How to get Banned from GT Lottery Syndicate

Gino de Blasio had made moving predictions about the fate of Antonio Cassano and Carlos Tevez back in January and February in Goalden Times. Read what his own fate became, as a result of those predictions!

I am not a gambler. I’ve never been one, but I do love the thought, like anyone else, of winning the lottery. The whole, “you have to be in it to win it” couldn’t be truer. Now with the Goalden Times staff scattered all across the globe, you could perhaps imagine a Christmas party or a summer barbeque to be quite difficult events to attend, but a syndicate on the lottery would be a pretty nice thing.

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I’d suggested that in the virtual suggestion box a few months ago. So far I’ve heard nothing. And now, I think I’ve figured out why.

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When I wrote the words “Mancini had exclaimed that ‘Tevez will never play for this club again’” it wasn’t me who said it; that was Roberto Mancini. How was I supposed to know that he’d take him back and make him play the final twenty minutes against Chelsea?

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His return, and in particular in that match, couldn’t have come at a more decisive time for Manchester City. Being knocked out of the Europa League and suffering a shaky form away from home including a loss to Swansea, they needed that extra something to get them out of the slump.

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Carlos Tevez, in the meantime, has been busy training in his native Argentina since his self-imposed exile and making statements like “Mancini treated me like a dog” (in Spanish) – and to ESPN Spain, you know he couldn’t make the whole “I got confused with the foreign language” excuse – which could get you scratched off the Christmas card list in the United Kingdom.

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The rest, you could say is, recent history. He trained, he scored (for the reserve team) and then he made his league return, producing a fine 20-minute display that saw him set up the winning goal with a sublime pass to Samir Nasri.

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If City needed their fix, they received it that night; whether he’ll last, I’ll let you guess.

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And then my second piece of infinite wisdom came when I wrote “Cassano’s prognosis is showing signs of great encouragement and could be back with the squad sooner rather than later.”  That was four months ago, but going by the current circumstances, it’s unlikely he’ll be back before September.

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Now, once again, this piece of information was from a very trustworthy source – La Gazzetta dello Sport. How on earth was I supposed to know they are feeding me garbage?!

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What I can unhesitatingly report though, from an entirely different source, and verified at least 40 times before writing this short piece, is that Antonio is back to training, with his teammates and with the ball. This must give his doctors and trainers confidence in his recovery phase and they may start working on the physical aspects of his game.

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So, for fear of incorrectly predicting anything more on either Tevez or Cassano and being banned thereby from any future job as a football clairvoyant and Goalden Times’ lottery syndicate participant, I wish you best of luck in this week’s lottery; a game I shan’t be playing.