Moyes next Man Utd manger as Sir Alex is set to retire

Not to any considerable surprise, David Moyes will become the second Manchester United boss in 27 years, after the quarter century long reign by compatriot Sir Alex Ferguson. The Everton boss was installed as firm favourite to succeed Ferguson on Monday after a flood of bets over the weekend. Bookmakers Paddy Power cut his odds from 7/2 to 1/2 after they reported a myriad of overnight bets from Sunday to Monday. Someone let the cat out of the bag. Nevertheless, the Scot will take charge when the 2012/13 seasons ends. Admittedly, the appointment was greeted with trepidation by some United fans due to numerous concerns. The most pertinent of which, his distinct lack of Champions League experience. Time will also tell how he can finally manage a significant sized squad and disposable transfer fees. Admittedly, observers will point to his remarkable success with a well publicized lack of resources and depth in squad at Everton and all superficial signs advertise that he is an ,all round, excellent manager. However the trepidation exhibited by red devil fans aren't abated by the revelation that some Everton fans are glad to see the back of what will soon be their former manager. Some toffees claim Moyes has an extremely negative approach, asserting that he strangles his strikers' natural attacking instincts and pushes them out on the wing, citing Steven Naismith as an example, and pointing to the goal drought of Nikita Jelavic as further evidence. Albeit, it will take a remarkable effort to turn Robin Van Persie into a bad striker, however these concerns will only know their legitimacy this time next year when his first year in charge is reviewed (if he's still manager that is).

However, one thing is for sure, the unprecedented successful era resided over by Sir Alex Ferguson won't be emulated. The unyielding success that flocks of United fans are used to enjoying and come to expect will be a thing of the past. I thought the departure of Edwin Van de Sar, breaking up the impregnable defence spear headed by Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand at the height of his powers would bring about an end to United's dominance. An assumption that only had short lived affirmation with arch rivals Manchester City winning the league the very next seasont. However, they have won the league this season without much difficulty and without a vintage Man United team, concertedly also without good challengers. Taking away the main heart of United's ethos and genetics will surely also diminish the success that accompanies.

Unrelenting, authoritarian, trophy collecting, Sir Alex Ferguson will retire. Though Love or hate Man United, anyone will still tell you Ferguson, with the likes of Brian Clough and Bob Paisley, is one of the greats.  It pains me to say it but, over the past twenty years or so Manchester United have become the Roman Empire of English football and Ferguson is the Julius Caesar of management. Caesar was a dictator of the Roman Republic and never an Emperor of Rome he contributed to the downfall of the Roman republic and the rise of the Empire. This is particularly applicable because Sir Alex overseen and effected a change in the way most clubs are managed; from his appointment in 1986 to the new millennium, he had established an archetypal club and business, a sporting dynasty. He established absolute authority, deploying belligerence and intimidation as his tools of control. He became a tyrant for referees, vehemently attacking them when a decision didn't go in United's favour. All the while somehow escaping sanctions from the FA when managers from other clubs received touchline bans and fines for behaving in a more restrained fashion than the 71 year old.

On the other hand, one benefit of this unchecked dominance is longevity and the stability. In comparison to other, for instance Liverpool's managerial ambiguity over the past five years has seen them slip from challengers of the premiership and Champions League winners to mere top 6 challengers and face a huge amount of catching up to do as clubs that they used aspire to be like them, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City for example. While Chelsea have enjoyed success over the the last decade, infamously chopping and changing their managers has starved them of the opportunity to embed themselves in Europe's elite. And even within the ranks of the European elite, the likes of Real Madrid have employed the services of 26 different mangers in Ferguson's reign, an obscene amount. Which ultimately culminated in senior figures like Ikar Cassilias having spats with manager Jose Mourinho on what the Spanish goalkeeper claimed as a case of Madrid 'identity'. For many people, Sir Alex Ferguson is the only Manchester United manager they have ever known. That's identity.

How United and Moyes will progress with a new identity, the younger Scot at the helm and the older, 'watching' from the director's box, will make for intriguing viewing.

Lions: Who got the call?

So its finally here, after four years of thinking what could have been in South Africa, what could be in Australia, the pinnacle for rugby players, fans and sports enthusiasts worldwide, the 2013 British and Irish lions have began their journey. The huge anticipation over what British and Irish players would get the call, and get their eager hands on the highly coveted red jersey, finally came to its conclusion this morning.

And there were some  surprises. So who got the call? In terms of home nation make up, the squad consists of 15 Welsh, 10 English, 9 Irish and 3 Scots.  Which translates into 6 Props,  3 Hookers, 5 Second Rows, 7 Back Rows, 3 Scrumhalves 2 Outhalves, 4 Centres. 4 Wingers and 3 Fullbacks. Sam Warburton is awarded the captaincy, to no great shock. The massive shock is that the 2nd favourite for the captaincy coming into this week, Chris Robshaw, is omitted entirely. I can only imagine the English captain is distraught and considering what on earth more he could have done to get the call. Beat Wales in the Six Nations decider and be Grand Slam winning captain. That's what. If England win that match, or even merely avoid being comprehensively outplayed, Justin Tupuric or Tom Croft is left behind and Robshaw travels, and, quite conceivably, as captain. That didn't happen, however, and England surrendered their first real chance for Grand Slam glory in 10 years.

Though even as things panned out, why not bring the omnipresent Robshaw anyway (without the captaincy) and leave the over-rated Tom Croft at home? Sure he toured in 2009 and has considerable pace for a back row forward, but so does Sean O'Brien and Justin Tupuric. So why does the English media think he's so good? He's a good option in the lineout, but again so is Jamie Heaslip. Unless, he produces a couple of unprecedented world beating performances, is he ever going to be more than a mid-week player in this tour? Robshaw would certainly have being vying for a test spot. Ostensibly, they opted for versatility rather than specialty.

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Some onlookers were disappointed Brian O'Driscoll missed out on the captaincy.Personally, I'm glad he doesn't have the burden. The Leinster man, arguably,delivers his best performances without the concerns that captaincy brings about. In the 2005 Lions tour to New Zealand when BOD had the captaincy,he under performed, albeit with his chance to exhibit his ability in the Test arena robbed of him by Rugby criminals Tanu Umaga and Kevin Mealamu 

(yes I haven't forgotten or forgiven). Though in 2009, when Paul O'Connell was tour captain, BOD was the best player of the tour, and probably the

world that year - the fact that he didn't get IRB player of the year was a 

shambolic farce (yes I haven't forgotten that either).  Paul O'Connell, on the other hand, can he do for the lions what he does for the red of Munster? I say this because he has never really produced his imperious,unstoppable form in an Ireland jersey. For instance, his colossal effort in the Heineken Cup quarter-final against Harlequins, was game changing and probably won the game. Hopefully he can transport these tenacious efforts to the Lions.

Another fascinating story revealed yesterday with the squad announcement concerned Jonny Wilkinson. Seemingly, Wilko was to be the 38th man of the squad but told Warren Gatland not to include him, presumably so as he could concentrate on his club, Toulon's, Top 14 and Heineken Cup endeavours. Though, don't think for one minute if he is completely available he will evade the alluring call of a third Lions tour. Love him or hate him, the man is a class act.
He should have been one of the world's greatest sporting figures except he was notoriously hampered by injuries and the bulk of his career has been plighted by his extensive injury list. A moment that sums him up manifested in the Saracens Toulon Heineken Cup Semi. Wilko dropped into the pocket during the last 5 minutes of the game, evaded Owen Farrell's last ditch attempt to smother his drop at goal. While still getting his kick away, he was felled by the young England fly-half, and on the ground the two players propped their heads up to learn the fate of the ball. When it became apparent that it would pass through the posts to put the French side out of sight, a dejected Farrell received a genuine consoling pat on the back from Wilkinson , before the rest of the Toulon players ripped him off the ground to congratulate their talisman on slotting, what would be, the winning score. He'd be perfect for the Lions tour. He could come on after an hour to close out tight games, and secure leads established by Jonathan Sexton.

So what does the rest of the selections mean? Austin Healey tweeted 'crash, bang and wallop....route one Aussies now know what to expect'. Admittedly, the Lions selection committee seemed to have opted for muscle and belligerence. Why not though, Australia seem vulnerable to the aggressive approach, Ireland proved this in the  2011 World Cup when they bossed the Aussie forwards and shut down Quade Cooper and his backs. Time will tell how the journey, starting in Hong Kong don't forget, will pan out. No doubt a myriad of different theories and strategies will emerge from now until then on who to play in what position, (probably mainly concerning the back row) and who will start the Test matches. Lets just pray now that there is no injuries or suspensions (remember Alan Quinlan in 2009?) in the remaining fixtures of the domestic and European season. 

Cannibal, or Suarez, as he likes to be called, receives 10 match ban

Luis Suarez's history of this sort of thing, his ban for racism last year, and (allegedly) pressure from 10 Downing Street on the FA, culminates in a severe ban which makes the Uruguayan miss the remainder of the season and the start of next season, presuming he stays at Liverpool of course  We can hardly be surprised amid the controversy proliferating in the media this week.

Actually, never mind this week, on Sunday directly after the incident took place, Graeme Souness could barely articulate how much of a calamity this would be for Suarez and Liverpool. As Souness deems Liverpool as 'his' club, it seemed he was already on a damage limitation mission by not voicing just how atrocious the act was. He called it 'embarrassing'. No offence Graeme or to Liverpool supporters but "embarrassing" is loosing to West Bromwich Albion 3-0 on the first day of the season. This is a heinous crime of the sporting world. And the fact that the perpetrator has two other previous infringements, only serves to exacerbate the situation into a new, unforgiving realm.  It was left to Jamie Redknapp, a former Liverpool captain, to spell out what this meant for all parties concerned; disrepute for player, club, country and sport.

What is with all this caper in sport recently? Just three Saturdays ago, Stade Francais scrum-half Jerome Fillol spat in the face of Irish Scrum-half Peter Stringer, in the Amlin Challenge Cup quater-final between Stade and Bath. Two particularly unpleasant, unsanitary and darn right nasty acts in just one month. Are their mothers on holiday?And why have they not been scolded and forbidden to go on the swings for a fortnight?

For that offence, Fillol earned himself a fourteen week ban, (swings not included). What's next? Rafael Nadal gets his hair pulled by a ball boy, Rory Mcilroy gets wedgied by Tiger Woods or a Champion boxer takes a chunk from his opponent with his teeth in a title bout, and twelve years later acts in one of the most successful comedy films of the past decade? O wait.

Though in all seriousness, presuming the French scrumhalf has a match every week from when the ban is introduced, that could amount to a 14 match ban. So spitting is worse than biting eh? Or maybe Rugby just imposes harsher sanctions. Probably the latter.

Though back to Suarez for a second. In terms of the actual act; Branislav Ivanovic will probably have been left with nothing worse than something akin to a love bite. The Serbian wasn't exactly on the end of a leg-breaking tackle or a jaw shattering sucker punch. For me, it is the striker's split second of premeditation that is the shocking part. You can see it when he is tangled with the defender, just before he makes that lunge over to sink his teeth into Ivanovic's arm, Suarez appears to make a split second decision to commit this act. Its animalistic and not unlike something you would see one of the zombies on 'The Walking Dead' do

Insert compulsory zombie picture here

So what becomes of Luis Suarez now? Stay in English football and never really live this whole thing down? Or go to one of the other major European leagues and never really live this whole thing down? This recent scandal, coupled with the other hefty ones in his nightmarish closet for PR and marketing surely has an affect on his value in the transfer market. As anyone will tell you, he is a gifted footballer, one of the best (if not the best) in the Premier League and worth easily above £30m or £40m. Now top clubs after his signature will look for some sort of special Suarez disaster discount. Which will will include Multiple Provisos and money back guarantees in his contract. £5m back for using twitter when unsupervised, £10m back for biting someone's nose off, his full transfer fee back plus a further £25m paid to the buying club by Liverpool if said player turns out to be a mad, xenophobic fascist.

Lets not get carried away yet.

• Lets not get carried away yet.
  
  First of, what Ireland produced on Saturday was encouraging and exciting. The unprecedented dominance of the contact area was staggering, especially considering the back line behmoths that Wales possessed in their ranks. Simon Zebo and Craig Gilroy against North and Cuthbert looks like a bit of a mismatch on paper. However, largely speaking, the two Irish wingers Made all the right decisions when called into action, notably Gilroy's crunching tackle on Leigh Halfpenny. For the forwards, the amount of tackles and work rate they got through was remarkable. The omnipresent Rory Best was belligerent and relentless in defence. Some of the best Flankers around would have been proud of his disruptive work on the ground, especially the turnover he won when wales were nearly underneath the Irish posts. Sean O'Brien and Mike McCarthy's tackle count was through the roof. There was never really a moment in the first half when our hearts were in the mouth, an ominous breach of our defences never really came into fruition due to industrious and unrelenting endeavours from 1-15.
  
  And what about in attack. Much has been said about Brian O'Driscoll's commanding performance throughout the game. His movement and pass for Zebo's try was simply sublime. George Hook claimed he has never seen a better pass throughout his rugby career. Admittedly, one struggles to find a better pass or even an instance when so much was made of a single distribution in a match. Maybe something from Stephen Larkham's repatoire.
  
  

  

  
  BOD claimed after the match that it doesn't make a difference whether he has the captain's armband or not, he still leads and 'helps out jamie where he can'. However If we cast our minds back to the Lions in 2009, BOD looked like he had more freedom (mental or otherwise)to display his world class abilities without regimental restrictions thus producing mesmerising performances in the red of the lions. If only more consideration was given to changing the Irish captaincy shortly after that tour, or at least experimenting here and there, we could have seen more of these world beating passes and unplayable performances in the 6 nations.Alas hindsight is always 20/20
  
  This is all well and good, but its dangerous to get carried away. Especially when taking into account Wales' dismal first half display. They look lost without their mastermind coach Warren Gatland. And Jonathan Davies unequivocally having his worst outing in a welsh shirt, disrupting any fluidity in midfield. Jamie Roberts' impact on the game was minimal. And Perhaps, not enough has been made of Rhys Priestland's absence. For Wales to salvage their campaign it is now paramount that the young fly half returns as soon as possible because Biggar, who to be fair hasn't much experience at this level failed for the most part to Marshall his back line and did not stamp his mark on the game. Whereas Sexton was the opposite. Wales were out of sorts and they won't always wield that train-like momentum that the millennium stadium generates that yields consecutive scores which seen them come back into the game in the second half.
  

  

  
  

  
  
  Ostensibly, England will pose quite a different test. They looked impressive against Scotland, albeit not as magnificent as their media would have you believe, but nonetheless a force to be reckoned with. They might loose their barnstorming number 8 Ben Morgan which, evidently, will change the balance of their back row with the likely alternative being Tom Wood and moving James Haskell to blind side  For England, it is readily visible that Beating the all blacks in December was massive for them (as with anyone to be fair) and Manu Tuilagi was instrumental in that victory. He's important to this English side and with his comeback likely on Sunday and with our somewhat inconsistent home record at the Aviva, England will certainly fancy their chances. Though if I'm saying not get carried away from an Irish point of view, then that goes double for England, for English sport is usually poisoned by over hyping and unrealistic expectations which to be fair on English Squads they can do nothing about their over zealous, and at times poisonous media. Though this time they could be the real deal and will be concious how pivotal this fixture is.
  
  Though if messieurs O'driscoll, O'Brien and Best have similar days at the office like they did in Cardiff on Saturday, i say bring it on.