The prodigal son stays

All smiles between manager and player but is there something more?

It was a crazy few days of negotiating, bargaining, protests, allegations and emotions and Wayne Rooney ended it all up with a massive u-turn about. He signed the 5 year deal in the end, in what apppears to be a possible 250k a week for wages. Although it is an outcome that many United fans wanted, it still leaves a sour aftertaste in that Wayne has literally held the club to ransom so that he can get his way. It'll still remain a mystery on what had actually transpired behind. Is it the massive improvement in pay pocket or Fergie's words that had convinced him? Rumour has it that the result of this saga has enabled Fergie to have a 100 million transfer kitty lined up for him to raid some major stars, an assurance from the Glazers to quell the growing dissent in Old Trafford which seems to be spreading to the changing room via Wayne. Perhaps Fergie and Wayne should run for the best actor lead in Oscars or Emmy Awards for the high-temperature drama that is going around. Some say that wily old Fergie has won the battle on this by showing who's boss ultimately when it comes to player showdowns. But of more importance is whether Rooney's other fellow teammates like Evra and Vidic is going to continue to trust him. Not to mention, Rooney is going to need now a massive performance improvement in order to win back Old Trafford, who now has a negative impression over the whole episode.

Meanwhile, United did well against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium with a long-awaited away victory at 2-1. Hernandez had a fantastic evening with a brace, thanks to his predatory instincts in front of the goal. Chicarito is fast becoming a fan favourite, with the away crowd chanting his name loudly for all to hear in the staidum.

Rebel Wayne confirms he wants to go

The wrath of Old Trafford is coming upon Wayne

Fergie gave an astonishing press regarding the Rooney saga, with information regarding the background dealings that were happening. Apparently, Rooney had refused to sign a new contract way back in August and agreement could not come into place so far. Fergie has expressed his shock when he heard from David Gill that the contract was not signed and that the player had expressed his wish to leave the club. The Scot had also stated his confusion over the matter when Wayne had just declared a couple of months ago that he wants to stay at Man Utd for life. Rooney released a statement not long after that to confirm that the reports are right and he's looking to move away from United. He cites the club's "lack of ambition" and no assurance from Gill that investments will brought for future star players and implies that the club is on a decline.

Not only is Fergie shocked, I would say it's a whole nuclear bombshell being dropped at the Old Trafford fans. He chose to announce his arrival into Old Trafford with a hat-trick against a Turkish opposition in the Champions League and he chose to announce his departure in a similar fashion, hours before United meet up against their Turkish opposition. This is ridiculous nonsense from Rooney! I fear that the knife is plunged so deep that it would be hard for many of the fans to recover for it. This is astonishing news. Wayne Rooney, turning away from the fans that have adopted him as their favoured son of Manchester and denouncing the club at the same time. It's almost close to Lampard saying that he wants to quit Chelsea or Gerrard saying that to the Kop because Rooney, throughout the years has become synonymous as one of the front faces of United. United fans can accept if that were coming from Ronaldo and Tevez but not this and especially not from Wayne Rooney. Even the players mentioned that they could feel the gloom in Old Trafford crowd despite a victory over Budaspor from a superb effort from Nani. The usual anti-Scousers chant reserved for Liverpudians was sung several times, probably directed at Rooney himself. The fans are clearly wounded from such a nasty betrayal. Whatever badge thumping or kissing that Rooney did in the past has clearly gone down the drain and would certainly mean nothing in the future.

One may say what goes around comes around because that's what Rooney did against Everton. He left Everton in search of a higher ambition and he is doing the same now when he perceived that United did not have the squad to match his ambitions following the departures of Tevez and Ronaldo in the past two years with no major star replacement. It seems to be a consistent argument from him but he's so wrong about it and there's definitely something more than just that. United certainly do not look like a declining team to anyone with the 3-1 victory over Chelsea and also the 3-0 win over Newcastle during that time. Why didn't he sign the contract then? When he joined in 2004, wasn't that a period of decline for United which culminated in one of the worst Champions League season exits in 2005 at group stage which included Rooney being sent off? He joined into United not at its peak but at its decline after losing badly to the Gooners for the 03/04 title. Beckham had already left and Van Nistelrooy and Keane moved away from the club in subsequent years. Not to mention, we had no reliable keepers that we could depend on before Edwin arrived in our first winning season. There's no way he could have foreseen that United would have started another run of domination at 2007 with all the seemingly unbreakable pair of Chelsea and Mourinho looming around in between 2004 to 2007. He should have took flight by then. Fergie's response to Rooney's reply was right. There are plenty of United doomsayers abound at this time and it's easy to jump into that conclusion given the way the team is playing now although the ironic thing is that United has not been beaten so far this season. Who would have expected that Ronaldo or Rooney would make that deadly combination for the triple seasons of domination, especially with the bust-up between both of them after the World Cup? The young squad looks to be an awful bunch right now but bear in mind that in 2005 we still thought that Ronaldo is a non-productive show-boater compared to Beckham. Already in Budaspor that we could see some of them maturing in their game already, in particular Nani whose decision-making are much more deadly and wiser and Obertan has shown some promise with his skills in dribbling with the ball. It's not possible to see a title-winning team now but Man Utd has shown time and time again in overcoming its supposed decline with a couple of youths.

I supposed a modern footballer like Rooney could not be patient enough to wait through the development of young players but he should remember that he was once a young player too. Or he could just be a lazy convenient thug who sees this as an escape avenue for his messy private life affair. Or he is just greedy for some more Sheikh dollars. Ian Holloway and McLeish had placed their support for Fergie in getting tough with the situation and after such revelations, Fergie would have swung public opinion to his side. I wonder how Rooney's other team-mates will feel when he branded the team as being not "adequate". Honestly, I don't see him going to Spain because of his wife and culturally, he'll have lots of problems settling in. Both Owen and Beckham would know it and they didn't do too well over there. As one detractor observed,"Rooney can't even master English and he wants to learn Spanish now?" That would leave his destination to either being City or Chelsea who could afford his wages. If he goes City, he would find himself being public enemy for a 2nd club other than Everton in addition of fighting with 5 other strikers for places. But for Chelsea, they would have second thoughts in wanting to take someone who can't play in the Champions League for them with the price tag that comes along given that he's tied to United for that competition. He ain't Cristiano Ronaldo, so I do not know how a move away from United can benefit him in terms of trophy ambitions besides financial gain. With 2 more months to go to the transfer window, alot can happen during this time. The saga still looks far from being resolved and while many fans are angry and dissapointed with the way Wayne is behaving, there's still a minority who hoped that it's just a passing tantrum from him and that he would realise that United is the only logical choice of teams for him to stay. Which is your choice now Mr Wayne Rooney, to be Judas or the prodigal son?

Yesterday's heroes, today's villains

It's the same story all over again as Man Utd self-destructs in another round of defensive gaffes

West Brom. Old Trafford. 2-0 lead. 2-2 within the space of 5 minutes. Another two-goal lead squandered. That tells very much the story for the whole evening with yet another round of gaffes which promised to self-destruct Man Utd yet again this season. First, it was an Evra own-goal but that is forgivable to some extent because of the confusing scramble that was happening. But the 2nd one was a rather horrifying rare schoolboy error by van der Sar who instead of keeping hold of the ball, let it bounce past his fingers into the delightful legs of a West Brom player. These embarassing defences lapses are happening too many times during this season and this goes to show that a 2 goal margin is never enough. I've always thought that the attacking players did their homework so far, with Nani, Berbatov and Hernandez in fine form. But it is of no good use for a good attack if the defence keep leaking goals like this. It may be a rare occassional error, but it certainly looks like age factor has finally caught up with Edwin. The once reliable keeper now has to share part of the blame of being the culprits of defensive lapses that are occuring. I certainly do hope that he'll retire in style like Schmeichel with his time in United and not like David Seaman in his international career.

It's frustrating week in and week out to see Man Utd losing points in the most atrocious situations. Perhaps we can take solace in the Chelsea slip-up at Villa but Man City looks to be in a better position to catch up with the Blues rather than the red half of Manchester. The defence has to wake up their idea soon and be more miserly in giving away silly goals.

Things are certainly not looking well between Rooney and Fergie as more revelations are splashed over the papers. I'm less inclined to believe rumours that come out from Daily Mirror but reading that piece of news in more detail from the Guardian does give some meat to the validity of the issue. Something as big as this feud will be difficult to keep under wraps considering the attention that Wayne has been getting from his scandals. As we all know from history, no player has survived Fergie's wrath with Stam, Beckham, van Nistelrooy and even Keane is shown to the door. Nobody gets away with sulking in front of Fergie because it has always been his policy that no player is bigger than the club. But then one could also look at it this way, no manager is bigger than the club, and certainly, it's the club's future at stake here. I would say Rooney's remaining career will outlive Fergie's time and it will be such a waste to see Wayne, probably the last bastion of 'superstars' that United have to leave. Not to mention him being an Englishman too. It was just last season when people are talking whether Rooney will surpass Ronaldo's goalscoring tally. The thing is Wayne's private lifestyle is certainly condemnable and crude but him being a valuable asset to Man Utd is undeniable. George Best has his bad habits too but he was still regarded as a football genius during his time. At this moment, Rooney has hit up a rough patch, and he is losing the plot both on and out of the pitch. True, he's not performing at all this season but every striker has his bad days and a stretch of these bad moments. Fernando Torres is also not performing at the moment but everyone knows that he still has that deadly touch in him when he rediscovers his form. It will be hard for United fans to accept Rooney's departure compared to Ronaldo because we've always known that Ronaldo would somehow leave Man Utd some point in time. But Rooney is different, and especially for the English fans in United, he is a special symbol of an Englishman playing in one of the best English clubs unlike the foreign-dominated Gooners in London. It will be such a waste to lose him to Real Madrid because of a feud and even more of a tragedy if he ends up in a club like Man City. The road from being a hero to a villain is a quick one and it all depends on Wayne's choices in the end. Sigh, if Wayne had followed the choices of Ryan and Paul, wouldn't that be much less of a problem?

In other news, this sounds absurb, but Liverpool is truly in a relegation dogfight after losing 0-2 in the Merseyside derby. After 8 matches. the Scousers are 17th in the table, sharing 6 points with fellow relegation contenders West Ham and Wolves. Man Utd's position in the table doesn't look to bad afterall if compared to the Kop where the fans must have been going through some real agony for the past 8 weeks. Gary would have been delighted to see brother Phil leading the side to the job..lol. All the new owners and courtroom battle ain't sufficient enough to revive the Kop and it would certainly require more. I think they're too good to go down, but that's what we've said about Leeds and Newcastle in the past too. But before we revel in the terrible state the Scousers are in, there is always a lingering possibility that United will go down the same path if the Glazers screw the finances badly and not forgetting too that we are struggling to keep pace with the title chase even in the early stages of the season with the players we've got. They are hardworking and good but I would not rate them as outstanding, capable of changing the tide of the game. With new injuries abound, it's gonna be a long struggle to overthrow Chelski.

Christian Union and Church

My third week in Leeds has passed by already and here comes to the start of the 4th week! So far, I've attended several Christian Union functions in the university and also a few churches in the city to search for a suitable home church to settle down. I kinda had a strong desire to settle down to one church as soon as possible to ensure that my learning gets going and not be stagnated with nomadic attendance. After deliberating and seeking God for guidance, I've decided to make St. George's Church as my homechurch in the UK! Alot of factors come to play in terms of the decision such as Bible teaching, distance, availability of transport, serving and ministry opportunities. St. G's was not the first choices of church I looked into eventhough I passed by it everyday when I was coming back from uni campus. I thought that they hold very traditional Anglican services with mass-like procedures considering it's quite an old church with a crypt too. And I did not know anyone well enough to actually have a look at the services too.

Well, then Jason, one of my newfound friends in Leeds invited me to have a look at the services and I thought that it may be a good idea since the place is just 5 minutes away from my accomodation. I did some preliminary scouting before going to the church from its website and I've found out that this Anglican church is actually pretty much like St. Peter's English service where they had a worship band playing contemporary music and occassionally some hymns fused with a modern touch. Most importantly, it hits me in the right chords like how I felt when I first went to GFS Banting. It's just something like the little nudge that God pokes at me when I arrived at the right place. In Nilai, it took me only one try. In Leeds, it took several tries but I'm glad I've found it in the end. (Btw, settling down in St. G's has partly fulfilled my teenage fascination with the Church of England too..haha) When it is God's planning and timing, everything will just flow through smoothly along. Today, I had the wonderful opportunity of being invited into an elderly English couple's home for homecooked lunch, tea session and a walk in the park :)

The Christian Union (the UK's version of CF) is a very huge society compared to ICF as each meetings brings about 100+ people in. They had to split into different departments and the main meeting itself even has its own coordinator to be in charge. They have other departments like the Living Room (cafe for international students), prayer meetings, sports team, lunch bars, girl's meet up and CG so they need human resources to be spreaded out since the committee can't do everything by themselves. The organisation overseeing CU is the UUCF (UK's version of FES..haha) and they have full-time workers from UUCF every week to give a message in the meeting. In any case, I noticed that there are very little Malaysians attending the main CU meeeting. There are pockets of other nationalities but maybe me and 2-3 other Malaysians only. That brought me thinking during my time at ICF where we virtually had zero international students attending our meetings every week and I attribute that to the factor that the international students had difficulty in integrating with the locals or we as Malaysian locals failed to do enough to make them feel welcome or are unwilling to perhaps be tolerant to other nationality's line of thinking or lifestyle. As a committee we tried to brainstorm ways but we never really got anywhere near in solving the problem. And then I realised the irony now is that I'm an international student myself! I am right in their shoes and I think I experienced almost exactly the same thing as them - how to intergrate into the local Christian population.

It's not that easy as it looks and I would say that Britain 's CUs face the same problem over here too in reaching out to internationals. To some extent, they are one step ahead in that there are individuals who are trained specially to mingle with internationals but a lot of work still needs to be done in the majority local population who still feels more comfortable sticking in their own (pardon the vocab..racial/national) group. Lol..Racial polarisation is not just a Malaysian thing, it's everywhere on Earth. Not that they had intentions to do that, but it's just the natural comfortable reaction of human's basic animalistic instinct, and we need to rise above that. So, I would say it boils down to a tug-of-war effort between both sides, in that how willing is each side's perserverance in understanding each other and forging friendships transborder-wise, seeing each other not as separate national entities but as citizens of Christ's one united Kingdom. I have seen many who have given up and chose to remain in their comfort zone, but I'll go on in finding the key and prove that it is possible to be done - if we just persevere a little more onwards. I'm particularly inspired by Ruth in the Old Testament, a Moabite by descent who chose to follow God even while she was alone in a foreign land and at the same time, displayed an exemplary character to the other locals in the foreign land that she resides.

Colossians 3:11 - Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Galatians 3:26-28 - You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Leeds Uni vs. Leeds Met

If you can't go to Uni, go to Met
If you can't go to Uni, go to Met
If you can't go to Uni,
You can't go to Uni,
You can't go to Uni,
Go to Met!

This is the closest thing I've come so far to derby match like Man Utd vs. Man City in the UK. Back in Southeast Asia, the derby matches that I watch come in the forms of Malaysia vs. Singapore or have St. Joseph's Institution pitted up against Raffles Institution. So, on Wednesday, I went with a couple of my MASSoc friends to the annual rugby friendly betwen University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University. Friendly in name but not so in the match with each other. The supporters are certainly pumped up for the match, with bragging rights at stake. I headed over the Headingley Rugby Stadium which is home to the famous Leeds Rhino rugby team and it's a 30 minutes walk from my flat to the place. People are already lining up for the tickets, which costs about 5 pounds. I'm kinda excited going for the match because this is somewhat like a proto or preliminary feeling on what it's like to watch a football match in England.

First impressions of the match is that the Brits gotta have beer for the match. Glass bottles are banned for safety reasons, but they have plastic cups and plastic beer bottles as substitutes. It doesn't taste as nice if it were to be placed in a glass, but no Brit really does care as long as they can get drunk..hahaha. We managed to get some seats after scuffling with hordes of students from both sides. For team chanting purposes, we are known as "Uni" while the other side calls themselves as "Leeds Met". And the chanting and taunting at stadiums are done at full blast with no barriers held. One of those that I heard from our side was "If you can't go to Uni, go to Met!"(She'll be coming round the mountain tune) and then the Met students will respond by taunting "Fat B**tard" in response to our unofficial cheerleader who was rousing us to chant. And the other one was "Your dad works for my dad"..haha. As the match nears kickoff, things got a little rowdy in the crowd. A section of it started flinging beer plastic cups with the contents still there to the people who are still searching for seats. That incited a further flurry of things being thrown around so there's literally a beer shower all over the place. One guy even got a headshot and the crowd cheered at his demise..lol. Our side did get some flaks because our cheerleader with his female friends were seated near us and so we got the retribution from some furious Met fans. It seems that the security stewards did little except to warn the perpetrators occassionally. Looks like they wun interfere unless there are real serious injury.

When the match started, the crowd grew wild. The thing about crowded places in a UK stadium is that one will never sweat because the weather is always cold to keep the place naturally air-conditioned. When I saw the first streaker jumping in to the field attempting to disrupt the game, I had a good laugh because they have this occassionally at the Premier League games. But little did I know that he was not the only one. There were like almost NINE other streakers who ran into the game with hillarious results endings for each of them with the stewards chasing after them. The second streaker in the game actually had one of the stewards falling down on his face when he was giving chase. And the players got involved in pinning down one of the last streakers in the game too..lol. I've concluded that streaking is truly an Anglo-Saxon cultural thing in stadiums..haha.

Anyways, we lost in the end. It looked like a thrashing at first because Uni was still 0 after 35 minutes. But they clawed back at the second half and nearly completed a comeback but Leeds Met scored the extra crucial points. I heard from the other students that Leeds Met was at the thrasing end last year when they scored a mere 3 points..lol. Oh well, we made our way out after the match and the amount of rubbish that were piled up is immense. The final estimated figure that came to watch the game was around 10,000. And even in post match, the fans are still chanting through the streets of Headingley..haha. Ahhh, I would certainly love to watch the football version of this Varsity derby, if there's one.