The English FA finally settled the fiasco over naming the next permanent England manager. The four man FA panel finally made a decision to replace the departed Fabio Capello with Roy Hodgson. The current West Bromwich Albion boss will depart Premier League club West Brom at the end of the EPL season, and will set to work on organising England ahead of their seemingly uphill battle at Euro 2012.

The panel decided to go totally against the fans-choice of Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp and instead opted for Hodgson, who becomes the thirteenth permanent manager of England. Hodgson is the first England manager to be instilled in the hot seat who has international experience behind him. Granted it was with Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and Finland, but it is international experience nonetheless.

This is just about the safest option that the FA could really have gone with. With the whole country and football world just about expecting Harry Redknapp to be called up to the FA Headquarters for a chat, it just didn't happen. Instead of choosing someone who has built a career around getting teams to play attractive successful football, the FA overlooked Redknapp for the more cautious and steady-handed approach of Roy Hodgson. It is almost an average choice for an average team.

Fabrice Muamba made a welcome return to the Reebok Stadium on Wednesday night, as the Bolton player was subjected to a respectful and heartfelt reception. Back on March 17^th, 2012 in an FA Cup tie against Tottenham, Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest in the match, which had to be abandoned. After being clinically dead for 78 minutes, the twenty four year old was finally released from hospital on April 16^th.

Muamba is still under rehabilitation, but it is from his home, and there clearly is not going to be any word for a while, as to whether or not he is going to ever play professionally again. But it was a hero's welcome for the Zaire-born midfielder on Wednesday night, as he turned up to watch the Trotters' crucial home match in the Premier League against Tottenham. His appearance set the tone for an emotional night, it didn't however, translate into three points for Bolton, as they lost heavily 4-1, leaving them staring relegation in the face.

But it is the feel good factor about the miracle of a life being saved that is far more important here. Muamba wanted to turn up at the Reebok Stadium and show his support for the team and for the fans, but it was the fans who feverishly returned the favour to him. Muamba was greeted with a hugely respectful degree of cheers and applause by both sets of fans on Wednesday night. It is good to see a young, happy smiling face in this situation.

The Premier League knows for definite now, two of the three new teams who will be joining their ranks next season, as Southampton and Reading have earned automatic promotion to England's top flight. The regular season of the Championship came to a close on Saturday, with elation for the Saints and the Royals, with the teams finishing third through sixth, having to go through a play off route to earn the final spot in the Barclays Premier League.

Reading, despite a defeat on the final day of the season, topped the pile by a single point, to be crowned Championship Champions for the 2011/12 season.

Reading were in blistering form since the turn of the year, winning all but six of their twenty two league matches since the turn of the year Not bad for a side who had picked up just four wins between August and November. At the start of November, Reading were sitting a lowly 16^th in the table, with promotion to the Premier League not even on the radar. But now, after a remarkable run of form, Reading are set to make a return to the top flight after an absence of four years. The guidance of manager Brian McDermott has been crucial and he will be ready to have a crack at the big names in the Premier League.

Much hype was made about the goal that Chelsea's Fernando Torres scored late in the game at the Nou Camp against Barcelona. It was the goal that sealed the London side's progress through to the Champions League at the expense of the defending champions. That goal, dubbed as the £50 million goal, was wildly celebrated by Chelsea fans, but it sounded the death knell on the career of Pep Guardiola as Barcelona boss.

After a meeting with the club president on Friday, Pep Guardiola announced that he could no longer go on. So the great Barcelona, the Barcelona that he built from the ground up, will be without one of the most highly regarded coaches in the history of the game. The Fernando Torres goal was simply the straw that broke the camel's back, because the Champions League exit came on the back of a home defeat in a league title decider against La Liga rivals Real Madrid. So the Spanish League title and the Champions League slipped through Guardiola's hands in the space of a week.

Guardiola will walk away from the high profile Barcelona managerial hot-seat at the end of the season, and of course, the news prompted a frenzy of media speculation as to where he would end up next. Guardiola is a fan of the English Premier League and there have been rumours linking him to the Chelsea job for most of the season now. However, for a man who would be in such high demand, Guardiola himself is simply taking things easy. He stated that "I'm not interested in coaching now.  There are more things than football."  So the plan, at the moment at least, is for Guardiola to take some time away from the game and rest.

Mental acumen and toughness is likely going to be the big key in the close-out of the English Premier League season. There is little doubt about just what the potential game of the season may be in the English Premier League. It is coming. It is less than a week away. Monday, April 30^th, sees a Manchester derby as rivals United and City go head to head in what will be a crucial title showdown.

Manchester City have an expensively assembled squad at their disposal, under the guidance of manager Roberto Mancini. After spending big over the past couple of seasons, they fell short in the 2010/11 title race, but learned their lessons and came back even stronger this year.

Manchester United are going for their thirteenth Premier League title, so they really have nothing to prove to anyone. All of the experience is with the steady hand of Manchester United and manager Sir Alex Ferguson. The Red Devils arguably don't have the quality or depth in strength in their squad as their neighbours do, but they have experience. They have experience of winning, and no price can be put on that.

The set up is pretty simple for this match. There are just three games left in the season for both sides now, and it is the red side of the city, Manchester United, who hold a three point ascendancy at the top of the table going into the big showdown. United are the current title holders, the defending champions, and they know that just holding out for a draw will be good enough. But the match is away at the home of their rivals, the Etihad Stadium. Anything less than a win for Manchester City, would essentially put them out of the running for the title. Three points for City would see them pull level with United, but City would actually claw their way into top spot with two games remaining, because they have a better goal difference than United.

Euro 2012 may be on the horizon for the summer, but there is also the not so small matter of the Olympic Games football tournaments to be enjoyed as well. This summer's Olympic Games are being hosted by London, and with the passionate, feverish British love of the beautiful game, the matches will be well attended and supported. But both the British Men's and Women's teams have been handed tough draws in their respective events.

In the men's Olympic football draw, Team GB were drawn alongside Senegal (who could select prolific Newcastle United duo Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse), the United Arab Emirates and Uruguay (who may have Liverpool's Luis Suarez). Coached by Stuart Pearce, who is also the caretaker England boss at the moment, Team GB Men's Olympic side will open against Senegal on July 26^th. An immensely dedicated Senegal were the last team to qualify for the Olympics, beating Oman in a play off. The United Arab Emirates meanwhile, topped the Asian Olympic qualifying Group B. So there will be tough challenges to come for Pearce, who has to try and assemble some of the best players that Britain has to offer.

Newcastle United are in line to make a return to European football next season, after proving to be one of the big surprise packages of the Premier League season. It has been a remarkable turnaround from when Alan Pardew stepped into the Magpies' hot seat back in December of 2010. Pardew steadied a ship that many thought wasn't in too bad of a shape under previous boss Chris Hughton, and a 12^th place finish in the Premier League didn't exactly set standards and optimism too high for the following season.

However, the shrewd business deals of Pardew, has catapulted Newcastle to the brink of getting back into Europe. Even Pardew himself admits that Newcastle are about a year ahead of their planned progress under his five and a half year deal as manager, so that is nothing to be sniffed at. Throughout his managerial career, Pardew has courted his fair share of controversy. He allegedly quit as Reading manager when West Ham were refused permission to approach him, just so he could get the job with the Londoners. There was the publicised fall out with Southampton club chairman Nicola Cortese, and several media outbursts.

Pardew may not be a Geordie, but he doesn't hold his tongue and only a man like that, a strong natured, take-me-as-I-come sort, can walk into St James' Park and win over the fans. Pardew went to St James' Park when a poll of Magpies fans resulted in only 5% wanting him as the next boss. Pardew had to win over the dressing room, as well as having to stamp his authority on tactics and transfer dealings. It is in the latter area where Pardew has really flourished. He signed Yohan Cabaye in the summer of 2011. He picked up Demba Ba on a free transfer. He landed a bargain priced Papiss Cisse in the January 2012 transfer window, and all have been assets. Offloading Andy Carroll for $35 million in January 2011 though, may still have been his greatest bit of transfer work.