To describe Manchester United as being ‘in the doldrums’ would at this point be a major understatement.
So for Red Devils fanatics Michael Smith and Joe Cullen, the only glimpse of silverware they may get in the next month or so is their own – the World Darts Championship being their primary goal in January.
Smith will be looking to defend the trophy he won earlier this year, while Cullen will be hoping to improve upon a relatively poor record by his own high standards at London’s Alexandra Palace.
Back to Winning Ways
The PDC World Darts betting odds confirm that both Smith and Cullen have suffered a similar fate to Manchester United: a poor season in which they have looked like shadows of their former selves. Bully Boy, as Smith is known, is a 10/1 outsider in the Darts World Championship winner betting, behind the likes of Luke Humphries (3/1), Michael van Gerwen (7/2) and Gerwyn Price (11/2). Cullen, meanwhile, is considered to be little more than an 80/1 hopeful.
For Smith, a year that started with an incredible nine-dart leg that went viral around the world, plus the small matter of winning a maiden world title, has been followed by a fallow six months in which he has made just one semi-final appearance.
Michael Smith landed a nine-dart finish on his way to claiming World Championship glory for the first time in the final against Michael van Gerwen.
More here: https://t.co/7YOHyFbi9G pic.twitter.com/KTYTzpJZvZ
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 4, 2023
Reaching the last four of the Premier League and The Masters ensured that the man from St Helens continued his purple patch early in 2023, but a run of early exits – save for a run to the last four of the World Grand Prix – means that Smith is filed under the list of possible, rather than probable, world champions come January.
As for Cullen, a halcyon year in 2022 – he won his first televised major at The Masters and was a dart away from prevailing in the Premier League – has been followed by a barren 2023.
The 34-year-old, who walks to the oche backed by Oasis’ ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, has been doing exactly that this term, with early exits from the Players Championship Finals and European Championship compounded by the fact that he didn’t even qualify for one of darts’ other key majors: the Grand Slam.
Both Smith and Cullen will be hoping, like Manchester United, that they start the new year off better than they ended the previous…
Aspinall Playing for Keeps
Nathan Aspinall was scouted by Manchester United’s academy and had trials for his hometown club in Stockport County, and you sense that football was top of the agenda ahead of darts.
In the end, the beautiful game never quite worked out for The Asp, who in his own words has described himself as ‘too small’ to make it as a professional goalkeeper, so attention turned to the world of darts.
On reflection, it has proven to be a savvy move for the 32-year-old, who’s now ranked six in the world having won two of the sport’s major crowns: the World Matchplay and the UK Open.
With a fine World Championship record that includes two runs to the semi-finals at Alexandra Palace, could Aspinall be another player with Manchester connections to battle it out for darts’ biggest prize in January?
