Inter Pen Edge Claim In Lazio

Soccer Betting Lines

Portland, OR (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Portland Timbers named Cameron Knowles as an assistant coach Thursday. Knowles, 29, played for seven seasons, including four with the Timbers. During his time with Portland, Knowles was a three-time USL First Division all-league selection. This will be his first season as an assistant.

 

Knowles was originally drafted by Real Salt Lake in 2005 and spent his final season in the NASL with the Montreal Impact, who will join MLS in 2012.

 

The Nerazzurri's 2-1 win over Lazio last weekend allowed Inter to climb to fourth in the league and just six points back of leaders Juventus, which faces third-place Udinese on Saturday.

 

Juve secured a place in the last four of the Coppa Italia by handing Roma a 3-0 defeat on Tuesday, and the club enters the weekend one point clear of second-place AC Milan.

 

Roma sits three points back of Lazio and will be trying to keep the pressure on its rivals with a win at home against Bologna, while Napoli has fallen to seventh in the table after two league wins in its last six matches and travels to Genoa.

 

Palermo snapped a six-game winless streak with a 5-3 win over Genoa and will look to pick up a second victory in a row at home against last-place Novara.

 

Bremen, Germany (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Werder Bremen announced Friday that it has signed Austrian midfielder Zlatko Junuzovic from FK Austria Vienna on a three- and-a-half-year deal. Junuzovic, 24, will undergo a medical on Monday before being presented to the media at the Weserstadion.

 

"Zlatko Junuzovic is technically sound, a good set-up man and has a good shot," said Bremen head coach Thomas Schaaf. "We will have more possibilities in the midfield with him."

 

He made just three appearances in the Premiership this season under new Blues coach Andre Villas-Boas, and has not played in two months. He will join former Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti at PSG.

 

"I knew the greatness of the club and I wanted to logically come. I spent two years under the direction of Carlo Ancelotti in London and I am very happy to be here in Paris."

 

Alex leaves Chelsea after making 86 appearances. He has also played 18 matches for Brazil, making his first appearance for his country in 2004.

 

Inverness, Scotland (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Inverness announced Friday that it has acquired 28-year-old winger Claude Gnakpa on loan from League One side Walsall until the end of the season. Gnakpa, who can also play at left back, has also featured for Peterborough and Luton Town in England's lower divisions.

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

NFL Betting Lines

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