Football Season 2025/26 - Colchester United Get My Vote

It’s your lucky day. One of the best kept secrets in full view. No, I’m not talking about a President’s misdemeanours. I’m talking about bets that bookies don’t like to see.

The run-in to the end of the season is still my favourite time, but the start comes a decent second as we find out exactly how good some of the teams are or aren’t.

All sorts of factors are involved but the biggest one is money. Take Sheffield Wednesday for instance. What a mess. This has shades of Wigan for me. An owner who no longer wants to be there, seeking a way out, the players not being paid. That’s a story in itself but highlights the need to keep an eye on where the money is.

Which brings me on to Colchester United. A takeover fell through, so they have to work with what they’ve got and that looks reasonable to me. The management have enjoyed a full season of progressing the players, had a strong finish to last season just falling away towards the end to miss out on the play-offs and, in my opinion, boast a stronger squad than last season.

What else is in that division? Money bags MK Dons for a start. It’s easy to see why they’ll go off as favourites, but I’ll always have question marks about a side that finished 19th last season. You know some better quality has been brought in but there’s also the concern that it doesn’t tie together straight away. As usual there’s a case for several others, but we don’t need to find the outright winner.

We’re looking for a winning bet and the outstanding price to go with it. Trouble is, these prices keep moving about. Colchester were 5/1 to be promoted which looked cracking. They’ve since been shortened to 4/1 so somebody else likes them, but I notice they are currently showing as 23/10 with Paddy Power to finish in the top seven. That’s the sort of bet I like and that’s the one I’d take.

Talking about prices moving around, I always like speculating on the handicap lists for the season. This year I’ve picked Birmingham +10, Stockport +10 and Colchester +14. When prices were first issued each of these was available at 18/1, so a £10 treble would pay £68,590. I managed to get some each way singles at those prices but when I returned to do my £10 each way treble, the odds had become 14/1, 12/1 and 18/1 respectively.

My pigs might fly £10 treble will pay £37,050 instead of the massive £68,590. That’s the impact of price cuts. That’s why bookies are so rich. What can we do? Get on early for something like this and do your homework. Don’t just listen to people like me. Consider the arguments so you can make your own decisions.