Listening properly to the ticking over of a club is a much underrated skill in football betting.

Each club has their own voice, their own way of doing things, and it is crucial to understand this when looking for clues as to how a club is going to perform, and how it expects to perform in the coming season.

Fans of football clubs, and punters too, often take what the manager says at face value, and this can be a mistake and brutally restrict how you view a match.

Some clubs can be extremely bullish going into a game – telling us that they are up for the game or season, that there is a great atmosphere in the club, they’ve been training well and are confident. That doesn’t necessarily mean it is so.

Other clubs – and, in particular, their managers can be negative, they can play down their chances, suggest that they are a few players short, or injuries are causing them all sorts of problems, even that they are concerned about the future – both on and off the pitch. But that does not always mean that they are a team to avoid.

Deciphering these missives accurately – the positive press releases and the negative/cagey comments of players and coaching staff – can give the punter a big advantage, especially during the pre-season rush for decent ante-post prices.

It is useful to know a little bit about how a club operates. Take Charlton Athletic, for example. Charlton are a family club with realistic expectations year in, year out. They have dropped from the Premier League back into the third tier and now face a tough campaign after enjoying a run to the play-offs in 2009/10.

Their undemonstrative manager Phil Parkinson recently said that he is struggling to build a new side for the season after losing eight players already in the close season, and not being able to bring anyone significant into the squad.

He told the BBC this week: “Looking at where we are at the moment I feel we need another eight players to make us competitive in the league. It’s been a difficult summer, to put it mildly.”

Are we to believe him.

I believe we should. Losing Darren Randolph, Fraser Richardson, Gary Borrowdale, Lloyd Sam, Nicky Bailey, Kyel Reid, David Mooney and Deon Burton from a third-tier side and possibly losing Christian Dailly in the next few weeks, too, is not something that you can gloss over – and nor should you.

Charlton are the type of side that does not have to sugar coat the pill that their fans will have to swallow next season. Parkinson and Charlton are realists – and they tell it liek it is.

Contrast that candid attitude with Cardiff this season, who were in a similar situation last season in the league above – losing out in the play-offs. When they lost their hot playmaker Joe Ledley to Celtic on a free transfer this week, manager Dave Jones was in denial.

“It seems to be a done deal, although he’s not been in contact to tell us.  He’s going to the Premier, but the wrong Premier. I’m a little bit surprised.”

Meanwhile, the club continue to be in denial to their fans, the press and the world at large about their financial situation – not announcing that their players had not been paid this month until they received their long overdue wages.

All this means that we can have little trust in what teams like Cardiff say, while Charlton seem to be a good bet at taking their missives as face value.

It can make a big difference when deciding where you are going to put your hard-earned cash this coming season.