You think Rory Delap is good with his long throws? Wait till you see Leah from Brazil. She shows you how she does it in Sambaland. Currently starring in Fifa Women’s U-20 World Cup.
Oh and regarding the white tiger attack in the zoo, a video is available. Warning: watching the video means you are as mentally psychotic as me. Find it yourself in DailyMotions if you are so interested.
There is no hope for humanity when people actually want to post such videos.
Arsenal has just finished the 6th of their friendly games. A few more to go before we face Steve McClaren and FC Twente in the Champions League Qualifying game. So far so good, the midfield is still bossing the play as usual, but the attack lacks a bit of bite upfront. Hopefully the strikers will get sharper before the season begins.
This season’s Arsenal team is getting younger if its even possible. Well it is, considering that Cesc, who seems to be around for quite some time already but is still only 21, is already the man with the 2nd most number of appearances in the team behind Kolo Toure.
Target
The target this year will be to win a trophy. Win a trophy, Cesc will be happy to stay and we can build a solid team around him. The Premier League will be a tough one with Man Utd managed to hang on to Ronaldo, Chelski just keep getting more players in and the mugsmashers (Ha, free treat to anyone who knows why pool fans are called mugsmashers without checking the internet.) brought in Keano. We will be able to sustain a challenge if we keep ourselves relatively injury free, but with Van Persie and Rosicky in the team, that is at least 30 games lost between them. Arsenal might not last the pace, and with Wenger seldom going for any massive rotations in his 1st eleven, the league may be still out of the reach this year. A more reasonable trophy will be to aim for Champions League and FA cup, especially in the FA cup, where Wenger likes to play some fresher legs. As for the Carling Cup, maybe not, since the carling cup squad may probably get so young that Jack Wilshere and Jay Simpson may be the senior players of the team, a bit too inexperienced.
Ins and Outs
In: Aaron Ramsey, Samir Nasri, Carlos Vela, Amaury Bischoff
Promoted from reserves: Vito Mannone, Jack Wilshere (maybe)
Out: Gilberto, Aleksander Hleb, Mathieu Flamini, Jens Lehmann
As usual, out goes some experienced players, and in comes younger replacements. Vela and Nasri are definitely 2 exciting prospects, Ramsey pops out of nowhere while Wenger describes unknown Bischoff as a gamble. Flamini is a big boot to fill. I am not sure whether Ramsey is the one though. Out of the current squad, I will prefer putting Song (1st choice) or Diaby (2nd) alongside Cesc, although I do prefer Wenger getting a more experienced central midfielder in, Gareth Barry anyone? Hleb is skillful, no doubt. But seriously, he should have contributed much more to Arsenal than his 10 goals in 3 seasons. I am sure Nasri is more than capable to fill his boots. And there is Walcott too, so I am not too worried about the loss of Hleb.
Players to watch/get rid?
Carlos Vela plays with a similar style to our dear dudu (hope he can come back by Christmas). A natural goal scorer, hopefully he can adapt to the rough and tough of English football and make an instant impact. I foresee him being more of a substitute for Van Persie in games at least for the first half of the year.
Jack Wilshere. Only 16, he seems almost able to take on the physical challenges of the premier league already. The mere mention of his name will excite any Arsenal fan. He is the next great hope out of the academy. And hopefully, he can do what Robert Pires has contributed to Arsenal in the past.
Emmanuel Eboue. Get rid of him. Or at least just be a deputy for Sagna. I never liked him. A diver, actor and total disgrace to the football club. It is a great mystery why Wenger is still keeping him, and playing him on the right wing as first choice at times.
Denilson. Ermm.. unable to usurp Cesc’s place, and I will rather play Rosicky or Nasri in the center if Cesc is unavailable, Denilson does not fit in. His qualities are not good enough yet, but at least youth is on his side.
Bendtner, A poorer version of Adebayor. We don’t need 2 strikers with poor touches and need a zillion tries a la Andy Cole before scoring. Ade and Bendtner cannot play together, but the good thing about them is their physical size. We need some striker who can head, and Bendtner is still ahead of Ade on this count though.
Manuel Almunia. Does not have the aura a goalkeeper should have, even with his bleached hair. A good goalkeeper must always exude an aura that gives confidence in his defence or scare the shit out of the opposition. Good goalkeepers like Cech, Reina, Buffon and van der Sar all exhibit this quality. Almunia.. nah.. How I wished we managed to sign Gomes instead of Spurs and offload Almunia to Blackburn instead. Gomes is a pretty decent goalkeeper I think, and most importantly he has the aura. I hope Wenger signs some good keeper with the aura.
Looking foward to the new season!
Firstly congratulations to Spain.
Attacking football reigns supreme again after the Greeks won Euro 2004 and Italia won World Cup 2006. My prediction almost came through too. Got the finalists correct, but the winner wrong. Guess I am like Ballack. We are the ‘almost’ people. For those of you who don’t know soccer, Ballack is the almost guy, if there is a count of the number of runner up medals a footballer gets, he surely has to rank among the top. He was in Bayern Leverkusen when they came in runner up in 3 competitions, and this year with Chelsea, he is runner up in another 3. And now you can add another runner up medal to his trophy cabinet. Too bad, but the better team won so he can’t complain too much.
And talking about Ballack reminds me of my previously stated similarities of him with Ana Ivanovic, the new French Open champion in tennis but got knocked out disappointingly in Wimbledon though. Anyone other than me who thinks the 2 of them look alike?
Now that the football is over and also having finished Forensic Heroes 2, I promised myself to do a lot of things. And that includes updating my blog more often. Well I was thinking since I want to write a blog, I should update it regularly and not neglect it. It is like cutting my nails. I should do it every week (even though my girlfriend thinks that I am crazy to cut nails every week) and not wait and wait, always delaying the writing until I really have the mood.
And lastly, something to talk about politics in Singapore and this man.
I have always reserved thoughts about him, maybe a little too stupid and extreme for his own good based on reports from the mainstream media. But my apathetic views on him and the opposition parties in Singapore were stimulated when MM Lee called Dr Chee a near-psychopath. I personally feel that is a little too overboard. If he is mad, then why are there still so many people supporting him? Are they all mad too. There is a nice article here which can express what I feel better. I personally have been a bit disappointed with the government in the last year or so. Sorry that I voted for the PAP last GE. I always thought that a government without opposition will be able to bypass all the squabbling with opposition (like in Taiwan) and implement policies efficiently for the good of its citizenry. This government system can be very useful when the policies are very necessary and may probably benefit the citizens as a whole in the long run but will not gain popularity with the majority of citizens. But when the policies are lame, such as increasing salary of civil servants, putting ERP on every road and increasing public transport costs, I realise the bad advantage of such a powerful government. Without the need to be accountable, they can just implement whatever they like, and always making it sound like it is for the overall good for the citizens.
I am sorry I made a mistake with my vote, please gimme another chance. And we probably need more Dr CSJ to come out and stand for the interests of the people. You risk going to jail though (note that CSJ has gone to jail 6 times now) and always get painted in a bad picture by the mainstream media. But I shall end this post with a quote from him: If you have truth on your side and you know your cause to be just, you need never fear your rulers and what they do to you.
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Man in Haifa 