The England manager appointment

Normally I'm not really very interested in stuff to do with the England National Team. But I've had some thoughts on the (seemingly) imminent appointment of Uncle Roy Hodgson as England manager. Now don't get me wrong here, I like the man. I do. But I'm not sure its the right move. Not for England though, for him. I get the obvious he's English so he really wants to manage his national team thing but I think in the light of how his tenure at Liverpool turned out though its a slightly baffling move. Personally tto me it seems like the England situation he's walking into will be similar to the one he had to contend with at Liverpool only on a larger and more pressurised scale. I mean it was a situation where it was an institution with a lot of history that tends to focus heavily on the weight of the past (some times to a counter productive degree,) an atmosphere with a huge amount of expectation, difficult to please fans with another candidate in mind and players that he inherited rather than chose. Check, check, check and check. I just hope that the insane amount of media pressure he's going to get and the squad selection headaches that will no doubt come his way don't make for a high profile repeat of his stresses and strains at Liverpool because he seems like a lovely man who genuinely loves football and knows his stuff. Having made the case against his taking the job, I would like to just add to that that I do think he's a better option than Redknapp though. Largely due to his experience with managing abroad and at international level. I know that there are loads of you who could cite tons of managers who have won things without much experience but I think you can't undervalue the amount of experience someone like Hodgson has. Fianlly to finish off, I'd like to share with you the popular opinion here at HQ on the alternative candidate we would have liked the FA to give a chance to. The Sports Wall family (particularly my mum) think that Roy Keane would have been a brilliant left field choice for the post. I know I just said experience can't be underrated BUT hear us out here. We think he'd be good as the England manager becuase of his unbelievable intensity and let's face it there's no way he'd take any crap from those players. Maybe he'd finally be able to instill a bit of discipline in the ranks. Plus he's not short of passion. The guy radiates passion for football. Which frankly the England set up could do with. So there you go, the man to restore a bit of blood and thunder to the Three Lions, is the other Roy.

French Fashion Files - Nice 2012

Here we are again at the end of another brilliant season of figure skating competition. This time we had the added bonus of Worlds decamping to one of the fashion capitals of the world- France. Did the lovely boys and girls of figure skating step up their sartorial games for the bright lights of La Belle France? You bet they did, so follow me and let's see what delights were in store down at the rink.

A whole World(s) of drama

So I've finally gotten around to watching the pairs free from Nice 2012. I think I've been stringing it out because its so good that I don't want it to end. As we all remember the short program was packed full of shocks with three Russian pairs making mistakes, so the free was poised to be one hell of a contest.

A point to prove

On Sunday Arsenal played Manchester City at the Emirates. Now most commentators focussed on the fact that if City lost they dropped to 8 points behind Manchester United and the title race was effectively over. But I feel this was missing the point slightly. For all of us Arsenal fans though there was something else. Something more important going on. It was a grudge match. We had a point to prove. Man City had stolen our players, they wrenched Gael Clichy away from the warm embrace of Arsenal and the warming glow of his (frankly epic) bromance with Bacary Sagna. They turned Samir Nasri's head with their filthy lucre. So the match wasn't just about the league. It was about principles, it was about morals, team spirit and earning something against cold, hard cash and success at all costs. So to see our boys, my boys out there playing Man City's billion pound team off the park was particularly sweet. And outplay them they did. Bacary Sagna was excellent, he was absolutley everywhere. The midfield was outstanding, Tomas Rosicky ran the show (woop), Alex Song was as always a total beast and even poor old Yossi who took a lot of flak for starting ahead of golden boy Oxlade Chamberlain played pretty well and worked damn hard. As brilliant as our immense performance was seeing Samir Nasri being completely anonymous his entire time on the pitch. How does that taste now Samir? But honestly aside from being bitter, it was fantastic to see the team bounce back from a small blip last week with not only a great result but an even better performance. Also Andre Santos returned. And promptly gave Mario Balotelli a big old shove, presumably while yelling "BOOM! You've been Andre Santosed!" He's become something of a cult hero with my friend Simon and I largely because he's so hardcore, unpredictable and as Simon so beautifully put it 'terrifying.' Gary neville was once again on a roll this week with his at once withering and hilariously outtraged  ideas on how he would manage Mario Balotelli "I'd just tell him never to tackle. Ever." Then there was the bemusing but strangely amusing sight of two rather mature man City fans fighting over Vincent Kompany's shirt rather than giving it to the younger fan right next to them. I mean I was pleasantly surprised by how ripped Mr Kompany is and I can fully appreciate city fans harbouring a man crush but seriously let the younger fan take the shirt.

Twice as Nice

So after the drama of the pairs short, could I handle any more of what Nice had to throw at me? Well we all know the answer is of course, a resounding YES. So on I went watching short dance and men's short.