Who's This Balotelli Clown?

Who's this Balotelli clown?

Even Mourinho could not handle him. What chance does Mancini have?

I just can't understand why Manchester City is still keeping him. They have enough players to dump the Balo fellow a long time ago.

Just why they have not done so, must surely puzzle many an MC fan..

It is never good to have a disruptive character in a team. Fireworks are good for the new year celebrations, but never good for the bath, whether it is your own or somebody else's.

You can do what you want in your own space. Nobody gives a damn, unless what you do is to bash up some guys or shoot sparks in someone's eyes, except your own.

That guy is still in his diapers, as far as maturity is concerned.

Dump him!

Now it seems that Mancini himself needs to be dumped, a hundred times!

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Rajagopal, Don't Be A Jaguh Kampung!

After the Malaysian team managed to beat Indonesia 2-0 last night to qualify for the semi-final of the on-going AFF Suzuki Cup tournament, coach Rajagopal came out to say that he was not concerned about what his critics had to say about his team (Star Sport 3 Dec 2012)

He was quoted by Star Sport to have said

At the end of the day I've no regrets because I'm happy to have done something for Malaysian football

I want to remind Rajagopal not to count the chicken before it is hatched. We have not won the tournament yet.

And even if we eventually manage to retain the Cup, the AFF Suzuki Cup is only a mosquito tournament.

Show us that we are champions at the Asian level. And show us that consistently.

At a time when both Japan and South Korea, whom we used to consistently beat in the past, qualify regularly not only for the Olympics but also for the Fifa World Cup finals, we are only content to gloat over village level achievement like winning the Sea Games tournament and the AFF Suzuki Cup.

And while I am at it, what kind of a venue is the Bukit Jalil Stadium? The pitch is so bad and bouncy that the ball often imitates Psy doing gangnam. How can you play football in this disgraceful condition!

The state of the Bukit Jalil Stadium pitch is symptomatic of the state of Malaysian football.

Not only are we unable to get out of the football rut, we can't even maintain a stadium pitch well enough for decent football to be played.

Rajagopal, stop being a jaguh kampung and being proud of it!

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Arsenal Should Start Enjoying Life As A Demoted Team!

This is likely to be my shortest post in this blog.

Arsenal should start enjoying life as a demoted team. A stint in the lower division will do wonders to their battered spirit.

Their 2-0 to loss Swansea is the last straw.

As I have said several times here, Arsene Wenger has long lost his plot. It is sad that he is still Arsenal's gaffer and not sacked a long time ago.

'In Arsene we trust' must be the most misplaced article of faith.

Arsenal supporters must be masochists par excellence.

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Malaysian Football: Drunken, Toothless Tigers!

I hardly write about Malaysian football.

Because there is nothing to write about, since the footballing heydays of Soh Chin An, Santokh Singh, Mokhtar Dahari, R. Arumugam, James Wong, Chow Chee Keong, Wong Chong Wah and Hassan Sani & Co in the 70s and 80s.

Then, we were the Asian tigers. And we even managed to qualify, not once but, twice for the Olympics.

Now we are just mosquitoes in football. So, I was ROTFL when the Star sport writer R. Manogaran wrote (Star Sport 22 Nov 2012) that it was disappointing that the Malaysian football team had suffered two defeats and only managed two draws in friendlies against lightweight teams in their preparation for the AFC Suzuki Cup tournament.

Dear brother, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Bangladesh and certainly Thailand are not lightweight teams (anymore) compared to the Malaysian football team. We are the minnows now really, there just to make up the numbers.

But I do agree with you that the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) has no clue at all on how to improve the standard of Malaysian football. Do they bother or care? They are just content to let things be. And how can we blame them for their lack of initiative when they have no idea what football is all about, except making up the numbers and letting the world know that at least we still have a football team to talk about?

No wonder we have been staggering around like drunken, toothless tigers who have lost their roar something like three long decades now. Left only to confer datukships and monetary rewards on players and coach on the rare occasions that we managed to win something like the Sea Games a year ago or the insignificant Suzuki Cup the last time around two years back. Ha ha!

And how can we expect Malaysian football to go far when players nowadays act, think and behave more like prima donnas, minus any prima to boast of or about in the first place and officials in the position to instill discipline coyly giving in.

Look at how the Terengganu state football officials recently sacked their state team coach Peter Butler just because the latter dared to take disciplinary action against errant players for lack of discipline and behaving badly for being substituted and perhaps you might have an idea of how difficult it is to uplift the standard of Malaysian football.

Dear R. Manogaran, you are right. Malaysians, including yours truly, no longer give a hoot to Malaysian football.

We are better off enjoying the EPL or even European football, and, like you correctly pointed out, most of us know the names of every player of our favourite EPL team. Few of us, if any, can correctly tell you the names or even some of the names of the Malaysian team.

I, for one, can't tell you even a single name of the current Malaysian team. And I don't care a hoot!

The travesty is that we still call our national football team "Harimau Malaysia" or "Malaysian Tigers"!

Toothless, drunken tigers - more like!

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Is Arsenal RIP As In A Goner ?

Star Sport 5 Nov 2012

I have not written about Arsenal for some time already because there is not much (good) to write about the team.

Arsenal are still finding their feet, and the earlier they succeed in doing so the better it is for them.

But to say that Arsenal as a team is RIP (without RVP - Robin Van Persie) as in a goner following the 2-1 loss to MU, is a little too earlier in the day. The season is still young and there will be many twists and turns yet.

Other than saying Arsene Wenger should go, the first thing I want to say is that Wenger should not play Giroud..

I don't understand why the manager still persists with Giroud when it is obvious that the player is no footballer.

Giroud can't play football. Period. He can't hold a ball, he is even lousy in the air despite his height, does not backtrack to help out his team mates, doesn't know how to score and often loses his footing when challenged,

He is really useless and stands in the way of play.

I would rather have faith in Chamakh. And we need Gervinho of course, not Giroud!

And Arshavin and Walcott on the wings at the same time. If nothing else, Arshavin is one of the few Arsenal players who has the guts to take on defenders and is quite nippy in tight situations. All he needs is more play time.

As for Walcott, Wenger should tell him to stop being one-dimensional.

And tell his team mates to play the long ball to him early so that he could use his strength here to outrun the defenders and cross the ball into the box.

What is the use of having a nippy winger and not play to his strength?

And what has happened to Arteta? That guy seems to have lost his touch, can't string together a decent pass nowadays. And lacking commitment to chase after a 50-50 or even a 60-40 in favour ball like what happened in the match with MU.

Santos? This guy is too much of a tortoise. Why did Wenger not play Jenkinson? What's happened to Wenger? Has the gaffer lost his mental mojos?

Poldoski has suddenly lost his early promise and now plays as if he doesn't know what he is doing.

Arsenal needs to pull up their collective socks unless they really want to RIP as in a goner!

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England: Aha, Sleeping Pills And Sloppy Play

I had wanted to write this post earlier, but anytime is okay now.

Star Sport  19 Oct 2012

It seems that England players had been given sleeping pills the night
before their World Cup qualifying match with Poland which they drew 1-1
with. The clash had earlier been postponed for a day following rain and
a water-logged pitch.

Are we to take that as an excuse for England's sloppy or what some say dozy
display against Poland?

Haha, great essay.

But did the English FA need to use drugs to help players
sleep and better recover before a match? This is the first time I have heard
of such a use! Granted, I am not an expert, but if the result is a dozy one you tell
me what the hell?!

Is future English football going to be dizzy dozy and I don't mean a 'dizzling' one
like as in fantastic?

After England's 5-0 victory over football minnows San Marino earlier, I had cautioned against 
against England gloating over the win. For goodness's sake, San Marino is the
LOWEST ranked football team in the word, even lower placed than the
Bolehland (Malaysia) team!

But you had Roy Hodgson coming out after the 5-0 win praising his young Turks
as fearless heroes and the saviours of English football!

Football is not about fearlessness. It is about skills, strategy,
tactics and team work.

Did Hogson not know this?

I did not watch the telecast of that England-Poland match and I do not intend to.

I have no confidence in the present England squad, with or without Rooney,
much less in Hodgson now.

And England should stop focusing on one player for heroics. The sooner England
is weaned from focusing on Rooney, the better it will be for the team as a whole.
A man does not a team make.

England may or may not eventually qualify for the finals in Brasil; I do hope they not
qualify anyway. The present England squad do not deserve to qualify.

And if England do qualify, at the rate and the way they are going, I don't see
them going beyond the second round.

Sleeping pills, anyone?  

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Should England Gloat?

Should England gloat over their 5-0 victory over San Marino?

Against a country whose population is a mere 32,404 and whose team is ranked way down at 207 in Fifa world ranking, England struggled for some 34 mins before opening score, and that too via a penalty kick.

Had there not been a penalty awarded, who knew what the final outcome might have been?

And it was not as if the rest of the goals came from English brillance as from San Marino comedy.

And what was that with Roy Hodgson vis-a-vis Theo Walcott?

Having not started with Walcott in the qualifers since taking over from Capello, why did Hodgson do it  when it should have been a snap against minnows San Marino even without Walcott?

And Walcott duly rewarded Hodgson's stupidity by getting injured. Now Wenger would just love to give Hodgson a well deserved tongue lashing.

And perhaps too, Fifa should stop insulting football fans by allowing teams (like San Marino) that can't play football, to play in the World Cup qualifiers.

A sure way to kill fans' interest is to have a mismatch made in hell.

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