Getting on my Nerves

Liverpool, my oh my. Up to now, I think I have not blogged something postive about my favourite club.

I am very puzzled as to why maxi and spearing is in today's lineup. Put Aurelio as left back, switch Glen Johnson to right winger, put babel in on the left of midfield and lastly, throw in Joe Cole behind Torres.

I just don't understand why and how today's result is it is as it happened. Skrtel at fauly? Well, probably. Where is the cover then? Why aren't they taking chances there? Maxi seems to be going on a solo mission. With no one marking Torres, Maxi for goodness sake, pass it to him.

This can't go on too long man. 10 Losses. How do we even get into the top 6? It is like making the entire team climb Mount Everest without any prior training. Sell Poulsen, Jovanovic, Konchesky and Kuyt. Bring in an experience striker or young one( Lukaku?), another quality CM and then cure the left back problem. The entire midfield is aging, and the young ones are not up to scratch. I forgot to add another player to the shopping list, centre backs.

I am in favour with what the new owners think. Yes, we need to train the young. But, the short term problem still needs to be solved! I can't imagine we get sucked into a relegation battle, and that is it. We can forget about training the young. Those crazy salary that the team is drawing will have to be the burden the owners have to carry it. I shudder at those thoughts that may shatter to bring down the glorious history that is emobodied by this club....

Release of O level Results!

Nothing much to complain about the first week. 3 day work week. What more to ask for? Hopefully, tutorial bidding will turn up what I have wished for.

Readings and more readings. This , I am not complaining about. Somehow, it feels kind of funny and yet happy at the same time. All those thoughts I had since I was in Secondary school is all surfacing now in these readings. It makes me somehow feel as if I am connected to them in a certain level. I am delighted to have "met" them right now, but kind of worrying if it is kind of too late. No matter how much people are saying that University is an educational institution that you can excel in what you are really interested in, there are deeper underlying traps that one has to be careful of. Yes, you can deepen your interest in a particular subject, but to excel, it is a whole new ball game. The playing field has raised up to the top 18% of the cohort, or so the census says,.( I was merely just copied the findings that 18% of Singaporeans are holding a degree. I am wrong here... but , nvm), in addition to the never ending stream of foreign students seeking for a globally recognized degree, the education landscape in Singapore has evolved.

The recent O levels has once again proved that the local kids are facing immense pressure. I was scouring through STOMP( the best gossip website by a local press) , and of course, it is not surprising to see Singaporeans complaining how our local boys and girls are losing out again. A typical Singaporean response to such controversial issue. Complain, and not constructive solution. So what is my purpose of mentioning this issue. I'm not complaining about the increasing trend of foreign students dominating the local examinations, I will just highlight 2 issues that Singaporeans are not looking deeper into.

First, many of our top students are now in the through train programmes. To say that our local kids are not up to the mark , is really somewhat unfair. I say , wait for the A-level results, then make another judgement again. The top 15% are still our nation's best are probably mugging real hard for the A levels, while the remaining 85% of their cohort has to take the blame for underperforming. In a nutshell, the comparison is just short of the word, fair.

Secndly, the batch of students who took the O level last year had to compete with the foreign students who had already, back in their home ground, completed the syllabus for Mathematics, Science and Mother Tongue. What is left for them to "conquer" is English and Humanities. I have a gut feeling that they had already completed much of humanities, and what is left is Social Studies.In comparison, we can definitely see that the local students are already on the disadvantaged end as they have to juggle more subjects in the same amount of time, as compared to their foreign peers whom only need to clear fewer subjects. Hence, it is unfair to put the blame on the kids, and rather, we should shift our attention to who allowed such culpable competition to exist in the first place?

In this age where the wave of globalisation, it is hard for Singapore, a small country so vulnerable to the vagaries of external events to resist it. It is time for the people to accept the fact that we need to accept people not from our mother land. We recieve them in open arms, making sure they are the right ones that can contribute to our economy. While both parties continue to exploit each other for mutual benefits, Singaporeans have to always think ahead, making sure that what we can tap is more than what they can extract from us.

A dog-eat-dog world, but a cruel fact of life.

Time to sleep. More readings to clear. And more blogging to continue =D

So it all begins again

Yup, School is back for more action once again.

Most of us started off with a hole in the pocket. The textbooks for all the modules cost so much. Scary! Everything is rising, except wages, our CAP, my weight, my height , my muscle growth...

But anyway, first week is up for me already. The bidding for tutorial starts tmr and may my hope of a 3 day week be fulfilled. 4 days or rest versus 3 days of school. Cool!

Dinner time for me. Now

Demise of the Reds

7 Wins 4 Draws 9 Lost. Numbers do not lie, neither do the patience of the fans.

After watching, the painful defeat at Ewood Park, it is time we bade goodbye to Hodgson. He is a man of good character, but not a man with the calibre enough to lead Liverpool out of the storm. Brought in just at the start of the season, the primary objective was to stabilise the ship in the "storm" and reach the minimum target of 4th place. The first game versus Arsenal gave the fans the optimism that a new change of fate has arrived. Sadly, it wasn't to be. An uncharacteristic error by Reina made us lose 2 points. Never mind about that, it wasn't your fault, it was Reina. We met Northampton Town in the Carling Cup. Half of the Liverpool team were international players, hence it should not have been labelled as the second string team. There should have been enough quality to see off the opposition. The final score was an embarrassment for to be mentioned again.

A couple more draws and losts were common on the scoresheet, not up to the match against Chelsea, the fans saw a glimpse of hope. Torres was back! Fantastic all round game. But so what? We lost the next few games. All the hard work were gone to waste. New owners renewed their faith in Hodgson, brought in Damien Comolli. "Developing young players is our target," so the they say.

2010 ended in disastrous fashion and basically, summed up a dreadful year for one of the most successful club in England. Wolves! Can you believe it?? A team in 20th position. King Kenny called for support, new owners renewed support. Fans were peeved, we demand the head of Hodgson. Some wanted Rafael Benitez, who was sacked by Inter Milan despite winning the World Club Championship, to be reinstalled. I am personally not in favour of that. Why? More boardroom drama will ensue, as the new owners seem to be very possessive and with Damien Comolli, one can expect Benitez to start complaining to the press about the lack of funds or support in the transfer market.

Final straw came in the last hour. Another away defeat, this time at Ewood Park. It is seldom , we have to use these 3 words, "another away defeat".

Horrible defending by the defence. Where was the communication between the players? The so on-from Soto can actually clashed with Leiva while challenging for the ball. The comical scene lead to a disastrous ending when Benjani capitalised on it and scored the second.

Joe Cole can perform if you give him the chance, he showed in in this match. Gerrard's penalty miss was somehow expected. Before he took the kick, he sighed and this body action is quite obvious to any human being on planet earth. It is a sign of pessimism.

Well, we are now closer to a relegation dogfight, rather than a 4th place finish. Will we end up like Leeds? I am really afraid, very afraid. But no matter what, I will stick by the players. We once attained 2nd in the EPL, with a majority of the players in the current squad. Hodgson simply does not have what it takes to bring this club back to its glory past. We lost our once captivating attacking style of football, our determination that won us so many glorious comebacks, and of course, the many trophies that graced the trophy cabinet.

Time for you to leave Roy. No manager has been sacked by Liverpool, they were always asked to leave on mutual consent. You may be the first, but I hope you can just submit your resignation letter immediately, walk out with a label that you were once managed one of Europe's most successful club, rather than being notoriously sacked.

Goodbye Roy. Goodbye.