Good appointment

Solid week-end with Real Madrid and Wigan winning and Swansea and West Brom drawing their matches. Man City took a massive step towards the title by edging the Manchester Derby but the title is by no means over. I think both clubs will still lose points in their remaining games and it will come down to who loses the least points. The Citizens visit to Newcastle will play a huge part in the final verdict.

Today's main news is the appointment of Roy Hodgson at the helm of England. That might not have been the most populist vote, but it is a great appointment nonetheless. What he's achieved with the Swiss, Inter, and Fulham are testament of a very good manager with international experience. Obviously, the loser in all this is Harry Redknapp who would have been an equally good appointment in my opinion. Certainly public fervour was strongly and mostly in favour of the Tottenham manager, while the FA people definitely were not as warming to him. Has he missed his chance? Time will tell as much depend on how Hodgson tenure goes. Should he have any regrets over the whole appointment? It all depends, as the public never knows what really takes place in the background, with the approaches, negotiations etc. But the one thing that is for sure is that if Redknapp certainly hasn't given out the signals that a prospective employer would want in a willing candidate. 'I never think of England' isn't the sort of come-and-get-me plea. If his rather hard stance on the job prospect has been a negotiating smoke-screen, then it must be said that it has back-fired spectacularly and he will live to regret it. But on the other hand, who knows? maybe he was never in contention in the FA's eyes, and whatever he said wouldn't have budged the selecting committee.

Finally, the England national team has a proper manager to go to the Euros. Good thing it wasn't with caretaker manager Stuart Pearce. No grudges against Psycho, but he has proved nothing in management yet. Whether with fan backing or not, short preparation time or not, Hodgson has to show that England can compete again with the best in Ukraine. There needs to be renewed hope and the rest will follow.