³ÉÈËÂÛ̳

Martin Keown went to Arsenal's training ground to interview last week but had to hang around for a while as Sol was having a massage.

When he finally got back to ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Telelvision Centre, Martin and I made our way to the studio to record .

We sat down on the steps at the front of the set and, while the cameraman was setting up, Keown - mid tuna sandwich - had something he needed to say...

Martin: "I read your blog this week Dan. [chomp] Do you write that yourself?"
Dan: "Yeah."
Martin: "We need to do some work on that, don't we?"
Dan: "What do you mean?"
Martin: "What was all that rubbish about sandwiches? [chomp]
Dan: "I'm just trying to make it a little different. Plus, everyone loves a sandwich don't they?"
Martin: "I don't [really big chomp]. We can make it a lot better."

Read the rest of this entry

Right, straight down to it. This week there are four things to cover:

1. A little behind-the-scenes action on last week's opening;
2. An idea of what an assistance producer does and how you could be one;
3. The greatest ever sandwich filling;
4. Something Lawro said on the sofa last Saturday.

First up, the opener. You might remember that last Saturday's Focus began with plenty of shots of me strolling around with some London landmarks in the background. We had the , the , , , the , and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ TV Centre.

Read the rest of this entry

Great news! My chin has finally defrosted after on Saturday. I really enjoyed the show, but we did get a few complaints from people who weren't happy about a perceived Arsenal bias. I've had a good chat with the editor and there are a few things we need to point out in response.

First up, I think it's important to say that we are not obsessed with the 'Big Four'. After all, our first three out-and-about shows this season were at , and .

Secondly, these programmes are usually divided into three sections. The first 15 minutes are effectively a match preview, the middle section focuses on other issues, while the last 15 are used to take a look behind the scenes at our chosen club.

On Saturday, there were only two matches on - v and v .

We had hoped to speak to Birmingham manager Alex McLeish but he wasn't able to talk to us (he will be on this Saturday), while our planned chat about the game at St Andrew's had to be dropped from the programme when we got the .

Read the rest of this entry

Happy New Year everyone! I am currently considering ways to get rid of my little Christmas gut. I think there might be a gym membership on the cards and some sort of fig roll-free zone until March.

Anyway, this week's offering needs a disclaimer. There will be some people mentioned in here that many will consider famous. There will be several mentions in here of me playing football with these so-called "famous" types. Under no circumstances does this mean that I am:
a) lost in showbiz;
b) turning into a celebrity-loving fool;
c) struggling to remove my head from my own backside.

Now we have got that sorted, let us continue. A few weeks ago I got a phone call from a lovely lady at Umbro. She left me a message on the mobile of dreams. It went something like this:

Read the rest of this entry