FOOTBALL: OWEN IS NOW A TOON ARMY



"It was announced like a Queen's birthday," a friend of mine, who is a Chelsea fan said.

I can't agree with him far more. Finally, the long awaited transfer is done. How will the Liverpool fans take this piece of news? It is like Barcelona selling Ronaldo to Inter and coming back to play for Real Madrid. Liverpool selling to Real Madrid to be sold back to Newcastle United. However, this transfer is made only a season later.

With the legend-to-be Robinho going to Real Madrid, Owen needs to go elsewhere to get regular playing time to be prepared for next year's World Cup. How much is he convinced to be there to play with no Champions League football action at all is still puzzling me. Liverpool seem to be much a perfect place to be for him and with speculations of Cisse's move away from them. Liverpool did grab two youngsters. Austrian Idrizaj, a 17-year-old winger, joins on a two-year deal from Linzer ASK and Wales Under-21 striker Calliste signed for a 12-month contract. Well, at least he is confirmed the starting 11 place in Newcastle United. They are so desparate to score a goal and hopefully Owen will supply them with plenty.

I personally think that Owen is a very efficient striker. The stats are proving it. Although I don't really like the type of striker like him who depends too much on speed than skills. He is also abit too short to be a natural striker. Still, his goalscoring stats are to be respected. It will be interesting to see him team up with Shearer. It brings back the memories of the past. The past and the present meeting for the final time. I never thought it was possible. Moving to Liverpool seems to be far more attractive than going to a hopeless club like Newcastle United now.

Back in Madrid, there are definitely many who misses Owen but you only get the comments from anybody else but the forwards. Hehe! Well, everybody wants to start. As for Robinho, even the legend Zidane is praising him!

"He is strong," said the France international. "He is even phenomenal."

"What he is achieving as a 21-year-old is impressive."

"When a team has players like him, it is not a problem to be too attacking."

"With Robinho, it will be better and better, and not for our adversaries, it will be worse and worse."

Now, hopefully both clubs will achieve something better than next season now that the transfer of Owen is done. The transfer window is also closing by today!

Finally, how can I ever forget?



"HAPPY 48TH BIRTHDAY, MALAYSIA!"

FOOTBALL: ROBINHO IS NOW A 'REAL' DREAM!

No. 10 is his jersey number given- Figo's number. Will he ever be as great as Pele? All of us are excited to find out! What I ask for is more of the beautiful game of football to be displayed! Robinho is defined as the next person who is able to perform it to perfection after Zidane. Will he be the next generation of a football great and legend? I am as eager as anybody to know the answer. Still, you have Ronaldinho and Messi who are the possibilities as well!



I went to Real Madrid's official website to see the presentation of him in the stadium for the first time. His tricks on the ball are beautiful. I hope he will be as great as possible in the years to come. Although Real have 4 Brazilians in their squad, let us not forget Barcelona have 6 Brazilian-born players!



'Brazilian football is spectacular and entertaining and a lot of its players have succeeded here and I want to do the same. There are a lot of similarities between Spanish and Brazilian football and I hope to adapt rapidly,' Robinho said.



'I hope to use a few of my trademark 'pedaladas' (step-overs) against my opponents while I'm here,' he added with a smile. 'But above all I want to help make Real Madrid a champion team and win a lot of trophies.'

'Ronaldinho is a good friend and he's considered the best player in the world. But he has his style and I have mine and I hope I'll make my own mark when I'm here.'

Now, let me get my hands on that jersey! Robinho, now turn on the samba dance in Madrid and let's have a great season ahead with lots of goals and beautiful football!

Luque goes to Newcastle finally and we are still waiting for the final outcome of Michael Owen's transfer saga. Will he move or not? Newcastle are desperate, so is Owen. The poor results that Newcastle are having is putting alot of pressure to Souness to leave.

However, the Liverpool fans/players/club may give him alot of pressure for such a transfer to a rival club. He must been having a hard time thinking through. Hopefully, all will be resolved as soon as possible. I wish him the best, no matter what decisions he makes. He is a great forward with the statistics to prove it. He should have more playing time with the World Cup coming next year!

Some matches to look forward to this weekend:
Tottenham Hotspurs Vs. Chelsea
Valencia Vs. Real Betis
Newcastle United Vs. Manchester United

FOOTBALL: CHELSEA 1-0 ARSENAL

Well, well, well, is this the repeat of the Charity Shield match? I will think so. Since I am living in Holland Village, which is a night life area, I will expect alot of coffeeshops or restaurants or bars/pubs that will have LIVE football to watch. That will save me S$15 a month to subscribe to sports channels on cable tv. Indeed, there are many of them and the best part is that there is a kopitiam which is only 3 mins walk away from the block I stay in. How cool is that? It is just that there are too many smokers around so by the time you reach home, you really need to consider taking a shower.

Drogba did the damage again but what a shocking goal that is. What is more worrying is Ljungberg's injury. I hope he is ok. I was only watching the second half because I had alot of work to do. Arsenal did most of the attacking but the finishing was weak. Not sharp and hardly able to go into the penalty box. That free kick resulting in a goal was a shocking way to win. Lehmann should have got that soft kick easily.

FOOTBALL: CHELSEA ROTATION SYSTEM

First, it was Ricardo Carvalho, now it is Ajisen Ramen? I mean Arjen Robben. Hehe! Mourinho is starting to get attacks from his own players for his rotation system. The players are not fond of the system and criticizing it. Come on players. You guys know you are playing for a club like Chelsea which have abundance of signings in their club. They can have totally two different starting 11s if they want. They have a billionaire owner who buy players like we buy ice-cream. Now you guys signed up for Chelsea and not knowing such a thing and only complain now?

Everybody is anxious to play because next year is World Cup year. Everybody wants as many playing time as possible to keep fit and ready for the big occasion.

Robben said:

"If you play two or three matches and one match is bad, you are immediately on the bench and that's not good.

"It's bad for a player's self-confidence because you can't get a rhythm.

"The problem now is that if you have a dip in form or play badly then you are immediately replaced.

"I believe we should build the team round a fixed group and if the policy is to be continuous substitution then I don't like it.

"I don't know how the manager thinks but I don't like that system."

Mourinho even asked Carvalho to go for an IQ test for questioning his decision not to put him in the starting 11. I think now he will be as angry for Robben. In any case that Mourinho doesn't want Robben, sell him to Real Madrid please. We love and treasure good players like Robben. I always enjoy watching him play! I won't mind having him in Madrid to tear open opponents' defences. He is to me the biggest superstar of Chelsea apart from Lampard and Duff.



This weekend they will play Arsenal. I will try to watch that match. It is a must watch!

MY GRADUATION

My friend, Shevy has been asking for some graduation photos so I should post some of them up. Here they are man! I am grateful to my relatives for attending my graduation, some of them flying from as far as Shanghai to join. Thanks again, folks!

I had my commencement ceremony on a bright and beautiful Wednesday morning of 13th July, 2005. I was happy that the weather was nice and I was not attending an afternoon or night ceremony which will be too hot or too dark to take any nice photos.

Actually we were only given 2 invites per person but I managed to arrange up to 9! Haha! Some behind the scene arrangements. Ahem! Let's move on. I did not take any studio photos because it is damn expensive. I bought the whole gown with the hood for S$45 (S$47.25 inclusive of 5% GST), so it is worth it. Then can take back in Sibu with cheaper rate studio shots next time. Haha! My head is so huge that I require an XXXL hood. I think at least 3 Xs. Damn! The lady doing my measurement was amazed!


Me and girlfriend at the spiral staircase inside the hall.


Me and Aloysius. Oops, I did not resize this photo enough but should be fine.


My family at the park nearby minus my bro who is busy playing computer/tv games back in Sibu.


Girlfriend and I outside the commencement hall.


My granny and the folks from Shanghai (auntie and cousins).


Me with my kungfu stand. I was getting bored posing for so many formal shots.

FOOTBALL: THE FANTASTIC FOUR



Ahhh! The jersey I will love to buy this season! What will the number be? There will be alot of samba dance this season in Madrid. I just hope these samba dances will guarantee victories. I can't wait for the season to begin. The starting line-up will be hard to imagine!

By the way, it is good to see Zidane back to the national team and scoring again! England, on the hand, really paiseh lost to Denmark with such a bad score. Brazil only managed a draw with the Croatians while Argentina managed to win. The Dutch drew with the German with a Robben double. I hope Robben stays injury free this season. He is a very exciting player to watch and a headache to opposition's defence. He is the young Shearer! Don't they look alike? Haha!

SEMESTER HEATS UP

Generally, as the semester progresses, you will have more things to read, research and alot of assignments piling up by the week. Now, we have the RIBA exhibition coming up and I just had 2 meetings which all require more work with the professors! Now, my schedule is all taken up for this week and beyond, at least until end of August.

I still have not switched back to WORK mode yet after my PLAY mode was on for over a month for my vacation! Hehe! I guess it is time to tell myself to settle down and starting doing work! Lazy asshole! Asshole? Reminds me of the Meet The Fockers movies. Hehe! Damn, I got some movies (with very new ones) and must find time to watch them. So many movies so little time!

Anyway, can't wait for the Serie A and La Liga to start! Come on, baby! I can't wait! Right now, I better get back to work. So many datelines next week! I need a break (before I even started)! :) However, I am going to KK for a 4-day trip in mid September for my girlfriend's convocation! Looking forward to this short break even before I started work! Ha! Well, it is never too bad to have vacations once a while, even a short one. :)

Signing off folks! I better start posting something with photos again. My blog is starting to get so WORDY! Bore people to death! I will post something from my vacation trips to Penang, Ipoh, Malacca and KL if I have the time. Little by little wherever possible.

Until then, you guys take care!

FOOTBALL: LONG TRANSFER SAGAS

I honestly have to admit that I have less Internet access nowadays so that will mean bad updating. I guess that will give me more time to prepare for better posts I hope! I am now living in Holland Village and there is a direct bus that takes me to campus. The ride is around 20 mins if there is no jams (& butter).

I also upgraded my handphoone after 5 years. Finally! All the wishes to have it spoilt or lost were never realized. Haha! The phone is just damn tough and sticks on me so much. Nokia 3310 to Sony Ericsson K700i. Yeah, i wanted the K750i or K600i but they are way far beyond my budget. I am somebody who don't fancy handphones much or you could say I don't change much! Boring guy! Now, my Nokia 3310 becomes my back-up and shall function as my alarm clock to wake me up daily if I need to early.

Many Nokia users who switches to Sony Ericsson gave me bad comments. They are complaining of the softness of the SMS tones as well as you need more steps to go about some functions comparing to Nokia. For me, I am quite sick with Nokia's designs and I just feel they are trying way too hard and it just get too KUAZAN! I guess I just change to Sony for a change. I got it for free anyway with my 2 year subscription plan so it is worth it. Plus you get 150 minutes free to call Malaysia and 9 other countries every month and for any reasons you cannot finish it, it will be carried over to the next month! How cool is that? Yes, my handphone cost me $0/RM0! That's so cheap for a K700i but I know it is quite old now. For someone who only answer phone calls, SMS and put in some notes/information on the phone, it is more than enough for me. The camera is just crap to me. The phone is fine, getting used to it as time goes by.

I also bought myself a new laptop/notebook from Dell - Inspiron 9300. It is HUGE! I will call it a mobile desktop. Heavy! Will take a shot of it next time. It has a Inspiron(TM) 9300 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor at 750, which translates into 1.86GHz, 2MB Cache, 533MHz FSB (Centrino). The display is 17" UltraSharp(TM) Wide Screen XGA+ TFT Display resolution: 1440x900 with 2048MB (2 X 1024MB) 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM and of course 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) Go 6800 graphic card. It should be good enough for my intense graphic usage although I am still very sad that it is hard to get a new Pentium 4 HT laptop/notebook nowadays. They are more suitable for me than those power saving Centrinos. My hard disk space is very low at 60GB only but because I wanted the 7,200RPM instead of the 5,400RPM so I have no choice but to settle for this since this is the only capacity they have running at 7,200RPM. Well, there is always the 8X DVD+/-RW for me to burn out stuffs if I have insufficient space. I also get myself a webcam so I can Skype and MSN Messenger with people with live video now.

Anyway, it seems that the Essien saga has ended. He is finally Chelsea's property. Again any of you ever seen him perform? Is he really good? This transfer saga is as long as the Robinho one. Both seems to take forever but I do hope the clubs you supported don't have to go through the agony of such lengthy sagas. It does make you wonder the worth of these footballers. For instance, I have not seen a single match that Robinho played in, not to mention Essien. I do know Robinho get alot of praises from his countrymen from Ronaldo to Ronaldinho to Roberto Carlos. That is an assurance that he is that damn good to get compliments and praises from these world class footballers. Words are cheap and easy so it is still Robinho's and Essien's display on the field that counts the value of their transfer fees.

Michael Owen? Will he return to Liverpool on loan or will he go to Newcastle United. Time is running short. I would love to have him in Madrid to give more firepower offensively but it is not fair to someone like him to sit on the bench forever. It is just not professional. To meet him in a Champions League match will be a disaster! Real better not make the same mistake they had with Morientes and not allowing Owen to face them in European matches.

With four new signings in Pablo García, Carlos Diogo, Julio Baptista and Robinho, Real Madrid have more young faces in the squad this season. Though it is quite sad to see Figo, Samuel and definitely Solari, whom I enjoy watching, to leave altogether! In short, we are just replacing 3 players with 4. If Owen leaves, it will mean 4 exits and 4 entries, so no difference. Real Madrid is still very short of players compare to Chelsea, Milan, Juventus and Barcelona. They have alot more players with their benches fully loaded.

FOOTBALL: NEW SEASON ARRIVES

So who are the favourites? Chelsea seem like an automatic choice that comes to mind. Arsenal need time for rebuilding as I see it, Man Utd has a very mixed old-young group so it depends how they gel. Now, what about Liverpool, Everton, Bolton, Middlesbrough and Newcastle? I still think they can't challenge the big 3 yet. The most probable one is Liverpool.

In the La Liga, it is again Barcelona to be the favourites with Real Madrid slightly behind with the likes of Depor, Valencia and Betis. Do watch out for Villareal and Sevilla because they can penetrate further to the top of the table this season if they keep up their good form.

For the Serie A, we will still have Juventus and Milan as clubs to beat. We have Inter who can spoil the party. Only a few signings so I don't see too many changes.

Hope this season will be good! We pray for great football and with a great ending for the World Cup in Germany in 2006! Until then. sit back and cheer up!

MY NEW HOME

Guys, I had found a place to stay at least for two years until I finish my master degree. I am as shock as anybody to be renting the home of the mom of a popular female singer/actress. Make your guess, she is same age as me and she is a very popular singer/actress in Singapore now. I was very surprised when I saw her posters all around the home.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the new football season to start. Come mid August I will have more time to blog hopefully. I don't know how busy I will get with my course.

FOOTBALL: ROBINHO & JULIO BAPTISTA

Wow! This is the first time I am so happy as a Real Madrid fan for the past 2 years. Perez is finally going to get players who can generate more results on the field and not economically. That is good news! Having two of them into the squad is going to be great excitement.

These two footballers are great investments and I will definitely looking forward to them next season to be able to challenge FC Barcelona for their two geniuses in Ronaldinho & Eto'o. Come on baby!

Michael Owen? I afraid most probably he has to go. Go to Newcastle! I am quite sad that Walter Samuel left but I think there is no choice, you only can have 3 non-EU players so it is quite hard to retain him. All I hope for is that Woodgate will finally be fully recovered. If not, the defence will have major problems.

I will have more consistency in blogging come mid-August. Now still busy with settling down in my new place.