Wednesday 26 January 2011

Purpose, not passion


Many a time, you hear the all-too-common and implied phrase "You never get anywhere without passion."

While that is a statement true to a good extent, it is, at least in my opinion overused and misinterpreted.

I prefer to see things from another angle, another perspective, from that of a more significant "p" if you like. I tend to think, "You never get anywhere without purpose."

While obviously passion is a major force, it tends to have little direction unless shaped by purpose.

Maradona has great passion, and boy did the little Argetinian had talent. But all that passion and precocious talent never quite achieved its intended success did it? If you follow Maradona's career, you would most likely have thought "what if"... what if he did not get himself involved with drugs, or perhaps another talented left foot like George Best (above), arguably the most talented British winger... what if he did not fall under the spell of alcohol? They could have had a more fulfilling career, a more... purposeful one perhaps.

I see on mass media too often; the strings attached to passion being used way too rampantly. Young people are told to follow their passions with abandon, to pursue their entrepreneurial spirits with passion and attain success. While it is hard to argue against "doing what you like", I seldom think it is passion that drives someone to success, at least from what I observe, it is purpose, not passion.

Sunday 9 January 2011

Why Liverpool is in danger of losing everything.

Poor management.

And I don't mean the manager, I mean the people in charge in the boardroom.

How does allowing Roy Hodgson to leave at such an early stage in the season do anything to help the cause?

You think Kenny Daglish is going to change anything in the short term?

The problems inherent at Liverpool is that the team is simply not good enough, they are not a great team whereas Tottenham and Man City are building great teams. Secondly, they are way too thin on reserves, other than Torres and Gerrard and maybe Kuyt and Reina, the squad is lacking quality.

So, sacking the manager is NOT going to help. The Liverpool fans are not going to be appeased this season, no way should they be expecting a rousing finish. It is going to be a long rebuilding process, since the days of Rafa Benitez's era of overspending on poor players. No youth players coming up, injuries along the season, impatient and over-eager fanbase, this is a nightmare scenario for King Kenny. He could be fighting a potential relegation battle. We all know how things go in a downward spiral way too quickly.

One of the biggest mistakes made when Newcastle got relegated was releasing Sam Allardyce, and thought that a cult hero in Alan Shearer will lift the spirits of the club.

A club like Liverpool needs stability at the top, and I thought Roy Hodgson was unfairly and prematurely denied his time to do things his way, the Kop didn't allow him and I feel the Kop got it wrong.

Friday 7 January 2011

FAS axes the whole National Team ?!?!


Excuse me, are you kidding me?

In what is a thinly veiled desperate attempt to "resuscitate" the FAS's reputation and maybe save a few "rice bowls", the FAS has decided to drop ALL current National Team players a.k.a the Lions...

I think this is the lamest piece of news I have ever seen in local football, other than of course the unveiling of the pathetic animal mascots they use for the S-League.

If the FAS think that making a publicity act of and shaming the now ex-Lions will save them the wrath of the Singapore fans, they are sadly mistaken...

For all the bad publicity about lax discipline and true to a good extent; poor performances from the Lions, I don't think the players are all to blame. I mean its been a whole year of dismal results in 2010, surely the man who picked the team Mr Raddy Avramovic and his coaches must take some blame? Surely, the FAS which did not "plan" ahead for the Suzuki Cup, thus leaving us with a bunch of oldies for the tournament should deserve a smacking too?

Anyway, Singapore fans, no matter how die-hard they may be are really just fans of Man Utd, Liverpool and what have you... we are part time Singaporeans when it comes to football. And that is a sad fact; but one that just reflects the dismal state of local football since the days of Fandi Ahmad, Abbas Saad and Sundramoorthy...