recently then you have to think where England are going from here. Is the lethargy to play for your own country so bad these days?

With other players like Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard not having many more World Cups left in them then we need youth coming through but the problem now is that the youth of England are not getting regular games for their clubs.

With Ben Foster pulling out through injury then Capello was forced to call on two goalkeepers who have never played in the Premier League. A few years ago Alan Shearer and Paul Scholes announced their retirements from International football when they were still young enough to have done a job for their country.

But I really do not know where we go from here, the established players have a history of under performing hugely in major championships and they will be 2yrs older come the 2012 Euro’s and 4yrs older come the next World Cup.

England simply do not have the quality coming through because not enough English players are playing regular football for the big six clubs in the country. We can put together a good first team but our squad strength has always been a worry.

So I think that the future is bleak for English football and even bleaker than it was after the 2008 European Championships debacle. I think that everyone was filled with hope under Fabio Capello and especially with the qualifying campaign going so well.

Tonight’s performance and team selection will be interesting as will the reaction of the crowd and the attendance.

The fall from grace of the greatest golfer on the planet and arguably the greatest ever has echoed around not just the world of golf but also the sporting world in general. Tiger Woods recorded his worst ever four round score of +18 at the weekend and that is a clear indication that his mind isn’t right.

After a couple of good runs in majors then we thought that perhaps the problems with Tiger were over but the horror show at the WGC Bridgestone tournament at Firestone was proof that something is seriously wrong with Tiger’s game.

I was listening to an interview with Butch Harmon yesterday who thought that Tiger had packed it in mentally. There are doubts now about his appearance in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and the golf betting is going to reflect that this week and I expect the odds for a USA victory to lengthen.

It would be a huge blow for the USA not to have a fully “on it” Tiger Woods at Celtic Manor. But like he said yesterday, if he is recording scores of +18 then he would not be of any help whatsoever to the team and I would have to agree.

But two months is a long time and Tiger has it in him to overcome whatever is wrong with him in that time. He has proved in the past that he has the mental strength to cope after his famous win in the US Open where he had an injury to his knee.

However, golf is mainly a mental game and if Tiger is not right mentally then this could take some time but I am sure that there will be a lot of help around him to get through this.

The football season kicked off in England yesterday, well actually it kicked off Friday evening with the Norwich vs Watford game that was live on TV. There have also been Europa League qualifiers as well. I have yet to see my first live game of the season although I think that I am still played up from watching all of the games in the last World Cup.

I will obviously be tuning in to the England vs Hungary friendly on Wednesday for several reasons. Firstly I want to see the size of the crowd, secondly I want to see how they react to the team and thirdly I want to see what sort of team Capello puts out.

The future for England now has to be the young players. It really doesn’t matter what sport you see, young players tend to play without fear. This season though will more than likely see me having far less sports bets than usual due to time restrictions.

So unless a bet really hits me in the face then I will be pulling back this season. But my sports bets do not involve football all that much as the prices tend to be pretty accurate anyway. I tend to sometimes look for subtle arbing opportunities that are not apparent between rival firms but this takes time to look and I simply do not have the time.

The best sports for trading tend to be cricket and tennis due to the scoring mechanisms but this once again involves considerable time. I much prefer to analyse, see prices that I think are wrong…..jump in….then go and do something else.