Right Said Fred: Talking Betting With Betfred Boss Fred Done

I’m down but not out after England’s World Cup exit with at least a fascinating final to look forward to on Sunday.

It is looking as if Messi could well go into international retirement on the back of winning the one trophy missing from his incredible career.

Argentina have been improving in every game in Qatar with 35 year old Messi pulling the strings.

And what about City’s Julian Alvarez he’s looking much more than an Erling Haaland understudy with two superb goals for Argentina as they saw off such a well organised Croatia in Tuesday's semi-final.

Our quarter final game against France was always a 50-50 kind of match and we came up short.

Keeper Jordan Pickford could arguably have done better for Aurelien Tchouameni’s long range opener and we were certainly not clinical enough up front.

One person chuffed to bits about France’s 2-1 triumph is a Betfred customer in the West Midlands who had us losing by that scoreline AND  Tchouameni to score the opener. That double was available at 125/1 - and this fella put two quid on it!

 The focus has switched onto whether or not Gareth Southgate should continue to manage the England team as well as Harry Kane’s missed penalty.

Well the truth is France edged it on the night and if Southgate wants to carry on then let him. He’s certainly earned the right and I don’t see any outstanding candidates out there who could take over. Interestingly and perhaps ominously for Southgate backers, including yours truly, the FA have now indicated they would be keeping open the prospect of a foreign coach if Southgate quits.

Regarding the disastrous penalty miss well what if someone else had missed? We’d all be saying the skipper ducked it and didn’t take responsibility.

One thing that did puzzle me was why after all the fuss to select him, did Southgate not  introduce playmaker James Maddison as the game v France was slipping away. He’d have certainly given them something to think about in the same way the outstanding Antoine Griezmann had us chasing shadows.

With the England team home three of them Kane,  United’s Rashford and teenage ace Jude Bellingham look like they can kiss goodbye to be voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

They were high up on the Betfred TV leader board for the public vote on December 21 as hopes were high that we were going all the way in Qatar.

But the odds on the England  trio have tumbled to 100/1 outsiders leaving Beth Mead of the Euros winning Lionesses fame the huge 1/50 outright favourite.

Betfred have seven times world snooker champ Ronnie O’Sullivan and England cricket skipper Ben Stokes, who on Monday won the Pakistan test series, the only real competition with them both 25/1 with us for the top individual honour in sport.

The odds on the outright winners of the 2024 Euros are already out with Betfred having England joint second favourites along  with France at 6/1 while  Germany are the 5/1 favourites.

Finally my congratulations to three Betfred customers who won big from tiny stakes  on the 49’s and Irish Lottery.

Two health and beauty workers from London had bets totalling £2.50 that won £20,000 when their numbers came up - and on the Irish Lottery a customer in Bolton was so sure about his numbers he put the same £2.60 wager on three times and won himself a tidy  £19,920.