These seem to be the top 8 in the betting at present.

Erik Ramsey - hot favourite at evens. I don’t know much about him!
Lee Carsley - similar to Mason, not enough experience.
Hassenhuttl - interesting candidate
Gary O’Neil - not for me thanks
Russell Martin - not convinced by him, thought he was lucky to get Southampton promoted 
Michael Carrick - ex middlesboro
Slaven Bilic - ex manager of WBA. 
Carlos Corberan - would only happen if he gets sacked by Valencia.

Who would I want.

Hassenhuttl for me. Carrick second, 

but also want to know a bit more about Ramsey! 

Or is there a left field choice, we used to be good at keeping it all under wraps till the last moment. 

Who do you want?

Here's your starters for 10, 9 more months of bonuses coming up as soon as I've organised them a bit better

Note the NFL Superbowl play-off's start this weekend with the Wild Cards - I'm sliding that deadline for your predictions to next weekend when fewer teams will be involved. If you want to guess early and you get it wrong, you can still have another go before next weekend.

Sports Predictions 2026

Dates Sport Event Venue(s) Predict What Deadline
January
17 Jan-08 Feb NFL American Football Superbowl Levi's Stadium, San Jose, San Francisco Bay Winning Team 17th Jan - 1st kick-off Conf P/O
The Wild Cards start this weekend, which is a tad short notice, so let those play-out and see who's still left in for next weekend. As they drag those Wild Card games out until next Tuesday you won't have much more notice but, tis wot it tis.

The top teams in each division in this link are not involved in the Wild Cards, those below them are.
https://www.nfl.com/standings/playoff-picture
The Wild Card picture looks like this
https://www.nfl.com/standings/playoff-picture

18 Jan-1 Feb Tennis Aussie Womens Open Melbourne Winner 18 Jan - any 1st serve
18 Jan-1 Feb Tennis Aussie Mens Open Melbourne Winner 18 Jan - any 1st serve
https://ausopen.com/players

February

5 Feb-14 Mar Rugby Union Six Nations (Mens) Europe Winning Team 1st kick-off 5th Feb
https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/m6n/fixtures/2026
6 Feb-22 Feb Winter Olympics All of them Milan and Cortina, Italy UK & NI Medals Total 1st snowball thrown, 6th Feb, (it might be sooner)
4 Feb-10 Feb Winter Olympics Curling - Mixed Doubles Milan and Cortina, Italy Winners 1st rock thrown, 4th Feb, (told you it might be sooner)
https://worldcurling.org/olympic-qualification/
With it being Olympic year, I wasn't sure there would be a World Championship as well. So I thought I'd throw this one in as an extra bit of fun.

7 Feb-8 Mar Cricket T20 Mens World Cup India & Sri Lanka Winning Team 1st ball, 7th Feb
https://www.icc-cricket.com/tournaments/...26/matches

March

08 Mar- 06 Dec F1 World Championhip Globally Winning Driver Start 1st race, 8th Mar
08 Mar-06 Dec F1 World Championhip Globally Winning Team Start 1st race, 8th Mar
Teams and drivers - https://www.formula1.com/en/drivers, https://www.formula1.com/en/teams

10 Mar - 13 Mar Horse Racing Cheltenham Festival - 28 races Cheltenham Non-Irish Trainer winners Start 1st race 10th March
https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/cheltenh...-schedule/
As with last year, the Irish Trainers love to win here, so how many of the 28 races won't they win?

14 Mar-22 Mar Curling Women's World Championship Calgary, Canada Winners 14th Mar - 1st rock thrown
https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wwcc...?EventID=1
https://worldcurling.org/worldrankings/womens-rankings/

27 Mar - 14 Apr Curling Mens World Championship Ogden, Utah, USA Winners 27th Mar- 1st rock thrown
https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wmcc...?EventID=1
https://worldcurling.org/worldrankings/mens-rankings/

Shock news in the scandalous work of Curling. Sweeping the chimney takes on a whole new meaning.
https://worldcurling.org/2026/01/sweepin...ue-policy/
Apparent punishment for breaking the rules and not sweeping both ways - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3ZCZjhjguA

This might all make more sense when you look at it like this.




Apologies for having to do links rather than images but some moaning sods don't like their own free publicity apparently.

THE MATCH

SATURDAY 10TH JANUARY KO 3PM

v

LAST MATCH



We went down to another defeat at QPR. QPR dominated from the start and after blazing over from close range, Burrell latched on to Madsen's through ball before beating Charles at his near post. QPR had a few other chances but couldn't add to there lead while we couldn't muster a single attempt. Onto the 2nd half and we improved a bit and had a couple of chances through Amass & McNeill before QPR had a couple of chances. Kolli put the game to bed with 2 goals in the last 10 minutes, his first lashed in from the edge of the box and then firing home from close range to make it 3-0, both times we lost the ball, a very familiar tail this season.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

THE MATCH



Next up and we get a break from the league as we entertain Brentford at Hillsborough in the FA Cup. Brentford are having a decent season in the Premier League and currently lie in 7th place, after picking up 11 points out of 15 in there last 5 league games. If they can challenge fore the European places, we will have to wait and see but with likes of Man Utd, Newcastle and Brighton it might be a bit of a struggle. Clubs like Brentford should be looking for a good cup run but with the riches of the Premier League, I think you know what they will be concentrating on. They are managed by Keith Andrews who was given the job after Thomas Frank left for Tottenham in the summer. There leading scorer is Igor Thiago who has an impressive 14 goals so far this season, only Haaland is above him in the scoring stats.

DEJPHON CHANSIRI, GET OUT OF OUR CLUB    

ALL TIME H2H

OWLS 16
BRENT 16
DRAW 13

CURRENT FORM

OWLS     L L D D L L                                                            

BRENT W D W W D L

EFL STOOGES

DOES IT MATTER THERE ALL CORRUPT  

Referee: Josh Smith
Assistant Referees: Sam Lewis & George Byrne
Fourth Official: David Webb

THE TEAM

Charles
Palmer McGhee Iorfa Otegbayo Amass
Thornton Ingelsson Bannan
McNeill Cadamarteri

SCORE & SCORER (HOME TEAM SCORE FIRST)

1-4 Peart-Harris

WEDNESDAYS FIRT GOAL TIME

56

ATTENDANCE

10212

BML LEAGUE

Owlkev 16
Imre 15
SCO 10
Washington 9
Maddix 8

BMPL

Stateside 10
Pei 0
Wereham -11
Southey -12

OTHER GAMES OF MILD INTEREST

RESULT OF THE TIE INCLUDING EXTRA TIME & PENALTIES

Fulham v Middleboro
Newcastle v Bournemouth
Tottenham v Aston Villa
West Ham v QPR
Man Utd v Brighton

HHAAH

THE MUPPETT LEAGUE

Group A

Stairs 16
Minizin 12
BaggieVicar 9
BaggieOne 8
A.A.A. 6
B.B.B. 5
Zimnan 5
Twerton -4

Average week in Group A but as it was only involving 9 games maybe its a bit better in reality. Stairs rises back to the top of the list with 16 points, that his 3rd top spot in the last 7 weeks, a return to decent form for sure. He was one of 2 who scored positive points on the Gamball and he added 5 other points scoring games to that. Minizin is 2nd with 12 points, 10 of which were scored on a max on the Bonus and a CS game. BaggieVicar is 3rd with 9 points, he has been in the top 4 weekly scores for 8 of the past 10 weeks despite his woes on the Gamball!!

BaggieOne is 4th with 8 points, he missed on all his balls which kept his score down. AAA, BBB and Zinman are the next 3 players. AAA got a max on his Bonus but little else, BBB managed a CR on the Gamball but of course missed on his Bonus and Zinman got a CR on the Bonus but was unable to back that up with much else.

Twerton had a complete mare!! He managed to get every prediction wrong and matched Stairs lowest score of the season so far with -4 points. I still class Stairs bad week as worse though because it was over 10 games whereas Twertons was just 9!! Not sure that brings him much solace but its all I have for him this week!!!

217 Minizin
204 Stairs
180 A.A.A.
179 BaggieOne
171 BaggieVicar
154 Twerton
153 B.B.B.
150 Zinman

No positional changes this week but some definite separation of groups occurring. The Top 2 - Minizin and Stairs - are now pulling further away but are closer together than they have been in a while. The next three, AAA, BaggieOne and BaggieVicar are separated by only 9 points and the bottom three, Twerton, BBB and Zinman, are now just 4 points apart!! At this stage all positions are still up for grabs!!

Cheers
SCO

Group B

Lady Jane 17
SCO 14
Themaclad 11
Amelia 10
Snooty 7
Derby 5
Salop 4
4eva -1

OK, I'm doing this a few hours after watching us concede yet another last gasp goal so my usual wit, repartee and good humour may be missing from this write up.

Just 9 matches this week with the postponement of the Portsmouth game so the points total was slightly down though this does mask some big differences in the individual scores. The Coventry defeat did some damage, nobody made that prediction and it accounted for 3 blown bonuses. 2 correct gamballs and they were both correct scores so not surprisingly the 9 point (well, 8 actually) difference on this ball made sure of the top 2 places.

For the second consecutive week, Lady Jane sits on top of the table scoring one less point than last week. Obviously the maximum gamball helped, but she also equalled the highest number of correct results (4) and scores (2). SCO is 3 points back with just 1 correct scores (the gamball) though his Bonus Ball wasn't in play. Third place is Themaclad, in his case it was a spot-on bonus that helped. He was also the other player to nail 2 correct scores.

Amelia scrambled to double figures, matching SCO's results/scores numbers and getting the extra bonusball point. Snooty was the third player with 1 correct score from 4 correct results but he missed out on the main balls to score just 7 points. Derby chose not to play the gamball this week (or he forgot!) and by doing so he saved himself a point. That omission was enough to keep him ahead of Salop.

He's human! Having dominated the group so far this season, 4eva decided to take a holiday break. Just one correct prediction for him, plus the scoreball, which wasn't enough to keep him away from a negative score, his first of the season.

193 4eva
164 SCO
162 Lady Jane
141 Snooty
140 Themaclad
132 Amelia
128 Derby
112 Salop

4eva's lead is down to just (!) 29 points so he can probably take a couple of more weeks off. Lady Jane's good last 2 weeks sees her creep ever closer to SCO but the only positional change sees Amelia and Derby swop places.

A slightly shortened write up this week as I'm going to cheer myself up by listening to the Test Match commentary.........

Zin

Port Vale have appointed former Northampton Town boss Jon Brady as their new manager on an 18-month contract.

The 50-year-old Australian replaces Darren Moore, who was sacked on 28 December after a run of seven defeats in nine games left the League One side bottom of the table, 10 points adrift of safety.

Brady, who resigned as Cobblers manager just over a year ago, has the task of trying to keep Vale, with just four wins from 23 games this season, in the third tier.

"We're delighted to welcome Jon to Vale Park as the club's new manager," Vale chief executive Matt Hancock said in a club statement., external

"Jon was the standout candidate at the end of a thorough recruitment process, with his experience and passion for returning to management here at Port Vale really shining through."


Brady spent three and a half years with the Cobblers, spanning 200 matches, delivering promotion to League One after finishing third in League Two 2022-23.

He arrives in Burslem in similar circumstances to when he took interim charge at the Sixfields Stadium in February 2021 when Northampton sat in the League One relegation zone.

Although he could not keep them up that season, his track record of getting the club back there - and keeping them there - appealed to the Vale hierarchy, given the Valiants' perilous position at the moment.

Hancock added that Brady "is someone who we believe can make a real difference here in both the short and long term" and said the new boss has "our full support as we focus on achieving our objectives this season".

Brady inherits a Vale side that ended a 12-game winless league run in spectacular style by thrashing relegation rivals Blackpool 5-1 on New Year's Day.

That was their first league victory since 27 September, having started the season solidly following promotion last term as League Two runners-up, only for their results to dip badly.

Brady will be in charge for the first time in Friday's FA Cup third round tie against Fleetwood Town [19:30 GMT].

Unsurprisingly, Ryan Mason has gone

Due the postponement of the Portsmouth - Ipswich game (I assume because of the discovery of some strange white powder at the ground) - there are extra balls for some players this week.

So 2 bonus balls to be played in week 20 by:
Lady Jane
Stairs
SCO
The Vicar.

2 scoreballs for:
Themaclad
Derby.

This week with the added randomness of FA Cup team selections! Usual cup rules as I've no idea whether we have replays/extra time/paper, rock, scissors etc etc.

Gamball:
Man Utd - Brighton

Others:
Everton - Sunderland
Doncaster - Southampton
Stoke - Coventry
Bristol City - Watford
Cambridge - Birmingham City
Spurs - Villa
Derby - Leeds
Swansea - WBA
West Ham - QPR

Due the postponement of the Portsmouth - Ipswich game (I assume because of the discovery of some strange white poeder at the ground) - there are extra balls for some players this week.

So 2 bonus balls to be played in week 20 by:
Lady Jane
Stairs
SCO
The Vicar.

2 scoreballs for:
Themaclad
Derby.