For You Smudge

Those words were emblazoned on the t-shirts worn by the United players after they beat Wigan 4-0 in the Carling Cup final. For those who dont know what they mean, "For You Smudge" refers to Alan Smith, who broke his leg and dislocated his ankle while playing in the F.A.Cup against Liverpool. It was a real freakish injury which happen after he fell on his left leg while blocking a freekick. I'm pretty sure the first thing that crossed his mind after hearing his leg snap is "oh fuck, i wont be playing football for a while". You see, the thing that every sportsman fears is injury because it'll keep him/her from doing something that he/she loves for some time. However, not everyone understands the passion and love these sportsmen have for their sport. After i got injured, some people told me "hey, it's only a game" or "there are other games that you can play" or "dont need to play football anymore la". Of course i dont consider myself a sportsman but i love football as much as any footballer does. So, to these people, i would like to share with you something that Bill Shankly, arguably Liverpool's greatest manager, famously said,

"Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I'm very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that".

I'm sure that anyone who's in love with the beautiful game would share the same sentiment. Anyway, I'm lucky to have family and friends who are supportive of my rehabilitation and who are also hoping to see me play football again. Thank you so much for the encouragement.

I read that Gabby Heinze could return to action before the end of the season and Smithy could be back early next season. Damn it, it takes longer to heal a reconstructed ligament than a broken leg. Sigh... but it's good news for United because we need players like Heinze, Smith, Rooney, who are real warriors on the pitch and who wouldn't think twice to shed blood and tears for the club. I think we also need a new manager because sometimes Ferguson's team selection is just mind boggling. A good example of it is the midfield that he chose for the match against Liverpool. The centre midfield of Richardson, Fletcher and Giggs (yeah, he played the 4-5-1 formation with Rooney and Ronaldo out wide) were completely overran by Sissoko and Hamann. That centre midfield made the average looking Sissoko look as world class as Roy Keane. They were that poor. Smith should have started in game in place of Richardson, who couldnt really tackle to save his life. At least he would have given the midfield some bite. United badly need a defensive midfielder to replace Roy Keane but it would be really difficult to find someone like him because there will ever be only one Keano.

In the newspapers today, there's a report saying that David Beckham cant do Brooklyn's math homework. He said what they are teaching in school nowadays are different from what he was taught. Examples of some national curriculum math questions for 7-year-olds are "Bet went to the shop at 11:45. She came back half an hour later. What time did she come back?" and "What is 12 divided by three?". So, this shows that you dont need an IQ of 120 be successful because as long as you have the natural talent and ability to cross a ball perfectly to your teammate and to score beautiful freekicks, you could earn more than 100,000 pounds per week. You cant teach a kid how to take freekicks like Becks. You cant teach a kid how to play basketball like Jordan. You cant teach a kid how to drive like Schumi. It's because they were born with the talent and ability to do the things they do. The only things that you can teach a kid are skills and techniques. So i guess you dont need to be really smart to succeed in this world. There are things that you are born with, things that you do better than anyone else. Find out what they are and make full use of them.

On another note, the Trinite prom will be on April 1st. There'll be one pondan-ish looking guy there and he's gonna sing a song about dreams, i think. I'm so looking forward to see who are my friends' dates because they are not telling me who their dates are, kononnya wanna make it a big surprise la. I guess it'll be interesting to know who's trying to tackle who. Wahahahaha. There's still no after-prom plans. Probably it's too soon to plan for anything or maybe everyone will be heading back home to complete their FYP report. Haha.

Anyway, i'm also looking forward to a futsal showdown between me and Prem at the end of this year. It'll be the IMU ladies futsal champion against the ex-weekend footballer. I used to beat her, in football that is, when we played one-on-one football in my piano teacher's garden. Damn, we used to have so much fun back then. Anyway, she somehow remembers some fictitious dream where she used to kick my ass when we played football against one another. I wonder how she came up with that story. So, this showdown is being held so that the records could be set straight again and so that the winner could have bragging rights over the loser. Being a nice guy, I have one advise for you, Prem - start training now! :)

Lastly, I'll end this post of mine by wishing Alan Smith a speedy recovery.