Will the real diver please stand up!

Football is a beautiful game. It connects continents like no other game does. It catches the imagination of generations, like no other sport does. Football on TV must be the most followed sports. FIFA world cup 2014 final was watched by an estimated 20 Million people, only on BBC.

How it does it?

The game is fascinating. It pauses the nations when a footballer like Messi takes the ball in to 4 defenders, dribbles pass them, then nears the goalkeeper and chips it over him to score. We are often left wondering, how a small man like him does it week in week out. When Ronaldo decides to take over a free kick from 30 yards, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, it can wait for 1 more minute, can’t it? Because in all probability, the ball will somehow hit the back of the net: you just don’t want to miss how it did.

It’s the skills the game showcases, along with the magic by which it connects nations, continents, and most importantly the Races. That’s why it’s such a great platform to let the generation focus on the game and forget about the evils that otherwise haunts them: poverty, crime, unemployment, racism. In fact it’s a way to win over them.

But is it all beautiful in the game today?

You will wonder, if every game: every instance of this beautiful game is decided on the footballing skills. The game was never 100% clean from controversies: you know Maradona’s hand of God, though no one ever challenged the skills he got in that 1986 world cup or that Argentina eventually were the worthy winners of the cup. But it has gone worst today if I may say this.

It’s not only funny, but equally annoying to see a player of stature of Ronaldo diving without a slightest of the touches from the defender. It’s not only him, you can add many names to the list: Suarez, Robben, it’s not about the names, they all do it today. It’s what the game has become. It’s not just the dive for the penalty, but the “act performed”: many a times to make referee give yellow or red cards to opponent player. You can keep adding to the list of these acts, but one word for all this is “cheating”. And it happens all the time in the game.

What does it do?

It gives a bad example to the kids watching the game. It frustrates the audience. It influences the referees. It influences the results. It influences the nation’s pride. And because so much is at stake, it conveys a message that’s “its ok to do this”, “it’s part of the game”. Most importantly for me, it disgusts me at my footballer.

It should not be. Every game has some grey area: in cricket, a batsman sometimes refuses to walk even if he knows he has nicked the ball. But for a footballer to fall down theatrically and plead for a free kick or a penalty is worst. You should win a game by playing football, Sir. And as the game touches such a huge number of global audiences, it must be as frustrating and annoying for all, as it is for me.

Why does it happen?

A lot at stake: not a justification though, but it is one of the reasons. A football game today brings so much pressure on the footballer, like it never did before. 3 crucial points over the weekend, spot in the Champions League, spot in the World Cup Semi Final. You name it. Winning the game becomes more important than the way it needs to be done.

And then of course, it becomes a habit, it becomes a part of the system. Fans from the other side boo you, but your team mates and fans put a blind fold and give you a high five!

How it can be stopped?

It will never be stopped completely, but at least it should be discouraged. What appals me is the fact that it has become an accepted part for every footballer, every team and every football manager. 

When a footballer of your opponent team does this and gets an unfair result, it is painful right? So why we should not discourage it all levels? Why not tell each and every player of your team not do it? Why not watch the videos of all the finished games and punish the cheater? This is where the footballing bodies come in to picture. And us? We have the biggest responsibility and actually, power to stop this? Why do we worship our footballer who does it? Why can’t we go to his page and say dislike for once: he won’t do it again, will he?

One way or the other, mutually by the players themselves, managers, captains, authorities and most importantly by us, it needs to be made vocal, that this is not accepted. Or, we must be ready to be on the other side some day and we cannot be crying like a hypocrite then.

Steven Gerrard: An Anfield Great, a Legend who inspired Liverpool FC

My Liverpool story is a sad one to some extent. When I started following the club, Liverpool had already lifted the Champions League trophy at Istanbul. Or should I say, Steven Gerrard had already inspired Liverpool to one of the greatest comeback the tournament will ever see. And to probably the greatest moment yet for any Liverpool fan.

But I knew the story of Istanbul (had watched the adrenaline filled video 100 times) and had always looked up to him as a great captain, player, a family man. He was always my hero. I always looked at his family and admired him for the man he is and he has a dream family.

For me it was always an “almost” perfect story. His passion and adrenaline during the big games always rushed thru my blood and I was always hoped that I will see a game that I will never forget in my life. I will never forget the free-kick he scored against United during the 2010 game which we lost 2-3. Stevie puts us back in the game twice: the perfect game was almost there, only to lose it in the end. But that was another hint of a Vintage Steven Gerrard.

Since then though I saw him doing his usual “peach pass” in many games, but best of the memories were in 2013-2014 season when he made so many goals for Suarez and Sturridge. And that game against Manchester City when we grabbed the winner with Coutinho goal. Stevie was all pumped up to tell his team, we won’t let it go this time. I was pumped up too and almost could not sleep many nights in anxiety. That was the one of the best games of my life as a Liverpool fan.

I was waiting for my incomplete footballing story to get its perfect end. It ended in a manner none of us ever anticipated and left me with a grave feeling: something I would never be able to heal myself with. Now imagine what he would be going thru each day of his remaining life.

Having said that, no serious fan would ever blame him for us not winning the league. I would say it was yet another example of Steven Gerrard not getting his hand on that elusive trophy thanks to some mediocre team performance during the big games. I felt sad for him. I felt sad for myself.

But as Stevie himself says: he we go again. And how he almost re-created the Olympiakos during the Basel game is unbelievable. Well they say, sometimes it doesn’t happen twice. Golden moments are not repeated. I missed it in 2005, but my admiration for this man never will be reduced. And who says every story has to end perfectly. Some people leave a mark on your life irrespective. It’s never about the trophies in the cabinet, but about the Man on the Field.

If trophies were the criteria, he could have moved to Chelsea or Madrid long back. He chose to remain as a Loyal and Liverpool city’s most favourite son.

The news that Steven Gerrard will leave Liverpool football club at the end of 2014-2015 season might have come as a surprising but yet an inevitable one for many in the football fraternity, but it is still something that millions of Liverpool Faithfull are still recovering from.

This is not because Steven Gerrard is at the peak of his career or was part of Liverpool’s regular line up week in week out, nor because we were not contemplating something similar after he was left on bench for so many matches including on his 16 year anniversary appearance for Liverpool. But it’s because since his debut for Liverpool 16 years ago, he has been a star born for Liverpool football club.

It’s only fair to say that all Liverpool success during these 16 years came with Gerrard’s crucial contributions: he scored when Liverpool beat Alaves in 2001 UEFA cup final, in the league cup final against Manchester United in 2003, in the FA Cup final and who can forget his thriller against Olympiakos in December 2004, which took Liverpool out of group stages of Champions League final and then the first goal against AC Milan in the unforgettable comeback win in the final.

It was heartening to see him almost re doing the act for Liverpool during this year’s Champions League last group stage game against FC Basel with his trademark free-kick. It was “almost” another Gerrard Speared Breakthrough for Liverpool.

He will probably leave Liverpool with one regret: not winning the Premier League with the club. But, what he did with generally a mediocre Liverpool side (especially if you compare it with Dalglish times), for me, puts him as one of the greatest player ever played and lead Liverpool FC.

Liverpool FC supporters and admirers always looked up to Steven Gerrard as a midfielder who comes only second to Frank Lampard with respect to number of goals from a midfielder in Premier League, as a leader who lead the club to all the success they had in last 16 years, as one of the rare loyal footballer who served his club with same passion for more than a decade in spite of all the opportunities from different club.

His shoes will not be filled ever at Liverpool FC.  He gave me some of the best moments to live with.

Thank you Steven Gerrard for the man you are.

4 things we can learn from the Premier League Transfer Market

Premier League Clubs spent a staggering £760 Million in the transfer market and much of it on the very last day. Aakash Munjal writes about some key conclusions from the hectic deadline day of the Premier League transfer market.

It’s done and dusted. Millions are spent. Squads are strengthened. Fans’ demands have been obliged and pressure from them has been offloaded, for some time. Now only time will tell how right the spending was.

But, in any case, we learnt something from the last month’s spending by Premier League clubs and a lot from the last day of it.

1)      Money is everything today in Football and transfer deadline is desperate

Radamel Falcao moved from Atletico Madrid to Monaco for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around 60 Million Euros, with his net annual salary being reported to be around 18.2 Million Euros. His latest move to Manchester United nets him a salary in the region of £265,000 a week.

 Now it’s debatable as to why he was offered by Monaco at all. Some Say about a “third party ownership rights” where in an investment company owns a player and decides his sale/transfer based on the highest bidder.

Football has changed so much over the years. It should not be forgotten that his move to Monaco meant he cannot play Champions League football, something every player in the planet dream about and now it’s the same with United.

In the same category is Angel Di Maria who was earning 5/6 Million Euros annual salary (debatable) and his demotivation due to that is globally known and now he is at United for better economics.

His father was quoted “Real Madrid never offered a €6m a season salary to my son. The last proposal was €5m, which represented only a million and a half more than the salary he was receiving. Now Angel is happy at Manchester United. Economically, he is being treated better than at Real Madrid. Real Madrid has lost a key player”.

The man who made that goal for Bale in the Champions League final against Atletico Madrid won’t be playing Champions League either – at least for a year.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning what happened with the likes of Fabio Borini of Liverpool. He could not reach an agreement with Queens Park Rangers, who wanted him and Liverpool was happy with an offer of around £10m. This means, instead of getting a fresh challenge and regular football, he will now, wait to get an opportunity behind Sturridge, Mario and Lambert.         

 He says on Twitter ““I protected the MAN and the player that I am today … taking all the responsibility of the situation and for people who didn’t want it … and I m VERY happy with myself to have taken such an important decision.”

Well, you make a call on this.

2)      Whatever did not make sense, does after all make sense

Clubs throwing stupid money during the stupid deadline day and changing the squad upside down. Players leaving one club to another for reasons they know. It doesn’t make much sense at all. But it’s not that stupid either.

The media is full of shock on Manchester United’s spending. It’s really maddening to think they spend in the region of £200 million, after winning the league just 2 years back!

And once Sir Alex was quoted “we invest in young players. This is what we are good at. We invest in those who will be with the club for a long time. We know that Manchester City are going to pay stupid money, pay silly salaries and all that. We can’t do anything about it.” (source: Martin Samuel for Mail Online)

Economics and Accounts can make sense though.

When you do the whole accounts, it’s not as big as it seems. United sold some players to other clubs this year – Rio Ferdinand, Nani, Welbeck, Shinji Kagawa to name a few of them. Now that brought some money.

Manchester United is one of the biggest earners in England. In 2012-2013, the club revenue was £ 363m and a profit of 146m. In 2014-15, they are expected to have total income of £500m or more.

The key reasons of increase in such earnings are match day income, commercial and broadcasting. They have just done huge deals with Chevrolet and Adidas too.

So what it leads to is, when Falcao and Maria makes appearance for Manchester United, shirt sales will roar in the club’s megastores, so as match day money and commercials. So, as long as the club sees success at the season, everything is forgotten and everything makes sense in football. After all, Glory is what the fans want week in week out.

3)      Sports on TV is a Huge deal now

One of the reasons for clubs to able to spend that amount of money, is the fact that this can be recovered to some extent. And one of the key sources of this earning is the broadcasting share.  According to Deloitte, in 2013-2014 season, Manchester United broadcasting revenues were close to £89 million. That is something we discussed above.

But can be highlight here, is the way sports is getting richer on TV, as a whole. Above has happened because the collective broadcast deal for Premier League for 2013-2014 season was close to £5.5 billion. Out of this total paid out to clubs were close to 1.56 Billion. The top earning club this season were Liverpool on £97.5million, followed by champions Manchester City on £96.6 million.  

And it’s not just football, 2011 F1 group revenue from TV Rights amounted close to £ 300 Million

By the way, “Global Box Office made a record GBP 21 Billion in 2013”

4)      Premier league is the most marketed and competitive league in the world

When I started watching club football, it was Chelsea, United, Liverpool each Saturday/Sunday. To a huge surprise, it took me a while to realize that there are two big clubs in Spain with the name of Real Madrid and Barcelona (and I was not even in India, I was in Doha).  But Premier League is what used to come on my TV all the time and that’s what we used to discuss all the time – may be because I did not have too many Arab friends back then.

What also made Premier league more popular, in spite of legends of Real and Barcelona, is the competitive ness of 20 clubs in the league. Champions City needed injury time goal against QPR (then struggling to come out of relegation) to win the league. This is what gets us hooked to the TV, irrespective of the opponent.

Not surprisingly and to highlight what we talked above, below is how the TV revenues are divided among leagues

League	Revenue 2012-13	Wages 2012-13
Premier League, England	2.9bn euros	2.1bn euros (71% of revenue)
Bundesliga, Germany	2bn euros	1bn euros (51% of revenue)
La Liga, Spain	1.9bn euros	1bn euros (56% of revenue)
Serie A, Italy	1.7bn euros	1.2bn euros (71% of revenue)
Ligue 1, France	1.3bn euros	0.9bn euros (66% of revenue)
Source: Deloitte

How you may drive any sense with respect to Transfer Market, is that, though players like Suarez and Bale have moved to Spanish League, Premiere League Clubs still attract huge names to its league. During 2012-2013 season, half of the clubs had foreign owners, compared to with only one 10 years earlier.

In summary, we have seen the drama of the transfers and we are settled with our new squads and new excitement to a lot of extent. It’s time to focus on football now and the transfer saga will be back in January, 2015.

What makes you follow a Football Club, Religiously? I mean Seriously!

I have always wondered what makes us Indians get up from the usual dominance of Cricket and follow a football club from England or Spain or Germany, so religiously, that we can leave all our work in hand to watch them play (hope my boss doesn’t read this), follow them daily on Internet, we cry sometimes when they lose ( I mean I don’t remember when was the last time I was so heartbroken as I was during the Crystal Palace blunder). Our rooms will be covered with posters, scarfs, tee shirts of our club. It becomes so much a part of our lives eventually that our happiness somewhere depends on how our clubs performed on Saturday or Sunday. I mean after all, it was all meant to be for entertainment, right? Where is the loyalty there?

Footballers we adore and worship leave the club eventually for either more money or top flight football and for various other reasons (with the exception of a few). Managers are changed at one single failure – they then go to another club and talk shit about the same club they were managing for years may be. So where is the loyalty? How can we be loyal to something that.

I questioned this for quite some time, because honestly, I started watching club football only in 2007/2008 when my friend took me to a bar in Doha to watch Manchester United and Chelsea game. I guess it was 2007 FA Cup final. Chelsea won, he was happy and I started following Chelsea- For many years. I was the happiest man on the planet when Chelsea won the league in 2009-2010. But things were different after that, a long story and today I am a diehard Liverpool fan. I have been a Liverpool fan since the dark days of Hick and Gillett and obviously have been patiently and proudly seeing our Revival in the League. And it makes me wonder if that is a crime? Why can’t I shift clubs if players, managers, owners shift them on yearly basis? How can I be loyal and why should I be, if there is so much entertainment around. I started thinking of what makes it happen. And I guess this is what I have to say:

1)      City of Origin – This happens obviously if you are staying in the city from where the club originates or develops. Obviously this doesn’t apply to me and many of you reading. But makes sense otherwise, or even when we travel to say a particular city in England and belong there due to one or the other reasons – we studied there and lived there and my classmates followed Burnley, etc

2)      Players – We get connected to a set of players and cannot help loving them week in week out. The Liverpool SAS plus Stevie G, Chelsea legends – Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Barca’s ever loyals Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta. You just get so hooked to them and their way of playing football, in fact their way of living their lives. For you, they become an addition to your family, your closest allies, people who you follow and admire.

3)      History and Culture of the Club: Liverpool, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona, they bring with them a huge history – more than a decade of football and many many years in top flight football. Liverpool’s success in the years prior to PL inception made millions of Indians back then love the club and we have somewhere inherited that love as well. The YNWA, the city, the Hillsborough incident, it becomes a part of your lives as well. You become in a way Patriotic – in club sense

4)      A Gut and Philosophy: I have to put these 2 together. I have to say this today, that THE most crucial factor and above all, is the GUT to follow a club, its philosophy, more than anything else. Do you ever question why you love that girl more than any other girl? When you start watching a whole lot of football, your gut puts you in love with a certain club, their certain players and their philosophy and that’s it. It’s not easy to explain this, but we all feel it and will probably follow our gut no matter where we are and what we do. I will not miss a Barcelona game this season because of one Luiz Suarez, but I would always want Liverpool to do well and in fact, I will love Liverpool no matter what the end result is.

It’s going to be an incredible season again. I will look forward to some amazing games, rivalry, some out of the world individuals, in many different clubs. But, I will have my mind, body and soul on my Liverpool. YNWA!!

In Brendan, we trust

In this Article, Aakash Munjal writes about Liverpool’s new era with Brendan Rodgers and how he has succeeded in bringing the club back to the summit where it always belonged. With Brendan completing his 100 games as Manager, it’s worth looking at an incredible journey of this Ballymena boy who bought about Liverpool evolution

41 year old Brendan Rodgers is one of the youngest football managers to see this kind of considerable success especially considering he came to Liverpool in a very difficult time. For someone who abides by the code of conduct, he is known to have reinvented The Liverpool style , a cultural change bought by someone who has a rare ingredient that is unheard of in the adrenalin driven world – EQ.

Taken from The Independent: ”Brendan will walk in here and remember the names of everyone sitting at the bar," says Debbie Burns, landlady of McCauley's the Bridge bar in Carnlogh. "He'll have a bit of time for everybody and even though he wouldn't be a big drinker now he won't rush, he enjoys himself when he comes in with his brothers."

This is the man who has not only taken Liverpool back to the Champions League, while making the club a formidable force, but has installed an amazing culture at the club as well.

A small piece of history that you, in all probability, already know: Diagnosed with a genetic knee condition, his football career was short-lived and he pursued his study of coaching methods. After a disappointing spell at Reading, returned to full-time management with Swansea City in 2010. He led the club to win promotion to the Premier League, before guiding them to finish 11th the following season (Swansea were favourites to be relegated). In 2012, Brendan was roped in by Liverpool. “He couldn’t have written a better script for himself”.

After 2 years at Liverpool, how do you gage his success? Expectedly, his tenure at Liverpool started gradually, with the club finishing 7^th (one position higher than the previous season). But 2013-14 season started with a real bang! He was awarded with PL manager of the month, as the team won its first 3 games. The success continued in the month of March, where he was again awarded the Manager of the month.

We all know how the season ended and that has settled BR at the Melwood more than any other manager in recent past. And that has to do not only with the success of the team with respect to coming back the Champions League, but also the way it happened:

1)      Liverpool played the Liverpool way: Liverpool scored 101 goals in the season, second only to the Champions City. There was a global consensus that Liverpool played the most attractive football in the league. The team not only managed to win week in week out, but they had put a grin on the supporters’ faces, with the way they demolished the opponents including the likes of Arsenal and Spurs.

It was fast, counter attacking football, with which Liverpool usually went 1-0 up by the time the opponent could settle down. It was certainly the style of football, BR pushed thru the system.

2)      An Eye for Talent: Sterling was picked and signed by Liverpool from QPR academy by Rafael Benitez in 2010, but he made his first senior debut on March 2012. Then he was only 17 years, making him second youngest player ever for the club to appear in Premier League. Brendan did not hesitate to introduce him in PL as well as in Europe at that age.

Very soon, he started to be a part of regular squad and played full 90 Minutes. He also became the second youngest player to score for Liverpool – in a competitive fixture, only after “One Owen”. Brendan played an obvious part in this success and when Sterling scored THAT opening goal against City last year, BR must be so proud.

Philippe Coutinho and Jordon Henderson are more examples of his philosophy and faith in youth and developing the talent. The results produced by these young lads, just proves Brendan’s work.

3)      A man on a mission (and he knows what he is doing):  When Brendan came to the club, he brought along with him a philosophy and style of “Possession football”. That’s what he did with Swansea and Liverpool did enjoy that too. But, whats amazing is how he managed to change the style according to the players available, opponents Liverpool is facing and sometimes just a  tactical masterpiece a special game.  Manchester City (3-2),Arsenal (5-1), Tottenham (4-0) and Everton (4-0) – these results came out thru a ruthless, fast, counter attacking football. Go for the ball, press it and shoot.

4)      Down to Earth, a learner: calm, calculated, very down to earth, and never panicked. Brendan has no arrogance about him at all. He knows his stuff and speaks with confidence. He always knew exactly what he wanted to do. He termed his learning with Mourinho as “going to harvard”. Let’s not forget that during his tough times, Sir Alex Ferguson took time to dictate a letter to be sent to Rodgers, asking him to keep his chin up and that his time would come. And success hasn’t changed him at all.

The thought of 2014-2015 season fills Liverpool fans with an unbelievable excitement, but they must also be aware, that it will be a different challenge all together with Suarez gone and the club has Champions League in their calendar as well. We may not see the dominance Liverpool showcased last season, but hey, that’s the exciting part of this game and Liverpool may say “here we go again” as BR has made them Believe!

I am working on a dream…

I am working on a dream

Though sometimes it feels so far away

I’am working on a dream

And I know it will be mine some day

It’s a beautiful song by Bruce Springsteen, have you heard it?

No, trust me; this is still a footballing article, not about romance or life otherwise. But wait, I would say, yes, it is about romance and life. I mean you can take it whichever way you would want to take it.

To avoid this annoying confusion, this is what happened: I happened to hear this song when Liverpool just finished its game against West Ham last Saturday evening. And there won’t be a bigger coincidence. This was also an evening when I received a set back from my work place too.

Evening never ended the way it should have for all of us and for me personally too. I was sitting in my sofa for hours, thinking when this will change? Coincidently, I had the same thought both for the game, as well as for my work. Frankly, I will not bother you with my personal life, that’s not the objective of this write up. But for a moment, I realized how close my dreams are to each other.

A dream of achieving that goal in my career. A dream of a proud and exciting life.  A dream of my love completing my life. A dream of Liverpool winning the League. Sounds like “what the F”? Yeah, kind of. But this is it!

We have had a great last season, an amazing one in fact. The derby was not even played like a derby, rivals were blasted away from the game. Our age old rivals were made to lick their wounds (you know what I am talking about). 2013-2014, for me was the year of getting higher on my career goal as well as feeling the love i never felt before.

We kind of expected this season to start the way it has to “some extent”, with so many new faces in the team, as well so many early season injuries. Plus other teams coming to grip of our attacking style. But, we did not expect it to be this bad. We did not expect to lose 3 of the first 5 games. Suddenly it was like the 2010-2011 or 2011-2012 season, the way we were left frustrated to close off the games.

Sometimes, the dejected mind tells you, we will never be good enough again to win the league, leave alone the champions league. Is it worth waiting for years and years, expecting something that may never ever happen. Ask a neutral, not a United fan, ask a real neutral, they don’t expect it to happen in years coming ahead. Some say, it was just Suarez and Sturridge magic last season, and, it’s over.

Is it worth it? I say yes, of course it’s worth it. It’s worth waiting until you die in fact. I mean what kind of love it is, if it gives up.  I was gutted last evening, seeing Liverpool conceding another dying moment goal. But when I see the highlights of the game, I only have feeling of positivity and a never dying obsession for the club. I said to my friend 2 years back “Liverpool is one of the reasons I am alive”. I was kind of drunk, but I don’t think I lied or exaggerated. Win or lose, we are Liverpool. We are not the fans, who change their loyalty for glory. We are a proud bunch of knuckleheads, who are in a stupid obsession with the best club in the world and we are working on a dream.

We are working on a dream to lift the league title, imagine how beautiful it will be if it happens for once. We are fans who wear the badge of loyalty, because we have the backs of those who carry their cross week in week out for the club. We don’t have to win every week to be Kopites, do we?

After a lacklustre display at home against Villa and then at West Ham, I think we were much much better at the Derby. We were aggressive, we created many chances. We had 24 shots, 8 on goal. Comparing to this we had 11 shots/ 5 on target against West Ham. We were horrible against Villa at Home.

We could clearly see the improvement in Lallana, Coutinho and in our defence. One thing that was lacking in last couple of games was balls coming from right and left sides. In Comparison with West Ham game, where we had 10 each, there were 16 from left and 8 from right. And it’s not about the number, it’s about the quality. We found the strikers on many occasions, but the end product was missing.

Media before the game was full of criticism of Steven Gerrard and how he did he reply! His long balls are still the best in the league, he managed to find the right heads with his corners, he won tackles and he of course scored that magnificent free kick.

That goal could have been the beginning, a beginning of more goals. Had Lallana found the net in the 10^th Minute and had Balotelli just tapped in the ball in the 66^th, Jagielka’s injury time stunner would not have mattered. You cannot deny it was another good Derby, though we have seen better, but we could see more positives than negatives.

I sat in my sofa for a few minutes, stunned and disappointed. And after a while, I remember this:

I'm working on a dream 
Though trouble can feel like it's here to stay 
I'm working on a dream 
Well our love will chase trouble away 

Short, Random Thoughts...

No one cares here for you. No one is bothered about what you want from your life, what makes you happy. Everyone is so fucking convinced that they know what you need and they spend their and your lifetime forcing it on you. They would never realize the pain you go thru in this life. The pain that you go thru living the life that they feel is good for you.
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Remember one thing, no one really needs you - no one. This world is too big for that. And if you cant be with yourself, how can you be of any use to any one anyways?
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I sometimes curse myself for taking most of the decisions of my life. But what would I be if i hadnt taken them? Would i be seeing the life the way i see it now? Or may be, i am just trying to convince myself? Because I would have seen something else anyways. Does it really matter? Does life has any meaning over here? Does it tell us anything?Do we ever learn? Isnt it all about what we need - to be happy? Whatever gives us a high? Thats what we all need right? We want to get high - Ego, Power, Money, Love, Sex, Drugs, Cars, isnt it enough? Where is the scope for emotions here? What is the meaning of life here? Why do we then spend half of our lives crying?
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Another thing though is the Questions that our life asks and we badly need the answers - does he love me? Does he need me? Am I popular? Am i good enough? how do i look in a crowd?... Sometimes, sadly, we never get the answers. Our, we dont want to listen, Because its been told to us by our friends/families - dont give up, you are too good to be a looser. So we never listen. We choose not to listen. We wont listen to the answer, if thats not what we wanted to listen.

Loyalty in Football? What are you talking about?

It was probably 6^th May 2009 evening (hopefully I got the date right).  It was a usual Wednesday evening. I came back from office and was very tired. All I wanted is food and then my bed. But, there was one extraordinary thing happening – Chelsea was playing Barcelona in the Champions league semifinal. I was following Chelsea for some time now – probably 2 years or so. I was excited for the match and took my colleagues (we used to stay in a company guest house) to a sports bar in Juffair, Bahrain. I actually dragged them as none was a football follower, but came along for drinks – it was on me! (it was the same period though when I was struggling with my expenses). We reached on time and saw a very interesting match (but probably it was only me who was so much in to it). I was happy most of the time as Chelsea was winning, until the last few minutes when Barcelona scored and Chelsea lost the opportunity to reach the final. It was a heart break, not just for the team and for millions of fans around the globe. It was a heart break for me and guess what – I cried! Not joking, I had tears in my eyes. I did not question myself – as to why would I, cause trust me I don’t remember crying when India came out of the cricket world cup, but I was broken, and it took sometime for me to recover (was ok next day I guess). I filled my FB with my frustrated comments and posts on the related topic – bad officiating, etc etc. It was official, that I am die hard Chelsea fan!

Proud? Yes, I was proud of it. Of me being a die hard Chelsea fan. One year down the line, it brought happiness to me when Chelsea won the League. I was very happy and once again my FB was full of appreciation and it was official that I am a happy and proud Chelsea fan. It was probably this year (2010) when I became a regular follower of league games and perhaps that’s why saw much more football , not just involving Chelsea but many other teams as well.  I also noticed many players, which I did not earlier. And one player that caught my imagination was Joe Cole. I was surprised as to why such a player gets only 10 minutes in every game Chelsea plays. I became a bigger fan of course when he scored against Man U in the same year. Yes, that back heel.

Then came the Football world cup and England were struggling. And all English seniors were pressing the need for Joe Cole to come in the team and play 90 minutes football. I remember Terry stating that he is not far behind Messi and Ronaldo. I became even a bigger fan and starting believing my instincts – judging a player on the field. But he never really played too much football and England was thrashed by Germany.

Same time, Cole’s contract with Chelsea were finished and they did not offered him what he was looking for and hence, he became a free bird – ready to join the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool, etc. I was following up this news – more than I ever followed my examination results. And eventually he joined Liverpool. I hated Chelsea for not renewing his contract and guess what – I started following Liverpool ‘as well’ and soon ‘only’ Liverpool.

I did question myself and my answers were never complicated – why did I follow Chelsea in the beginning? I started following Chelsea in the year 2007 when I was in Qatar. That was in fact the first year when I started watching club football. This happened thanks to my friend Ashok, who, with no guess of course, was a and is a big Chelsea fan. So I told myself that Chelsea was inherited to me, where as Liverpool is my choice. I never question myself though that am I following Liverpool just because of one player – Joe Cole? Well I did started appreciating the likes of Gerrard and Torres as well, but main reason of going towards Liverpool was Joe. And sadly or may be not, Cole could not perform well at Anfield (not until today – 30 Jan, 2011) and today he does not even get a chance to play for them any more, he is not even in the bench sometimes. So now what Mr. Aakash Munjal??? You followed Chelsea because when you watched your first club football match, you were sitting with a big Chelsea fan and it was told to you that “hey Blue is the color” and now you don’t know whether “red was ever your color” because the player for which you started having “a look at” Liverpool, is struggling to get any minutes in the field.  So were you ever really a Liverpool fan either??

During the same time though, there was a new me (again). And I started watching more and more and more games. I started watching Arsenal and Barcelona and today (I repeat again – its Jan 30, 2011 ), I watch a lot of games , irrespective of club – but what interest me is – Liverpool, Arsenal, Barcelona, and Tottenham. I believe Arsenal, Barcelona and Spurs play very attractive football and that’s the reasons I watch their games. I am amazed at the football Barca played and same goes for Arsenal. I also believed if any one who deserved to win their leagues this year – its Arsenal and Barca. So, which team I support today? Which ‘football’ team I support today. I am ‘a die hard’ fan of which team? For which team, I will ‘cry again’ ?? answer to all these question sadly is “may be” Liverpool. Does this make me frustrated? May be yes, but there is a point. I am in love with the game for sure, but I cant help it if I am not too much in love with any particular club. Any ‘die hard’ fan reading this will not like it or may be judge me, but you gotta consider this:

What makes you like a club? What makes you loyal to a club (being someone not belonging to that city or county or country)? – a) players, b) fan culture, c) coaches , d) owners, e) success of the club, f)football  the club plays. Is there anything else in the list? Now consider this:

1. Players – do they stick? Do they deserve your loyalty? Because are they themselves loyal to their club? Rooney could have left Man U if he hasn’t got the paycheck he was asking for. Torres is trying to leave the reds and join blues for 50 million pounds or so. They are their (most of them) for money. So what loyalty you are talking about?
2. Fan culture – this is good. I love the Passion that Liverpool fans display. I love the Reds history indeed. I respect them for that. I love their history as well. But are Man U fans behind in the passion. Even a small club like West Ham United (with respect to the league standings) have some very passionate fans.
3. Coaches- they change before I change my underwear 
4. Owners – they don’t stick either
5. Success of the club – are you a glory hunter? Or a foot ball fan? If latter, then this factor does not matter as well

So what makes you a  ‘loyal’, ‘die hard’ fan. What makes you fight and cry for a particular club. Let me know. Leave your comments with an open heart. As for me, I am a big admirer of game – I am an admirer of Joe Cole (have to start with him ), Gerrard, Torres, Nasri, Fabregas, Van Persie, Messi, Ronaldo and many others. I am also a fan of Jose Morinho, Arsene Wenger and of course our very own King Kenny. But unfortunately, all these guys I have named work for different clubs. I cant stop loving them all. Can you? Lemme know why ….