Gripes about Straits Times

From: http://straitstimes.asiaone.com.sg/sub/football/story/0,5597,284567,00.html?

Nov 12, 2004

SOCCER

It's now Manchester Dis-united

Ferguson blames some players, but there are fingers pointing at him

Manchester - A FEW weeks after declaring he was in the process of building his fifth great team at Manchester United, the foundations once again appear to be crumbling under Alex Ferguson.
Eleven points adrift of Chelsea after their worst start to a Premiership season, even Ferguson, facing a trip to Newcastle United on Sunday, admits his side, seventh in the table, are not good enough to win this season's title race.

Blame is the one thing United suddenly have plenty off and those in the club are busy handing it out.

Ferguson had harsh words for those who performed ineptly in the 0-0 draw against Manchester City last Sunday, most of them reserved for his £68.8 million (S$210 million) strikeforce - United's most impotent for 31 years.

'We cannot accept the chances we are missing,' said Ferguson, who even considered picking himself.

'The form we are showing is not good enough to win the championship.'

The statistics are damning. Wayne Rooney (£30m), Ruud van Nistelrooy (£19m), Louis Saha (£12.8m) and Alan Smith (£7m) have mustered a pitiful six of the paltry 11 goals United have scored in their opening 12 Premiership games.

The last time a United side fired as many blanks as that, they ended up being relegated.

That was back in the 1973-74 season, when they netted just 10 times in their first dozen matches, reported The Sun.

Here is another awful set of numbers: Only Chelsea (167) and Arsenal (159) have had more shots on goal than United (156) this season, but United are bottom of the League at converting their chances - at a measly rate of 6.5 per cent.

Which explains why they have failed to beat the lesser lights of the Premiership - City, Middlesbrough, Bolton, Blackburn - and even lost to Portsmouth. The United fear factor is truly gone, reported The Telegraph.

'To miss the chances we had is some kind of disgrace,' said Saha, who only broke his season's duck with a brace against Crystal Palace in the League Cup on Wednesday.

'It has got to change. Everyone knows we have the ability to score and people say it is just a matter of time.

'We keep saying that, but we have no more excuses now.'

Even Rooney, despite his tender age of 19, has come under fire. He has managed just one Premiership goal since his switch from Everton.

'For �30 million you would want Rooney to be performing every week and he is not,' said ex-United legend George Best.

But there are those who believe that the problems at United lie deeper, and the fingers point at Ferguson.

He has had wonderful success in the transfer market over the years, but the last two summers have not been his best with flops like Eric Djemba-Djemba, Kleberson, Liam Miller and Tim Howard, reported The Evening Standard.

Allowing David Beckham to join Real Madrid was one thing. Permitting Nicky Butt to move to Newcastle in the summer, when the cover for Roy Keane and Paul Scholes was below United's high standards, quite another.

And how he must rue his failure to sign Patrick Vieira from Arsenal in 2001 and, more recently, the PSV Eindhoven starlet Arjen Robben who now plays for Chelsea, and Barcelona's Ronaldinho.

With next summer's transfer budget already spent on Rooney, reinforcements are not going to come in the January transfer window, as Ferguson has pennies rather than pounds to play with.
When key players are not performing, selection can become difficult. Ferguson has admitted struggling to identify his strongest side, and his tactics are being questioned.

In the absence of the suspended van Nistelrooy, United could have used Rooney at his predatory best against City. Instead, Ferguson started him on the bench.

Even his players have started to doubt their boss.

Phil Neville has publicly admitted he does not know why he started just three League games all season, despite despite being rewarded for his 43 first-team appearances last season with a new five-year contract.

'I have played three games in six months, which isn't good enough really,' he told MUTV. 'I played against Arsenal and Portsmouth and thought I did okay. But then I found myself out of the team again.

'It is frustrating and I don't know why it has been like that. I came back for pre-season training fully fit and have not missed a day's training since, but I have not been selected.'

Another problem area has been goalkeeping. Ferguson took a gamble with the American Howard; it has not paid off. He has been forced to turn to Roy Carroll who, like Howard, is no Peter Schmeichel.

Such is the desperation at Old Trafford that Ferguson is doing all he can to not lose the Northern Ireland international, who is insisting on the guarantee that he remains as first-choice.

'We have made Roy the offer of a new contract that his agent has turned down,' said Ferguson yesterday. 'Hopefully there will be a change of mind and he will stay, as I am not looking for a new goalkeeper.'

And that is causing Howard to feel resentful.

'A goalkeeper is a very convenient scapegoat,' said the 25-year-old, whose high-profile blunders against Bolton and Lyon in the Champions League saw him lose his place. 'But I'm always going to own up to my mistakes. Did I lose us games? No, no.

'Did I contribute to it? Yes. But it takes 11 of us to win and 11 of us to lose.'

Captain Keane believes the team ethic that had long been United's greatest strength is lost.

He said: 'The talent is there, there's no doubt about that. But it's doing it in a match that matters. It's about all the players performing and working together as a team to get the right results.'

The feeling is that the Premiership may already be a two-horse race between Arsenal and Chelsea.

And, if United continue their poor run of results and drop points at Tyneside on Sunday, their challenge could be well be dusted even before Christmas.


There is nothing more disgusting than shoddy journalism. If there is one area I had changed since I came to the UK, it is my attitude towards football journalism in Singapore. It is pure shit. When I was young, The New Paper used to be my bible. I read it daily, digesting every bit of football news carefully, thinking it was the absolue truth. Slowly and slowly, my friends and I began to realise football journalism in Singapore consists of just cutting and pasting from internet sources, and a few articles here and there from "renowned" journalists. Who can forget Edwin Yeo? I even thought that Godfrey Roberts and Rob Hughes wrote good articles in general.

But all that changed when I came to the UK. Sensational journalism is the order of the day here. I began to realise that The New Paper and The Straits Times carried football articles that are nothing short of sensational journalism. The above is a very good example. What it did was to lump all the various comments made by the players and manager in the past 1 month into 1 article, and claiming United were falling apart. Just as I did not believe the Arsenal camp are falling apart just because they are on a bad run, United are not falling apart just because they are not scoring goals!

FOR FUCKS SAKE. Please stop trying to dupe Singaporeans. Roy Keane had been moaning about the commitment of his team mates since the beginning of time. It was there in 2000, 2001 and 2002 (in his autobiography). That did not stop United from winning titles. Players coming out and saying they are unhappy when they are not playing is nothing new! It happens at every club! In addition, they are PROFESSIONAL players, there is something seriously wrong if they are happy with not playing. The best has to be the following line:

'We cannot accept the chances we are missing,' said Ferguson, who even considered picking himself.

Again I must say WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?! They wrote that Ferguson considered picking himself as a matter of factly like its real. It was a tongue in cheek comment for goodness sake. And yet they wrote it like its the absolute truth.

This is just one example of shoody and sensational football journalism in Singapore.

I would like to take this chance to rectify yet another lousy piece of football journalism in Singapore.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAN U.

This message is worth repeating a lot more times, especially to those in England. So here I go again.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MAN U.

What the hell I hear you say? But newspapers always 'Man U' here 'Man U' there, what do you mean by there is no such thing is Man U?

Yes, there is no such thing as Man U. It is NOT a proper term to use when referring to Manchester United. True British football fans NEVER refer to Manchester United as Man U. Just because the Singapore newspapers always use it doesn't mean that its right. The origin of the term came from London newspaper journalists, who were jealous of United's success and began to be anti-United. They started to use Man U to refer to Manchester United because of the similarity in spelling with the term MANURE, which means cow dung. It is NOT a convenient short form. Do you ever hear of people referring to Newcastle United as New U? Or Leeds United as Leeds U? Or Sheffield United as Shef U? Do you ever hear (for those who had gone to Old Trafford) the fans cheering "Man U *clap clap clap* Man U *clap clap clap*"? The answer is NO NO NO. So I repeat again, Man U is NOT a short form. It is a derogatory term used by ABUs (Anybody But United) to refer to Manchester United.

So what does that have to do with local football journalism? The problem is, local football journalism has no originality. They ALWAYS copy from other sources. And they copied the usage of the term MAN U without understanding how the term came about and why it was used. COPYING LIKE BLIND IDIOTS. It is a huge shame that a well respected and generally well produced publication like the Straits Times has such a poor football journalism section. And in the process, they have duped so many generations of Singaporeans (me included) into yakking Man U here, Man U there. Oh my god, the horrors of shitty journalism.

It absolutely fills me with dread to see some clueless Singaporeans fill the pub that I went to for the United vs Arsenal game (they were nowhere to be seen for the Birmingham game previously and the Man City game last week, fucking muppets) and proclaiming proudly that they are 'Man U' supporters in full view of the British people. When you say that you are a 'Man U' supporter to a local, he would look down on you. Not only are you degrading the club you support, you are showing to him that you are a clueless supporter (by using an inappropriate term to refer to United). And the origin of all that? Shitty football journalism in Singapore. If you are not a fan, it is perfectly all right to refer to United as Man U. But if you are a fan and talking within ear shot of ang mohs, PLEASE use Man United, United, or Manchester United and not Man U. Do not make other Singaporeans beside you cringe with embarrassment.

And no, I do not think its fake to purposely change the way you always use to refer to United because our way is WRONG. Just because past generations of Americans used the term Negroes to refer to blacks doesn't mean its acceptable. It is derogatory. Period.

And do not give me that shit about no need to be embarrassed in front of ang mohs and having that inferiority complex in front of ang mohs. That argument holds no water. The game came from England, we jolly well use the proper term (their term) to refer to it.

One last gripe about the Straits Times Online. Ever since it changed the website and required you to log in, it has become much much slower. And there are lots of errors in the text. One example:

From: http://straitstimes.asiaone.com.sg/sub/topstories/story/0,5562,284508,00.html?

Mr George Cui, 33, from Dalian in China, and Miss Deepthi Cannot distribute vertically Prabhakar, 22, from Bangalore in India, made their way here on Singapore government scholarships and education grants.

Who the hell is Miss Deepthi Cannot distribute vertically Prabhakar? This is not the only example. There are lots of grammatical (the grammar must be really shit for me to even spot it) errors and spelling errors which I suspect may have to do with the HTML too. And once again, I must repeat what I said a couple of months ago, if you are going to change something, make sure its good for the consumer before going ahead with it. For fucks sake, cut out the red tape and improve the quality first before introducing stupid changes and requiring stupid information like how much do you earn so that you can register and read the newspaper online.