Football’s vultures are circling around Aston Villa hoping for some unexpected prey if the Midlands club are forced to sell top players to keep within financial fair play rules.
Manchester United have added England striker Ollie Watkins to their list of potential strikers as they bid to regenerate a below-par attack while Arsenal also remain in the hunt after having a £50million bid for the forward rejected at the turn of the year.
United have also been linked to Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez while midfielder Jacob Ramsey could be on the way out of the club, who did not pick up the option to keep Marcus Rashford, while fellow loanees Marco Asensio and Axel Disasi have also left.
Villa banked around £100million for reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, where they were eliminated by Paris Saint-Germain, so their accountants are bracing themselves for a big hit to the club’s revenue because they failed to qualify for next season’s renewal.
Instead, they will be playing on Thursday nights in the Europa League and although it is a top-quality tournament, it does mean there will be significantly less money rolling in.
Villa are hoping the sale of their women’s team to their parent company in a deal believed to be around £200m will alleviate the danger of being docked points for breaching the rules. That could be enough to keep the best talent on their books so while Watkins is 5/1 with bet365 to join either United or the Gunners, he’s just 1/2 ON to stay at Villa Park.
Argentina’s World Cup-winning shot-stopper Martinez may leave for a fresh challenge, though, and he is 11/8 with bet365 to start next season at Old Trafford and 11/2 with the same firm to be in La Liga with Atletico Madrid. However, it offers 5/2 Martinez is still raising huge cheers from the Holte End next term by staying put.
Women’s Euro 2025 odds
Sabrina Wiegman has a perfect record as a manager at the Women’s European Championship, winning the title with Netherlands in 2017 and then with England three years ago as the Lionesses claimed the trophy thanks to the extra-time winner from Chloe Kelly against Germany at Wembley.
England beat Spain in the quarter-finals on their way to their triumph but La Roja gained revenge with a 1-0 victory in the 2024 World Cup final in Sydney. If both teams win their groups they are scheduled to meet in a mouth-watering semi-final.
Spain are 7/4 with Ladbrokes, Coral and many more to win the tournament while England are 5/1 with StarSports to retain the trophy.
Germany’s draw, however, means they should avoid the two favourites making them each-way value at 5/1 with William Hill, Betfred and BoyleSports, while England’s Alessia Russo is definitely worth an each-way interest to be the tournament’s top goalscorer at 13/2 with Sky Bet.
Wimbledon odds
Carlos Alcaraz required a fifth set to finally beat pesky Fabio Fognini as he began the defence of his Wimbledon crown on Centre Court on Monday and he certainly wasn’t at his best.
It may be the Spaniard was suffering from an attack of butterflies as he began slowly last year after winning the title in 2023 but he should ease last second-round opponent Oliver Tarvet, Britain’s world No.733 who beat fellow qualifier Leandro Riedi to advance to the prize match.
Alcaraz is 9/4 with Betfred to prevail with the minimum of fuss and win by over 9.5 games.
It will be a shame to see Emma Raducanu depart this year’s tournament so early but Marketa Vondrousova is our ante-post selection and we are sticking with her to beat the British star in straight sets in their day three encounter at 11/8 with bet365.