The football season is nearly upon us and while I usually reserve my focus for the English Premier League and the PSL this year I am going to be taking more than a parting interest in Coca Cola League 2 which is effectively the English 4th division.

In a normal season I would not so much as glance at the log but after seeing a post in the Goodforthegame.co.za discussion forum all that has changed.

It was titled “Lazio, England, Mexico…Notts County” and was breaking the news that Sven-Goran Eriksson had taken up an appointment as director of football at lowly Notts County of all places.

Now a guy like Eriksson does not come cheap and clearly any club appointing him have ambitions that extend beyond the grind of League 2 football. Forum editor Chris Sturdy alerted me to the fact that the odds of County winning the division had tumbled in the UK to around 6/1 but that there was still some 11/1 available locally.

Now I could not tell you a name of any player who has ever pulled on their strip, let alone who is in their current squad but betting value to me is like a red flag to a bull and I was quickly on the phone getting my money down.

I am along with many other punters banking on the fact that Eriksson’s arrival will be accompanied by a tidy budget for the transfer market and that his mere presence will lift the club to new heights.

There is of course a saying that you “can’t buy success” something that I am hoping gets proved wrong over the next 9 months and the only issue I have now is getting hold of a few Notts County scarves for the kids.

There are already plenty of other betting markets available on the English Premier League including a market that excludes the “Big 4” of Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Here we find another team eager to spend their way to the top is the ruling favourite and Manchester City is 11/10.

I am going to take a watching brief on that one though and until we get to a day or two before kick off Notts County will be flying the flag for this punter and at 11/1 at least I am starting with a slight edge over the bookies.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and presents a sports betting radio show every Saturday morning at 07h30 on 1485AM Radio Today or Channel 169 of the DSTV Audio Bouquet.

You can follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/brentgraham or get on his mailing list by dropping him a line at brent@goodforthegame.co.za

Goodforthegame will be posting betting previews on the Tri Nations, Currie Cup, Ashes, Premier League and PSL.