Football League Betting: Di Matteo's MK could be the League One Dons

English Football League / Ralph Ellis / 07 August 2008 / Leave a Comment

Ralph Ellis tells us why former Chelsea record signing and restaurateur Roberto Di Matteo may just have what it takes to guide MK Dons to an unlikely promotion into The Championship

On paper, either Leeds or Leicester will win League One. But as we all know from too much painful experience of backing favourites that fell down, football is not played on paper but on grass (unless you're at Wigan in which case it's mud or sand!).

Last season Leeds and Nottingham Forest were the two big name giants in the division and it's worth recalling what happened to them. Neither of them finished top. And before you start saying: 'Ah, that's because of the 15 points that were taken away from Ken Bates', check the statistics. Even with those points handed back, Leeds would still have finished two behind Swansea.

And there's the issue for trying to find potential winners before the Football League kicks off on Saturday. Big clubs that fall on hard times may still carry big support, but that guarantees absolutely nothing against other clubs which have built their resources more steadily and are more settled behind the scenes.

At the moment the League One betting follows the big names. Leeds are favourites at [3.75] to finish top with Leicester close behind on [5.7]. The real value will be found among the sides below that and at the moment one of the fancies has to be MK Dons who are as long as [22.0] to be champions and [5.6] to be promoted.

The Daily Mail's Matt Barlow gives a fascinating insight this morning into life behind the scenes where Roberto di Matteo is settling in to his first job in English management. The former Chelsea hero seemed an odd choice at the time and his lack of experience as a boss is one of the reasons why the Dons aren't fancied to follow Swansea in defying the bigger names.

Barlow has worked out that Saturday's trip to play Leicester will be di Matteo's first involvement in a competitive game since he collected the horrific triple fracture of the leg back in September 2008 which ended his playing career. But he also learns that the idea that at 38 he'd lost touch with football to concentrate on running a restaurant business is way off the mark.

Barlow writes: "'I sold the restaurants eight years ago,' said Di Matteo with a dismissive 'do your research' expression. 'I haven't been in a high profile position but I've always been in football. I've been doing my coaching badges, media work, following the Champions League, blah, blah, blah. It's just that people didn't know what I was doing.'"

Di Matteo is promising an attractive brand of football, and insisting that he's not under pressure to get promotion in his first year. But the fact he has a settled side and the budget to add more players could help MK Dons get established in a League which is notoriously full of changes.

At the very least it gives him every prospect of opening the season with a decent result and [4.4] to win at the Walkers Stadium, where Nigel Pearson is trying to steady the ship after last season's debacle under four different managers, looks very generous. I suggest taking the safe route and laying Leicester at [1.92].

Five things you might not know about Roberto di Matteo

1.He won 34 caps for Italy, but was actually born in Schaffhausen in Switzerland to Italian parents

2.He started his career at Schaffhausen, and also played for Swiss clubs FC Zurich and FC Aarau before moving to Lazio in 1993

3.Their coach Zdenek Zeman got rid of him three years later as punishment for a mistake which handed a game to Inter Milan.

4.His £4.9million move to Stamford Bridge might be loose change to Roman Abramovich now, but it was Chelsea's club record transfer fee at the time.

5.He has a degree in Business Studies from a University in Switzerland, plus an MBA from London's European School of Economics