齊天大聖之憲在不准笑(音樂課)Part2 16.9.06
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Instinct
You know the kind of feeling whereby you can just FEEL that what you are doing is right?
The feeling whereby you will just smile while doing something, because you know it's going to turn out great?
I THINK I am blessed with that kind of feeling. Somehow or rather, most of the time I can just feel instinctively whether I am doing the right thing.
Like when Tong Leng clicked VJC for me, I did not kbkb and change it back to HCJC, because somehow instinctively I knew it was the RIGHT choice.
Like when I decided to take Economics in JC (and subsequently Uni). No second thoughts needed even though I knew nuts about Econs before I went JC. And no regrets either.
Like when I decided I wanted to be a staff instead of a PC.
Like when I decided to buy that pair of ADIDAS Clima Cool shoes at half price. When I tried them on, they fit just nice and when I went to the cashier, I KNEW I would love this pair of shoes. And I can't stop wearing them since.
Hmm, perhaps then you might be wondering why TosH screws up so many times then. Why are there so many clothes hanging in your wardrobe that you seldom wear because in the end it turned out to be crap. Why are there a couple of pairs of footwear that you bought even though they did not really fit you? Why are there so many wrong decisions that you had taken?
I have been thinking about it too, and I could only think of this explanation. Because that "Ah Har!" feeling is just too rare, just too scarce. It doesn't come all the time you know. And you start to doubt yourself. Have you lost that instinct? Or if it IS your instinct telling you not to buy, is it because your instinct is now NOT accurate?
I felt that today at Top Man. There was a long sleeve shirt going at $35 bucks which was a pretty good deal. I went to try it, but the sleeves were too long for my shorty hands, but there wasn't any smaller size available.
I was in a dilemma. "It's cheap! Buy it!" "The sleeves are too long! Don't buy!" I started to try to imagine the sleeves were not that long. I started to con myself that the style of the shirt is like that. Just to recapture that happy feeling of buying something that really suits you.
And after a while, I got confused as to which was my "real" instinct. But somehow or rather, I knew that if I had gone to the cashier, I would not have that feeling of satisfaction like when I bought the Adidas shoes. In the interest of my bank account, I decided not to buy. But yet now, I am still thinking whether I should have bought it....
Ok this seems to be a damn shopaholic post but that's not my main point...
http://ickleoriental.livejournal.com/591645.html#cutid1
I have been reading this blog for quite a while, and I feel it's one of the better blogs out there. The author and her husband seems to be a picture perfect couple. Newly married, good looking, and into endurance sports for good measure.
Looking at their wedding photos, you can just feel (and this is just my own feeling, whether it is true or not is none of my business...) that when the Father (is he called the father? or priest?) asks "Do you agree to take XXX as your lawfully wedded wife blah blah blah", they instinctively knew it was the right decision to take.
You just feel that they had that "AH HAR!" feeling.
And this made me think, one day, if (and it's a big if...) I ever have the chance to be in that position, would I have that instinct? The "AH HAR!" feeling that tells me that I should say "I do?"
Or would I be struggling just like today to make a decision? Or worse still, would I make excuses to make myself to say "I do", in the hope that everything would turn out just fine as though I had that "AH HAR!" feeling? You know, buying a shirt that doesn't really suit you, just coz you are scared somebody bought it and you will regret that you chose to follow that silly "AH HAR!" feeling?
I suppose I won't really know until that day comes. But I do pray that when that day comes, I can see myself smiling in a mirror somewhere, knowing that I have made the right decision, that she is THE ONE, and we will grow old together....
Just like my Adidas Clima Cool...
The feeling whereby you will just smile while doing something, because you know it's going to turn out great?
I THINK I am blessed with that kind of feeling. Somehow or rather, most of the time I can just feel instinctively whether I am doing the right thing.
Like when Tong Leng clicked VJC for me, I did not kbkb and change it back to HCJC, because somehow instinctively I knew it was the RIGHT choice.
Like when I decided to take Economics in JC (and subsequently Uni). No second thoughts needed even though I knew nuts about Econs before I went JC. And no regrets either.
Like when I decided I wanted to be a staff instead of a PC.
Like when I decided to buy that pair of ADIDAS Clima Cool shoes at half price. When I tried them on, they fit just nice and when I went to the cashier, I KNEW I would love this pair of shoes. And I can't stop wearing them since.
Hmm, perhaps then you might be wondering why TosH screws up so many times then. Why are there so many clothes hanging in your wardrobe that you seldom wear because in the end it turned out to be crap. Why are there a couple of pairs of footwear that you bought even though they did not really fit you? Why are there so many wrong decisions that you had taken?
I have been thinking about it too, and I could only think of this explanation. Because that "Ah Har!" feeling is just too rare, just too scarce. It doesn't come all the time you know. And you start to doubt yourself. Have you lost that instinct? Or if it IS your instinct telling you not to buy, is it because your instinct is now NOT accurate?
I felt that today at Top Man. There was a long sleeve shirt going at $35 bucks which was a pretty good deal. I went to try it, but the sleeves were too long for my shorty hands, but there wasn't any smaller size available.
I was in a dilemma. "It's cheap! Buy it!" "The sleeves are too long! Don't buy!" I started to try to imagine the sleeves were not that long. I started to con myself that the style of the shirt is like that. Just to recapture that happy feeling of buying something that really suits you.
And after a while, I got confused as to which was my "real" instinct. But somehow or rather, I knew that if I had gone to the cashier, I would not have that feeling of satisfaction like when I bought the Adidas shoes. In the interest of my bank account, I decided not to buy. But yet now, I am still thinking whether I should have bought it....
Ok this seems to be a damn shopaholic post but that's not my main point...
http://ickleoriental.livejournal.com/591645.html#cutid1
I have been reading this blog for quite a while, and I feel it's one of the better blogs out there. The author and her husband seems to be a picture perfect couple. Newly married, good looking, and into endurance sports for good measure.
Looking at their wedding photos, you can just feel (and this is just my own feeling, whether it is true or not is none of my business...) that when the Father (is he called the father? or priest?) asks "Do you agree to take XXX as your lawfully wedded wife blah blah blah", they instinctively knew it was the right decision to take.
You just feel that they had that "AH HAR!" feeling.
And this made me think, one day, if (and it's a big if...) I ever have the chance to be in that position, would I have that instinct? The "AH HAR!" feeling that tells me that I should say "I do?"
Or would I be struggling just like today to make a decision? Or worse still, would I make excuses to make myself to say "I do", in the hope that everything would turn out just fine as though I had that "AH HAR!" feeling? You know, buying a shirt that doesn't really suit you, just coz you are scared somebody bought it and you will regret that you chose to follow that silly "AH HAR!" feeling?
I suppose I won't really know until that day comes. But I do pray that when that day comes, I can see myself smiling in a mirror somewhere, knowing that I have made the right decision, that she is THE ONE, and we will grow old together....
Just like my Adidas Clima Cool...
Friday, September 22, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
If you are bored to tears like me....
As you can probably see by now, TosH is rather free these few days. Reason being that he is SUPPOSED to be on off for the whole week. Hmm, but somehow that doesn't stop him from having to go to camp for some work today... But oh well, better get used to using free time for work now... Seeing how teachers work nowadays...
Anyway this post is purely to link to some sites for your reading and/or entertainment.
1) http://www.oikono.com/wordpress/?p=204
This story is basically about how one of the writer's friends manages to escape from NS. The writer's friend calls himself a conscientious objector to forced conscription. While admiring the courage to actually hatch a plan and successfully get away from the MPs, I cannot condone such an action. Yes maybe I do have a sour grapes mentality, I did my share of NS, why can't you? But it isn't just about that. Without any female presence outside (stop it Shihua!!!!! ), the only thing left for me to pull through NS is to think rationally about why NS was necessary. I don't like it, but I appreciate its importance. And fundamental to the success of forced conscription, taking into account our Singaporean kiasu mentality, is that everybody MUST serve unless you are medically certified unfit. We can't even AFFORD to start considering letting all these so called "conscientious objectors" serve in a "lesser" way because given how "niao" we are, everybody (ok maybe 80%) will start to use it to siam the combat vocations. Maybe the NS term can be shorter, maybe the training phase could be more dignified, but running away is not going to help Singapore in the long run. At least I now know that I can kill at least a few mother fuckers who try to invade lim bei's homeland with my SAR 21. (No, don't remind me I failed my shooting....)
2) http://rudesingaporeans.blogspot.com/
3) http://parkingidiots.blogspot.com/
Hmm, and the above 2 links are blogs to shame people that I have been reading. Slept in the library? Occupied 2 seats on the bus? Talked loudly on your handphone? Beware the power of the internet! You may find your picture on the first website the very same night when you go home and log on to laugh at other people!
The second one is more for drivers. How often have you felt super duper du lan when you finally found a parking lot in a crowded car park, only to find the idiot next to the lot had eaten into half the space? Well, with your handphone camera, fear not! Snap and post and the bugger will be shamed in double quick time! But of course there's a catch. PARK YOUR OWN CAR PROPERLY! (And believe me, you never know when you will be snapped... the amount of posts is amazing...)
4) http://www.petrolwatch.com.sg/
5) http://www.petrolwatch.com.sg/carpark_main.php
Ok, maybe should give some better links. Here's 2 websites that are GODLIKE for drivers. The first one tracks petrol prices in pretty much EVERY station in Singapore, for EVERY BRAND. (But god damn it they are in tacit collusion, their prices are the same!) The second one has car park prices but A LOT of car parks around Singapore. Really helpful for you to plan which car park to park your bao bei in. With it, you will never be fooled by the $8/entry at CHIJMES again!
Lastly,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDx1GLqvBO8&search=loose%20change > Loose Change Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?search=loose+change&mode=related&v=wJZlZP0vbCE > Loose Change part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7ipvgBLGc&mode=related&search=loose%20change > Loose Change part 3
Because everyone loves a good conspiracy theory! While I don't necessarily think what is being said in the video is true, it is certainly true that there are too many question marks over the whole thing... And similar to the Michael Moore (did I even get his name correct?) film, it is disturbing to say the least... (And yes I know Loose Change was damn long ago but I only watched it a couple of days ago ok?)
Anyway this post is purely to link to some sites for your reading and/or entertainment.
1) http://www.oikono.com/wordpress/?p=204
This story is basically about how one of the writer's friends manages to escape from NS. The writer's friend calls himself a conscientious objector to forced conscription. While admiring the courage to actually hatch a plan and successfully get away from the MPs, I cannot condone such an action. Yes maybe I do have a sour grapes mentality, I did my share of NS, why can't you? But it isn't just about that. Without any female presence outside (stop it Shihua!!!!! ), the only thing left for me to pull through NS is to think rationally about why NS was necessary. I don't like it, but I appreciate its importance. And fundamental to the success of forced conscription, taking into account our Singaporean kiasu mentality, is that everybody MUST serve unless you are medically certified unfit. We can't even AFFORD to start considering letting all these so called "conscientious objectors" serve in a "lesser" way because given how "niao" we are, everybody (ok maybe 80%) will start to use it to siam the combat vocations. Maybe the NS term can be shorter, maybe the training phase could be more dignified, but running away is not going to help Singapore in the long run. At least I now know that I can kill at least a few mother fuckers who try to invade lim bei's homeland with my SAR 21. (No, don't remind me I failed my shooting....)
2) http://rudesingaporeans.blogspot.com/
3) http://parkingidiots.blogspot.com/
Hmm, and the above 2 links are blogs to shame people that I have been reading. Slept in the library? Occupied 2 seats on the bus? Talked loudly on your handphone? Beware the power of the internet! You may find your picture on the first website the very same night when you go home and log on to laugh at other people!
The second one is more for drivers. How often have you felt super duper du lan when you finally found a parking lot in a crowded car park, only to find the idiot next to the lot had eaten into half the space? Well, with your handphone camera, fear not! Snap and post and the bugger will be shamed in double quick time! But of course there's a catch. PARK YOUR OWN CAR PROPERLY! (And believe me, you never know when you will be snapped... the amount of posts is amazing...)
4) http://www.petrolwatch.com.sg/
5) http://www.petrolwatch.com.sg/carpark_main.php
Ok, maybe should give some better links. Here's 2 websites that are GODLIKE for drivers. The first one tracks petrol prices in pretty much EVERY station in Singapore, for EVERY BRAND. (But god damn it they are in tacit collusion, their prices are the same!) The second one has car park prices but A LOT of car parks around Singapore. Really helpful for you to plan which car park to park your bao bei in. With it, you will never be fooled by the $8/entry at CHIJMES again!
Lastly,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDx1GLqvBO8&search=loose%20change > Loose Change Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?search=loose+change&mode=related&v=wJZlZP0vbCE > Loose Change part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7ipvgBLGc&mode=related&search=loose%20change > Loose Change part 3
Because everyone loves a good conspiracy theory! While I don't necessarily think what is being said in the video is true, it is certainly true that there are too many question marks over the whole thing... And similar to the Michael Moore (did I even get his name correct?) film, it is disturbing to say the least... (And yes I know Loose Change was damn long ago but I only watched it a couple of days ago ok?)
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Roy Keane interview
Sunday was one of the worst performances I have seen by United recently. Arsenal was much better with their fluid passing and possession football. You would have been hard pressed to believe that the game was played at Old Trafford, not Ashburton Grove. Yet I wasn't disappointed by all that, what made me more upset was the lack of heart, the lack of fight, that look of fire in the players' eyes. Only Scholes, Fletcher (though he was found rather wanting in the ability department) and Gary came out of the game with any sort of credit. The game was crying out for one man to sort it all out, the one man who would have inspired all the red shirts to die on the pitch with him for that badge. And that man is Roy Keane. Yet he will never be back in that famous red shirt again....
Sunday Times September 17, 2006
Sir Alex Ferguson called him Manchester United's 'most influential player'. Yet Roy Keane is always in trouble. On the pitch he's belligerent. Off it he's reclusive. Now he is the new manager of Sunderland, things have got to change. Will he learn to play by the
rules?
By David Walsh
An evening in May, 1999; Manchester United is winning everything and Timmy Murphy is standing at the bar in the Metropole Hotel on Cork's MacCurtain Street, calling for a pint of stout. He had come to reminisce about a young lad he once trained, a kid not as talented as some of the others but, my God, you should have seen the attitude. "Ah, Roy," said Murphy, "Roy Keane."
Murphy was the manager of Rockmount boys team, and in Cork schoolboy football, they were kings. The club scouts came - a contract in one hand, a dream in the other. Keane wasn't their first choice, nor their second, not even their third. He was small, gritty rather than gifted. But when you patrol the touchline, as Murphy did, every training session, every game, you know. Better than the scouts, you just know. "Even then, at the age of 11, Roy was the leader."
During the evening, Murphy pulled out a photograph. "See this? First trophy Roy Keane ever won in football." Rockmount U11s, seven boys sitting, seven standing; their statuettes lined up in front of them. Keane is the smallest - but the look on his face is unremittingly hard. The statuette could have been a dead fish by his feet.
What made him like that? He came from a country once described by the businessman and former rugby player Tony O'Reilly as being dogged by an "it'll do" mentality. "Sure, it's not great, but it'll do." Keane comes from a part of Cork city where boys learnt to look after themselves in the early hours of Sunday morning: a world where you dreamt for a while, then got battered by reality. He did the drinking, the fighting. He has always loved his home city; "Irish by birth, Cork by the grace of God" is his verbal passport. Few exiles come back as often as he does, to stay at his parents' house.
To be what he has become, he had to separate himself from so much that he was: the fry-ups, the drinking, the fights, the things that eat him inside that made him lash out. Perhaps, most of all, he had to survive being Roy Keane, the Roy Keane. Sir Alex Ferguson described him recently as Manchester United's most influential player. How did he come to be that? Perhaps because he was the one who said "it'll not do".
He doesn't easily agree to interviews. Two letters in the past 18 months produced nothing. A third letter was sent six weeks ago. You write it, post it and forget it. A week later, the day before his 35th birthday, my telephone rang. "This is Roy Keane. I got your letter, I don't mind having a chat. Can you get to Manchester tomorrow by 11 o'clock?"
There had only ever been one face-to-face interview between us, four years before. The first time, he had shown up 15 minutes before the appointed time. It made me think of poor Mark Bosnich, the Australian goalkeeper who turned up late on his first morning at Manchester United's training ground. "What do you mean, you got lost?" Keane snarled. Back then you could get past security but not past the team's guard dog. Now he walks into the Marriott Hotel near Manchester airport at a minute past 11. It is hard to be sure it is him, but once he is through the revolving door he puts his right hand to his face, instinctively shielding himself from the
outside world. It's a dead giveaway.
Not many adults have this shyness.
Something Martina Navratilova once said came to mind. Asked why she won nine singles championships at Wimbledon, Navratilova said it was because every time she walked on Centre Court, she felt like a little Czechoslovak girl playing people better and more advantaged than her. Keane came with that same mentality: "Roy, they think they're better than you."
We sit in a room at the back of the hotel. There is coffee and water. He chooses water and though three months have passed since he last kicked a football, his pencil-thin physique remains untouched by retirement. He talks about the way he changed his diet. "When I changed my diet, I went from the player with the highest body fat to the one with the lowest body fat. Typical me, has to be all or nothing."
He tells about a recent visit to Ireland and an invitation to speak to the Cork hurling team: how he sensed a bond among these amateur sportsmen that you don't get in professional football. He spoke of the togetherness; a natural occurrence, he thought, among men who had played together in underage teams and grown up together.
When he watches them play, he can see that camaraderie and it pleases him. I ask: "Were they not intimidated?" He pauses briefly: "Intrigued. Always trying to get inside my head." So, then, the Cork hurlers are no different from the rest of us.
What went on inside his head when Sir Alex Ferguson let it be known he was no longer wanted at Manchester United? Twelve years of his life at the club, his wracked body became an offering, his soul became the team's soul. Then, at the end of one bad week, it was over. The exit was quietly played out. Not much was said. "I just knew it was time to go. Everybody knew. Sixth sense, I suppose."
First thing he wants you to understand is that his body wasn't up to it any more. Which is the same as saying he wasn't up to it any more. Right side, from his hip to his knee; the severed cruciate ligament, the operation to repair the hip, they had taken their toll. He explains his decline with the lack of sentimentality that is his way.
"When I first went to United, Bryan Robson was somebody I looked up to, still do. But I was young, and when you're young, you smell blood. It was like, 'Robbo, I'm after you, I'm taking you.' That's the name of the game, otherwise things don't move on. And I just felt over the last couple of years with the younger players at United, I was losing that influence. They were the ones smelling blood. In terms of dominating, I was definitely losing it. It might have been something the normal fan wouldn't recognise, the manager wouldn't even recognise it, but I recognised it. I was always my own judge, sometimes harsh, but in the end, I wasn't quite at the races."
It was never going to end with a kiss. Not with Keano. He left because he was told to go, cleaned out his locker the evening before the last meeting with the club chairman David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson. You can call Keane what you wish, but not stupid. Going into that meeting, he knew. The ranting, the raving, the swearing; in the end it all dissipated, replaced by Gill's sadness, Keane's resignation, Ferguson's determination.
He holds onto the good times, the good days: "I was fortunate to play for United. I enjoyed all my days there, had a good time, met some bloody good people, good characters, good men. I go back to the fellows that were there when I arrived: Robbo [Bryan Robson], Brucie [Steve Bruce], Sparky [Mark Hughes], Andre [Kanchelskis], Incey [Paul Ince], Giggsy.
"My first few years at United were very sociable. We'd agree to meet in Mulligans bar and 10 or 12 lads would show up. You were the exception if you didn't, now you're the exception if you do. The game has changed that much.
I liked the change when it came, the way the foreign players looked after themselves. I thought, 'Yeah, I want to play for them as long as I can.' So I changed more than anybody: new diet, knocked the drink on the head, stopped cutting corners and accepted you can't have the best of both worlds. It wasn't as much fun after that, but it lasted longer."
When Keane's United were good, they were very good. For years only Arsenal could live with them. Keane missed one entire season through injury and, of course, that was one of the leap years when the title went south. Still, they were good years. Beckham, Keane, Scholes and Giggs, and you would have travelled a long way, paid a lot of money to watch them. Millions did. Success corrodes, though. After winning the European Cup (now the Champions League) in 1999, United were in gradual decline. The player who innocently said on the night of the victory that he didn't care if they never won another match foretold the stagnation that would follow.
And that evening in Barcelona, Keane was still the 12-year-old with the dead fish. "The good teams come back and win this trophy again and again," he said, at the Nou Camp stadium. "That's what we've got to do." Just as success chipped away at the resolve of teammates, it was repeated failure in the European Cup that did for Keane. Forget his last traumatic week at the club, or at least see it in context. Deep beneath the mountain, the volcano had been bubbling for years.
You ask him about this and it is like Hamlet, alone in a room. "People look back on my career and think the injuries and leaving the Ireland team at the World Cup were the disappointments. None of that stuff comes into it. The biggest disappointments were the games we lost in Europe.
"Years when we just got sucked into the bull, 'the final is in Glasgow this season, the manager's home city,' as if that entitled us to a break. 'The final's in Old Trafford this season, made for us.' People got sucked into that.
"Even that night in Barcelona, it was a great night in the history of the club, and it will be hard to beat it, but you knew some people had reached their height. It's human nature. I was frustrated by this. I wanted to get back there again, because as much as I thought we were a good team, until you get to a second or third final, you don't confirm it. It disappoints me that I didn't win the World Cup. People say 'but Roy, you played for Ireland, you were never going to win the World Cup'. I never saw it like that."
What did he feel at the end? Anger, sadness, resignation? "You've covered it all there. It had been coming. There were no tears. None. It was done. It's the people around you that get upset. Family members, wife, parents. They care about you, so they worry. For me, it was mostly acceptance. It had been coming and then it happened. It was the right thing for United, maybe not the right thing for Roy Keane, maybe not for Alex Ferguson, but for the club. I always said, when the day came, I'd be ready. Locker cleaned out the evening before: I was ready."
But did the end have to be that painful? "I think so," he says. "I cared too much. If things weren't going well, if new signings weren't working out, if the reserves were having a bad time, if the youth team wasn't doing well, I was taking it all on board. That's what I am. I can't be flippant about these things. This is who I am, like it or lump it. It doesn't mean I'm not a nice person."
He then talks about the last week, the 4-1 defeat at Middlesbrough on the Saturday afternoon, his return from Dubai, his performance as pundit for the MUTV analysis of the game on Monday, and the ructions that followed. The club opted not to broadcast Keane's comments, which they felt were too critical of teammates. A leaked and inaccurate account of what he said was printed in several newspapers and United was portrayed as a club tearing itself apart.
"I took that defeat personal, then there was the video that was leaked and everything snowballed. That defeat still hurts me; not that we got beaten 4-1, but the way we got beaten. I didn't even bloody play, which was even more frustrating, because part of me is saying, 'Roy, stay out of it, it's not your business,' but I'm a player in that dressing room, and this affected the dressing room.
"I was seeing players doing stuff off the pitch, had the feeling it was affecting them, and it came to a head with that defeat. That feeling, I'll take it to the grave. And yes, I nailed certain people. This was a match I watched in a pub in Dubai. I had a foot injury, the club said take a break. I walked out at 3-1, I couldn't take any more. I took the publicity with a pinch of salt, senior figures at the club should have done the same. Everyone got sucked into it, when they should have known better. I think, in the end, the manager was swayed by certain people he works with."
A number of people at Old Trafford believe that at a difficult meeting involving players and coaches following the public airing of Keane's criticism of some teammates, there was some sharp swordplay between the then skipper and assistant coach, Carlos Queiroz. The coach accused Keane of disloyalty, a brave accusation at the best of times. To use an expression he likes, he then nailed Queiroz by reminding him it was he who ran off to coach Real Madrid and only came back to United when things didn't work out in Spain. The feeling is that Queiroz went to Ferguson and made it "him or me". Since Keane's time was almost up, it was him.
One United player, asked if he had spoken to his captain in the aftermath of his departure, complained he didn't have his number. I ask Keane if this wasn't unusual? "My brother works in a factory, I doubt if all his workmates have his number. When I was at Celtic, some of the players said, 'Can I have your number?' I said, 'No, I don't want you annoying me with banter.'
"By the time I left there, two guys had my number. But it's not something you're going to give away. One or two of the United lads - actually, seven - have my number. People are going to be surprised by this, so I will name them for you. Ruud -obviously he's gonenow, Ollie [Ole Gunnar Solskjaer], Gary [Neville], Butty [Nicky Butt] - he's gone too, Shaysie [John O'Shea], Quinton [Fortune] and Giggsy."
Not long after his exit, Keane went back to United's training ground to return his company car. "The players gave me a lot of respect. I said goodbye and there were no hard feelings.
"United wanted me to have my testimonial, and showed their class as a club in the way they did everything for me. That brought closure. By the end of my time, a lot of the players didn't like me. I'm convinced of that. Possibly they wouldn't admit it, but there's no doubt in my mind, the players had just had enough of me; they were just ready for a change. Ready for a different voice in the changing room. I was losing that influence."
How is his relationship with Alex Ferguson?
"I wouldn't have a clue. He's a manager I played under, he taught me a lot, gave me a chance, and hopefully I repaid that with some decent performances. Then it came to an end."
Affection? "No, I wouldn't say affection. Respect. The bottom line is, he'd always look at the bigger picture. Whatever he does, and maybe he's upset a few people, he will always do what he thinks is best for the club. I'll give him that."
He says you were the most influential player in the club's history. "I don't agree. I've never believed one individual can have that much influence on a team. People used to say this about Eric [Cantona], but I didn't get sucked into that. Eric was a major influence at the club, but I saw him as the final piece in the jigsaw. He wouldn't have worked if the other pieces weren't in place. You can't look to one player, a Rooney or whoever. You can't have other players thinking, 'Okay, Wayne, go and do it for us.' Different people have different jobs, some more glamorous than others."
So how good is Rooney? "For me, the jury's still out on Wayne. I think he's got a hell of a lot to do. Wayne has achieved nothing - would probably say that himself. I would judge players over a few years, rather than one or two. He's got potential, like I've got potential to be a good manager. Potential is one thing, doing it is another. I feel this season could be a good one for him."
Will the scrutiny hurt him; diminish him? "A lot of players bring it on themselves, they and the people who are advising them. When I see young players doing deals for five books, I scratch my head. I did a book when I was 31, after a few years of half-decent success. A book deal worth 2 or 3m is not going to alter the lifestyle of a player who could earn 50 to 100m, but it can be a distraction."
He moves effortlessly into anti-celebrity mode; for here was the man who preferred not to attend the celebrity wedding of his friend David Beckham, who now says he would rather be back drinking cider behind the school wall than sell photographs of his wife and children to OK! or Hello! magazines. As a young manager, he knows it is something he will have to confront.
"They say managers are losing control over players, but there are times when you can put your foot down. Players get away with things now they wouldn't have been allowed to do a few years ago. My answer would be no. And it would annoy me if one of my players did a shoot for a celebrity magazine. Can you do anything about it? First time, maybe it happens before you can stop it, but there can be consequences, something to make them think twice before doing it again.
Though they are different people, he got on well with Beckham. "Becks was always going to go down the celebrity road once he got married. Not in a million years could I live that lifestyle, but I'm sure he couldn't live mine. You give people the freedom to live it their way, but first time you see it's affecting their football, you put your foot down. There's loads of people who get sucked in: Jonny Wilkinson and Michael Owen always spring to mind. The day after Owen broke his foot, he's doing an article and I'm thinking, 'Work on your recovery, man. Do that article next week, next month, next year.' Wilkinson, the same. When you get an injury, the early days are vital. I've done it both ways, where I've had an injury and been out on the town that night, and later on, when I focused properly. They're kidding themselves, but that's the name of the game these days."
He talks about the future and his decision to become a manager. At first he wasn't sure. The football life wasn't so wonderful at the end. For all his resignation, he didn't plan to leave United by the back door. The affair with Glasgow Celtic didn't do it for him. Parts of the experience he enjoyed, and it surprised him how much he enjoyed the Celtic dressing room. Better than United's? "Less nasty", he says. "In every changing room, players get ripped. People have taken the piss out of me; ripped me for not drinking, ripped for doing yoga, ripped for my diets, for my clothes, for my Irishness. But you give it back.
"When I say the Celtic dressing room was better, this is not a criticism of the United lads. I was as bad as any of them. We ripped people for the wrong things; the car, the house, the way you dressed. In Scotland it was more old-fashioned. I enjoyed that. Maybe you don't get the bull up there that you get in the Premiership."
He learnt, too, about living out of a suitcase, without a family. He spent three months in an Edinburgh hotel. Cinema in the afternoon, long, anonymous walks in the evening. "Here I was, a 34-year-old man going to the pictures on his own in the afternoon. It made me think about when I came to England first, the 18-year-old in Nottingham who went to the pictures in the afternoon. Here I was, 16 years on, back at the pictures. My life had come full circle."
While in that Edinburgh hotel, travelling to and from training, missing his Manchester-based family, he thought about Sebastian Veron, his one-time Argentinian teammate at United. "Celtic couldn't have done enough for me, but it was a lonely life and I wish now I had been a bit easier on some of the foreign lads who came to United. I always thought, 'You're on the pitch now, do it.' I regret that now. I was very hard on Seba, and I was wrong. When he came, I was expecting miracles. When they didn't happen, I was always homing in on him, and I now know it takes time." He wanted to play his best for Celtic but he didn't; his body wasn't up to it and, without his family, it was tough.
Through the traumas, Theresa and their five children have been his anchor. "The bad times, that's when you need a family. I read a book recently about the loss of identity sportsmen feel when they stop. 'Roy Keane, Manchester United.' 'Roy Keane, Ireland.' 'Roy Keane, Glasgow Celtic.' There's always something after your name. With your family, you have an identity that's separate from that."
The decision to become the manager of Sunderland was taken while with his family in the Algarve. They would not have discouraged him: they know he is a better father, an easier husband, when spending his intensity on football. He thinks he will be a good manager but he reminds you; so does everyone starting out. The key for him is he has to find out. Two lines from Julius Caesar could have been written for him: "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once."
And so we talk about management. He has watched Jose Mourinho's arrival into the Premiership, the way he has taken on Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. "Mourinho's got something. A blind man could see that. And he has the edge at the moment. He plays games and I think they can have a big effect on his team and on the opposition. Do you remember when Chelsea played United at Stamford Bridge, end of last season, and there's two minutes to go in injury time, and he gets up, walks up to where the United lads are, and he's shaking Alex Ferguson's hand and the game is still going on? Two years ago no one would've done that to Alex Ferguson.
"The manager would not have liked it. But Mourinho is saying, 'The game is over, the league is over, 3-0 to us.' But Alex Ferguson would have taken that on board. That's what good managers thrive on, that kind of slight. People love to criticise Mourinho, but I like watching Chelsea. They're well organised; they know their jobs."
That last part came easily to Keane. Perhaps his last great performance in a United shirt came on that February evening in Highbury last year. Facing down Patrick Vieira in the tunnel before the kickoff and then dominating the game.
He remembers it clearly: "Arsenal started it that night with Gary [Neville]. Vieira had a go at Gary. Gary's not really a fighter." So, what did you say to him? "The Sunday before, there was a two-page spread about Vieira in The Sunday Times, and he was bragging about all the good things he was doing in Senegal. He's building this academy, saving kids from the street. It irritated me. Self-praise is no praise. And so I said to him, 'If you're that worried about Senegal, why didn't you f***ing play for them?' [Born in Senegal, Vieira moved to France and played for his adopted country.]
"A week or so later he said I didn't understand the history of what he'd come through. And he's right about that, and I was probably wrong."
We talk about the World Cup in Germany. He went to one of the games and felt it was a wasted trip. As for England, he knew before they went there: "No chance." Too few world-class players. "I like Gerrard, Lampard and Wayne, but they still haven't done it on a world stage, and then there's all this bull around the team." He didn't find the Wags amusing. "What kind of person wants to be pictured going out for a meal? They were annoying me, and they're not even my wife."
He then talks about the sending-off of Zinedine Zidane in the final. "I could understand what he did 100%. I could sense his frustration: he'd just missed a header before that, then a pass went astray; you could see he was getting a bit tired, and all you need is a flippin' comment at that moment. That's what used to happen to me.
"You see, at that moment it doesn't matter who is watching, doesn't matter that it's a World Cup final. It could be a park field. That moment comes and it is 'F*** you, f*** everybody,' and bang! Zidane's got that streak in him; if he didn't, would he have been a brilliant player?
"I think of the last game I played for Celtic. I gave away one or two passes. Two stray, silly passes, and it eats away at me. All you need then is someone to say something." He doesn't want to return to his collisions with the Norwegian Alf-Inge Haaland, but this train of thought drives him there: "I remember at Leeds, when I'd done my knee [in a lunge at Haaland]. He irritated me, that's all it was. If a certain person says it at the wrong moment, then 'bad day'. At Old Trafford, when Haaland was playing for City, he had been mouthing off in the media, slagging off the club. I took that personal. We'd lost the Wednesday before to Bayern Munich in
the European Cup, and it was a case of 'Sod it, just sod it.'"
He thinks about what he has just said, realising there is a part of him that we will never fully understand, and he begins to laugh.
"Anyway, they're my excuses," he says.
"Very genuine excuses."
Sunday Times September 17, 2006
Sir Alex Ferguson called him Manchester United's 'most influential player'. Yet Roy Keane is always in trouble. On the pitch he's belligerent. Off it he's reclusive. Now he is the new manager of Sunderland, things have got to change. Will he learn to play by the
rules?
By David Walsh
An evening in May, 1999; Manchester United is winning everything and Timmy Murphy is standing at the bar in the Metropole Hotel on Cork's MacCurtain Street, calling for a pint of stout. He had come to reminisce about a young lad he once trained, a kid not as talented as some of the others but, my God, you should have seen the attitude. "Ah, Roy," said Murphy, "Roy Keane."
Murphy was the manager of Rockmount boys team, and in Cork schoolboy football, they were kings. The club scouts came - a contract in one hand, a dream in the other. Keane wasn't their first choice, nor their second, not even their third. He was small, gritty rather than gifted. But when you patrol the touchline, as Murphy did, every training session, every game, you know. Better than the scouts, you just know. "Even then, at the age of 11, Roy was the leader."
During the evening, Murphy pulled out a photograph. "See this? First trophy Roy Keane ever won in football." Rockmount U11s, seven boys sitting, seven standing; their statuettes lined up in front of them. Keane is the smallest - but the look on his face is unremittingly hard. The statuette could have been a dead fish by his feet.
What made him like that? He came from a country once described by the businessman and former rugby player Tony O'Reilly as being dogged by an "it'll do" mentality. "Sure, it's not great, but it'll do." Keane comes from a part of Cork city where boys learnt to look after themselves in the early hours of Sunday morning: a world where you dreamt for a while, then got battered by reality. He did the drinking, the fighting. He has always loved his home city; "Irish by birth, Cork by the grace of God" is his verbal passport. Few exiles come back as often as he does, to stay at his parents' house.
To be what he has become, he had to separate himself from so much that he was: the fry-ups, the drinking, the fights, the things that eat him inside that made him lash out. Perhaps, most of all, he had to survive being Roy Keane, the Roy Keane. Sir Alex Ferguson described him recently as Manchester United's most influential player. How did he come to be that? Perhaps because he was the one who said "it'll not do".
He doesn't easily agree to interviews. Two letters in the past 18 months produced nothing. A third letter was sent six weeks ago. You write it, post it and forget it. A week later, the day before his 35th birthday, my telephone rang. "This is Roy Keane. I got your letter, I don't mind having a chat. Can you get to Manchester tomorrow by 11 o'clock?"
There had only ever been one face-to-face interview between us, four years before. The first time, he had shown up 15 minutes before the appointed time. It made me think of poor Mark Bosnich, the Australian goalkeeper who turned up late on his first morning at Manchester United's training ground. "What do you mean, you got lost?" Keane snarled. Back then you could get past security but not past the team's guard dog. Now he walks into the Marriott Hotel near Manchester airport at a minute past 11. It is hard to be sure it is him, but once he is through the revolving door he puts his right hand to his face, instinctively shielding himself from the
outside world. It's a dead giveaway.
Not many adults have this shyness.
Something Martina Navratilova once said came to mind. Asked why she won nine singles championships at Wimbledon, Navratilova said it was because every time she walked on Centre Court, she felt like a little Czechoslovak girl playing people better and more advantaged than her. Keane came with that same mentality: "Roy, they think they're better than you."
We sit in a room at the back of the hotel. There is coffee and water. He chooses water and though three months have passed since he last kicked a football, his pencil-thin physique remains untouched by retirement. He talks about the way he changed his diet. "When I changed my diet, I went from the player with the highest body fat to the one with the lowest body fat. Typical me, has to be all or nothing."
He tells about a recent visit to Ireland and an invitation to speak to the Cork hurling team: how he sensed a bond among these amateur sportsmen that you don't get in professional football. He spoke of the togetherness; a natural occurrence, he thought, among men who had played together in underage teams and grown up together.
When he watches them play, he can see that camaraderie and it pleases him. I ask: "Were they not intimidated?" He pauses briefly: "Intrigued. Always trying to get inside my head." So, then, the Cork hurlers are no different from the rest of us.
What went on inside his head when Sir Alex Ferguson let it be known he was no longer wanted at Manchester United? Twelve years of his life at the club, his wracked body became an offering, his soul became the team's soul. Then, at the end of one bad week, it was over. The exit was quietly played out. Not much was said. "I just knew it was time to go. Everybody knew. Sixth sense, I suppose."
First thing he wants you to understand is that his body wasn't up to it any more. Which is the same as saying he wasn't up to it any more. Right side, from his hip to his knee; the severed cruciate ligament, the operation to repair the hip, they had taken their toll. He explains his decline with the lack of sentimentality that is his way.
"When I first went to United, Bryan Robson was somebody I looked up to, still do. But I was young, and when you're young, you smell blood. It was like, 'Robbo, I'm after you, I'm taking you.' That's the name of the game, otherwise things don't move on. And I just felt over the last couple of years with the younger players at United, I was losing that influence. They were the ones smelling blood. In terms of dominating, I was definitely losing it. It might have been something the normal fan wouldn't recognise, the manager wouldn't even recognise it, but I recognised it. I was always my own judge, sometimes harsh, but in the end, I wasn't quite at the races."
It was never going to end with a kiss. Not with Keano. He left because he was told to go, cleaned out his locker the evening before the last meeting with the club chairman David Gill and Sir Alex Ferguson. You can call Keane what you wish, but not stupid. Going into that meeting, he knew. The ranting, the raving, the swearing; in the end it all dissipated, replaced by Gill's sadness, Keane's resignation, Ferguson's determination.
He holds onto the good times, the good days: "I was fortunate to play for United. I enjoyed all my days there, had a good time, met some bloody good people, good characters, good men. I go back to the fellows that were there when I arrived: Robbo [Bryan Robson], Brucie [Steve Bruce], Sparky [Mark Hughes], Andre [Kanchelskis], Incey [Paul Ince], Giggsy.
"My first few years at United were very sociable. We'd agree to meet in Mulligans bar and 10 or 12 lads would show up. You were the exception if you didn't, now you're the exception if you do. The game has changed that much.
I liked the change when it came, the way the foreign players looked after themselves. I thought, 'Yeah, I want to play for them as long as I can.' So I changed more than anybody: new diet, knocked the drink on the head, stopped cutting corners and accepted you can't have the best of both worlds. It wasn't as much fun after that, but it lasted longer."
When Keane's United were good, they were very good. For years only Arsenal could live with them. Keane missed one entire season through injury and, of course, that was one of the leap years when the title went south. Still, they were good years. Beckham, Keane, Scholes and Giggs, and you would have travelled a long way, paid a lot of money to watch them. Millions did. Success corrodes, though. After winning the European Cup (now the Champions League) in 1999, United were in gradual decline. The player who innocently said on the night of the victory that he didn't care if they never won another match foretold the stagnation that would follow.
And that evening in Barcelona, Keane was still the 12-year-old with the dead fish. "The good teams come back and win this trophy again and again," he said, at the Nou Camp stadium. "That's what we've got to do." Just as success chipped away at the resolve of teammates, it was repeated failure in the European Cup that did for Keane. Forget his last traumatic week at the club, or at least see it in context. Deep beneath the mountain, the volcano had been bubbling for years.
You ask him about this and it is like Hamlet, alone in a room. "People look back on my career and think the injuries and leaving the Ireland team at the World Cup were the disappointments. None of that stuff comes into it. The biggest disappointments were the games we lost in Europe.
"Years when we just got sucked into the bull, 'the final is in Glasgow this season, the manager's home city,' as if that entitled us to a break. 'The final's in Old Trafford this season, made for us.' People got sucked into that.
"Even that night in Barcelona, it was a great night in the history of the club, and it will be hard to beat it, but you knew some people had reached their height. It's human nature. I was frustrated by this. I wanted to get back there again, because as much as I thought we were a good team, until you get to a second or third final, you don't confirm it. It disappoints me that I didn't win the World Cup. People say 'but Roy, you played for Ireland, you were never going to win the World Cup'. I never saw it like that."
What did he feel at the end? Anger, sadness, resignation? "You've covered it all there. It had been coming. There were no tears. None. It was done. It's the people around you that get upset. Family members, wife, parents. They care about you, so they worry. For me, it was mostly acceptance. It had been coming and then it happened. It was the right thing for United, maybe not the right thing for Roy Keane, maybe not for Alex Ferguson, but for the club. I always said, when the day came, I'd be ready. Locker cleaned out the evening before: I was ready."
But did the end have to be that painful? "I think so," he says. "I cared too much. If things weren't going well, if new signings weren't working out, if the reserves were having a bad time, if the youth team wasn't doing well, I was taking it all on board. That's what I am. I can't be flippant about these things. This is who I am, like it or lump it. It doesn't mean I'm not a nice person."
He then talks about the last week, the 4-1 defeat at Middlesbrough on the Saturday afternoon, his return from Dubai, his performance as pundit for the MUTV analysis of the game on Monday, and the ructions that followed. The club opted not to broadcast Keane's comments, which they felt were too critical of teammates. A leaked and inaccurate account of what he said was printed in several newspapers and United was portrayed as a club tearing itself apart.
"I took that defeat personal, then there was the video that was leaked and everything snowballed. That defeat still hurts me; not that we got beaten 4-1, but the way we got beaten. I didn't even bloody play, which was even more frustrating, because part of me is saying, 'Roy, stay out of it, it's not your business,' but I'm a player in that dressing room, and this affected the dressing room.
"I was seeing players doing stuff off the pitch, had the feeling it was affecting them, and it came to a head with that defeat. That feeling, I'll take it to the grave. And yes, I nailed certain people. This was a match I watched in a pub in Dubai. I had a foot injury, the club said take a break. I walked out at 3-1, I couldn't take any more. I took the publicity with a pinch of salt, senior figures at the club should have done the same. Everyone got sucked into it, when they should have known better. I think, in the end, the manager was swayed by certain people he works with."
A number of people at Old Trafford believe that at a difficult meeting involving players and coaches following the public airing of Keane's criticism of some teammates, there was some sharp swordplay between the then skipper and assistant coach, Carlos Queiroz. The coach accused Keane of disloyalty, a brave accusation at the best of times. To use an expression he likes, he then nailed Queiroz by reminding him it was he who ran off to coach Real Madrid and only came back to United when things didn't work out in Spain. The feeling is that Queiroz went to Ferguson and made it "him or me". Since Keane's time was almost up, it was him.
One United player, asked if he had spoken to his captain in the aftermath of his departure, complained he didn't have his number. I ask Keane if this wasn't unusual? "My brother works in a factory, I doubt if all his workmates have his number. When I was at Celtic, some of the players said, 'Can I have your number?' I said, 'No, I don't want you annoying me with banter.'
"By the time I left there, two guys had my number. But it's not something you're going to give away. One or two of the United lads - actually, seven - have my number. People are going to be surprised by this, so I will name them for you. Ruud -obviously he's gonenow, Ollie [Ole Gunnar Solskjaer], Gary [Neville], Butty [Nicky Butt] - he's gone too, Shaysie [John O'Shea], Quinton [Fortune] and Giggsy."
Not long after his exit, Keane went back to United's training ground to return his company car. "The players gave me a lot of respect. I said goodbye and there were no hard feelings.
"United wanted me to have my testimonial, and showed their class as a club in the way they did everything for me. That brought closure. By the end of my time, a lot of the players didn't like me. I'm convinced of that. Possibly they wouldn't admit it, but there's no doubt in my mind, the players had just had enough of me; they were just ready for a change. Ready for a different voice in the changing room. I was losing that influence."
How is his relationship with Alex Ferguson?
"I wouldn't have a clue. He's a manager I played under, he taught me a lot, gave me a chance, and hopefully I repaid that with some decent performances. Then it came to an end."
Affection? "No, I wouldn't say affection. Respect. The bottom line is, he'd always look at the bigger picture. Whatever he does, and maybe he's upset a few people, he will always do what he thinks is best for the club. I'll give him that."
He says you were the most influential player in the club's history. "I don't agree. I've never believed one individual can have that much influence on a team. People used to say this about Eric [Cantona], but I didn't get sucked into that. Eric was a major influence at the club, but I saw him as the final piece in the jigsaw. He wouldn't have worked if the other pieces weren't in place. You can't look to one player, a Rooney or whoever. You can't have other players thinking, 'Okay, Wayne, go and do it for us.' Different people have different jobs, some more glamorous than others."
So how good is Rooney? "For me, the jury's still out on Wayne. I think he's got a hell of a lot to do. Wayne has achieved nothing - would probably say that himself. I would judge players over a few years, rather than one or two. He's got potential, like I've got potential to be a good manager. Potential is one thing, doing it is another. I feel this season could be a good one for him."
Will the scrutiny hurt him; diminish him? "A lot of players bring it on themselves, they and the people who are advising them. When I see young players doing deals for five books, I scratch my head. I did a book when I was 31, after a few years of half-decent success. A book deal worth 2 or 3m is not going to alter the lifestyle of a player who could earn 50 to 100m, but it can be a distraction."
He moves effortlessly into anti-celebrity mode; for here was the man who preferred not to attend the celebrity wedding of his friend David Beckham, who now says he would rather be back drinking cider behind the school wall than sell photographs of his wife and children to OK! or Hello! magazines. As a young manager, he knows it is something he will have to confront.
"They say managers are losing control over players, but there are times when you can put your foot down. Players get away with things now they wouldn't have been allowed to do a few years ago. My answer would be no. And it would annoy me if one of my players did a shoot for a celebrity magazine. Can you do anything about it? First time, maybe it happens before you can stop it, but there can be consequences, something to make them think twice before doing it again.
Though they are different people, he got on well with Beckham. "Becks was always going to go down the celebrity road once he got married. Not in a million years could I live that lifestyle, but I'm sure he couldn't live mine. You give people the freedom to live it their way, but first time you see it's affecting their football, you put your foot down. There's loads of people who get sucked in: Jonny Wilkinson and Michael Owen always spring to mind. The day after Owen broke his foot, he's doing an article and I'm thinking, 'Work on your recovery, man. Do that article next week, next month, next year.' Wilkinson, the same. When you get an injury, the early days are vital. I've done it both ways, where I've had an injury and been out on the town that night, and later on, when I focused properly. They're kidding themselves, but that's the name of the game these days."
He talks about the future and his decision to become a manager. At first he wasn't sure. The football life wasn't so wonderful at the end. For all his resignation, he didn't plan to leave United by the back door. The affair with Glasgow Celtic didn't do it for him. Parts of the experience he enjoyed, and it surprised him how much he enjoyed the Celtic dressing room. Better than United's? "Less nasty", he says. "In every changing room, players get ripped. People have taken the piss out of me; ripped me for not drinking, ripped for doing yoga, ripped for my diets, for my clothes, for my Irishness. But you give it back.
"When I say the Celtic dressing room was better, this is not a criticism of the United lads. I was as bad as any of them. We ripped people for the wrong things; the car, the house, the way you dressed. In Scotland it was more old-fashioned. I enjoyed that. Maybe you don't get the bull up there that you get in the Premiership."
He learnt, too, about living out of a suitcase, without a family. He spent three months in an Edinburgh hotel. Cinema in the afternoon, long, anonymous walks in the evening. "Here I was, a 34-year-old man going to the pictures on his own in the afternoon. It made me think about when I came to England first, the 18-year-old in Nottingham who went to the pictures in the afternoon. Here I was, 16 years on, back at the pictures. My life had come full circle."
While in that Edinburgh hotel, travelling to and from training, missing his Manchester-based family, he thought about Sebastian Veron, his one-time Argentinian teammate at United. "Celtic couldn't have done enough for me, but it was a lonely life and I wish now I had been a bit easier on some of the foreign lads who came to United. I always thought, 'You're on the pitch now, do it.' I regret that now. I was very hard on Seba, and I was wrong. When he came, I was expecting miracles. When they didn't happen, I was always homing in on him, and I now know it takes time." He wanted to play his best for Celtic but he didn't; his body wasn't up to it and, without his family, it was tough.
Through the traumas, Theresa and their five children have been his anchor. "The bad times, that's when you need a family. I read a book recently about the loss of identity sportsmen feel when they stop. 'Roy Keane, Manchester United.' 'Roy Keane, Ireland.' 'Roy Keane, Glasgow Celtic.' There's always something after your name. With your family, you have an identity that's separate from that."
The decision to become the manager of Sunderland was taken while with his family in the Algarve. They would not have discouraged him: they know he is a better father, an easier husband, when spending his intensity on football. He thinks he will be a good manager but he reminds you; so does everyone starting out. The key for him is he has to find out. Two lines from Julius Caesar could have been written for him: "Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once."
And so we talk about management. He has watched Jose Mourinho's arrival into the Premiership, the way he has taken on Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. "Mourinho's got something. A blind man could see that. And he has the edge at the moment. He plays games and I think they can have a big effect on his team and on the opposition. Do you remember when Chelsea played United at Stamford Bridge, end of last season, and there's two minutes to go in injury time, and he gets up, walks up to where the United lads are, and he's shaking Alex Ferguson's hand and the game is still going on? Two years ago no one would've done that to Alex Ferguson.
"The manager would not have liked it. But Mourinho is saying, 'The game is over, the league is over, 3-0 to us.' But Alex Ferguson would have taken that on board. That's what good managers thrive on, that kind of slight. People love to criticise Mourinho, but I like watching Chelsea. They're well organised; they know their jobs."
That last part came easily to Keane. Perhaps his last great performance in a United shirt came on that February evening in Highbury last year. Facing down Patrick Vieira in the tunnel before the kickoff and then dominating the game.
He remembers it clearly: "Arsenal started it that night with Gary [Neville]. Vieira had a go at Gary. Gary's not really a fighter." So, what did you say to him? "The Sunday before, there was a two-page spread about Vieira in The Sunday Times, and he was bragging about all the good things he was doing in Senegal. He's building this academy, saving kids from the street. It irritated me. Self-praise is no praise. And so I said to him, 'If you're that worried about Senegal, why didn't you f***ing play for them?' [Born in Senegal, Vieira moved to France and played for his adopted country.]
"A week or so later he said I didn't understand the history of what he'd come through. And he's right about that, and I was probably wrong."
We talk about the World Cup in Germany. He went to one of the games and felt it was a wasted trip. As for England, he knew before they went there: "No chance." Too few world-class players. "I like Gerrard, Lampard and Wayne, but they still haven't done it on a world stage, and then there's all this bull around the team." He didn't find the Wags amusing. "What kind of person wants to be pictured going out for a meal? They were annoying me, and they're not even my wife."
He then talks about the sending-off of Zinedine Zidane in the final. "I could understand what he did 100%. I could sense his frustration: he'd just missed a header before that, then a pass went astray; you could see he was getting a bit tired, and all you need is a flippin' comment at that moment. That's what used to happen to me.
"You see, at that moment it doesn't matter who is watching, doesn't matter that it's a World Cup final. It could be a park field. That moment comes and it is 'F*** you, f*** everybody,' and bang! Zidane's got that streak in him; if he didn't, would he have been a brilliant player?
"I think of the last game I played for Celtic. I gave away one or two passes. Two stray, silly passes, and it eats away at me. All you need then is someone to say something." He doesn't want to return to his collisions with the Norwegian Alf-Inge Haaland, but this train of thought drives him there: "I remember at Leeds, when I'd done my knee [in a lunge at Haaland]. He irritated me, that's all it was. If a certain person says it at the wrong moment, then 'bad day'. At Old Trafford, when Haaland was playing for City, he had been mouthing off in the media, slagging off the club. I took that personal. We'd lost the Wednesday before to Bayern Munich in
the European Cup, and it was a case of 'Sod it, just sod it.'"
He thinks about what he has just said, realising there is a part of him that we will never fully understand, and he begins to laugh.
"Anyway, they're my excuses," he says.
"Very genuine excuses."
Global warming... *gasp*
Oh my goodness, has global warming got so bad since my sec sch days (when I last touched on the topic...) that such drastic measures are actually being considered? Oh God/Allah/Buddha/Whoever, please don't destroy my beloved Earth yet, for I haven't found THE girl =P
From The Straits Times
Sep 19, 2006
Global warming: The solutions are out there
Scientists debate wacky ways of manipulating the environment
New York A NEW controversy is brewing in the world of climate science - over a once obscure strand of study that involves manipulating the environment to counter global warming.
Proponents, who include a Nobel prize-winning scientist, say it is the best chance to save the world while critics decry the proposals as wacky ideas that distract from curbing greenhouse gases that cause the problem.
Some of the ideas include having trillions of tiny sunshades orbiting in space and a mirror 240km high stationed between Earth and the Sun.
Such plans for cooling the planet are now rapidly gaining credibility in the world of climate science, says Britain’s Sunday Telegraph.
The newspaper says that geoengineering is a word which the world will doubtless be hearing much more of as a small but growing band of scientists points out that the time is looming for emergency action. The group says the world cannot wait for the row over the causes of climate change to be settled before taking action.
'Ideas that might have been seen as totally wacky even a year ago are now being actively considered,' says Dr Roger Angel, a leading British astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society. Based at the University of Arizona, Dr Angel has proposed putting trillions of small lenses - wafer-thin, light as a butterfly - into orbit to deflect sunlight.
Mr Wallace Broecker, a pioneer of geoengineering at Columbia University, believes the mood is changing.
'Geoengineering offers the prospect of an insurance policy. It could buy us some breathing space while we decide how to capture and get rid of carbon dioxide and reduce emissions,' he says.
'But the reality is that conservation and alternative energy sources are never going to solve the whole problem. We need to look for other solutions. For too long, we have been talking and debating and time has been slipping by.'
Alarmed that man could begin to attempt to tinker with the environment, The Telegraph says, many mainstream scientists still view geoengineering rather like climatic eugenics.
They have argued that it is no answer to pollute the atmosphere with contaminants. which would exacerbate the situation - turning blue skies forever grey. That strategy could also distract industry and aviation from cutting back on the fossil fuel emissions that help to form heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
But supporters of geoengineering have just received a major boost from Mr Paul Crudzen, a highly respected Nobel prize-winning German scientist.
He threw his considerable academic weight behind the idea of injecting sun-blocking sulphates into the stratosphere in a key paper published last month in the journal Climatic Change.
Various other proposals are also being floated, some more outlandish than others.
Low-level flat clouds over the oceans deflect sunlight back into space. So Mr John Latham, a Briton, is one of a group of scientists at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research who proposes spraying tiny droplets of seawater at cloud level to make them better mirrors for the sun's rays.
Over at the Star Trek end of the spectrum, there is the suggestion that a huge 240km-high mirror could be positioned millions of km out in space on a direct line between the Earth and Sun to fend away sunlight.
Among the more down-to-earth proposals is one to cover swathes of the desert with giant plastic sheets to reflect sunlight. Then there is one to fertilise the sea with iron to create blooms of plant life to suck up carbon dioxide.
Dr Crudzen says he does not see geoengineering as a stand-alone solution to climate change but that it should be investigated as a fall-back option.
From The Straits Times
Sep 19, 2006
Global warming: The solutions are out there
Scientists debate wacky ways of manipulating the environment
New York A NEW controversy is brewing in the world of climate science - over a once obscure strand of study that involves manipulating the environment to counter global warming.
Proponents, who include a Nobel prize-winning scientist, say it is the best chance to save the world while critics decry the proposals as wacky ideas that distract from curbing greenhouse gases that cause the problem.
Some of the ideas include having trillions of tiny sunshades orbiting in space and a mirror 240km high stationed between Earth and the Sun.
Such plans for cooling the planet are now rapidly gaining credibility in the world of climate science, says Britain’s Sunday Telegraph.
The newspaper says that geoengineering is a word which the world will doubtless be hearing much more of as a small but growing band of scientists points out that the time is looming for emergency action. The group says the world cannot wait for the row over the causes of climate change to be settled before taking action.
'Ideas that might have been seen as totally wacky even a year ago are now being actively considered,' says Dr Roger Angel, a leading British astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society. Based at the University of Arizona, Dr Angel has proposed putting trillions of small lenses - wafer-thin, light as a butterfly - into orbit to deflect sunlight.
Mr Wallace Broecker, a pioneer of geoengineering at Columbia University, believes the mood is changing.
'Geoengineering offers the prospect of an insurance policy. It could buy us some breathing space while we decide how to capture and get rid of carbon dioxide and reduce emissions,' he says.
'But the reality is that conservation and alternative energy sources are never going to solve the whole problem. We need to look for other solutions. For too long, we have been talking and debating and time has been slipping by.'
Alarmed that man could begin to attempt to tinker with the environment, The Telegraph says, many mainstream scientists still view geoengineering rather like climatic eugenics.
They have argued that it is no answer to pollute the atmosphere with contaminants. which would exacerbate the situation - turning blue skies forever grey. That strategy could also distract industry and aviation from cutting back on the fossil fuel emissions that help to form heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
But supporters of geoengineering have just received a major boost from Mr Paul Crudzen, a highly respected Nobel prize-winning German scientist.
He threw his considerable academic weight behind the idea of injecting sun-blocking sulphates into the stratosphere in a key paper published last month in the journal Climatic Change.
Various other proposals are also being floated, some more outlandish than others.
Low-level flat clouds over the oceans deflect sunlight back into space. So Mr John Latham, a Briton, is one of a group of scientists at the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research who proposes spraying tiny droplets of seawater at cloud level to make them better mirrors for the sun's rays.
Over at the Star Trek end of the spectrum, there is the suggestion that a huge 240km-high mirror could be positioned millions of km out in space on a direct line between the Earth and Sun to fend away sunlight.
Among the more down-to-earth proposals is one to cover swathes of the desert with giant plastic sheets to reflect sunlight. Then there is one to fertilise the sea with iron to create blooms of plant life to suck up carbon dioxide.
Dr Crudzen says he does not see geoengineering as a stand-alone solution to climate change but that it should be investigated as a fall-back option.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
That 6 year old kid...
Just saw the 10pm news on the telly and there was the report on the mass sit in protest against Chen Shui Bian. Was quite impressed with all the anti-Bian support, like one company even sponsored mobile toilets?
But the ultimate had to be this 6 year old kid reciting his 3 anti-Bian poems that he supposedly wrote himself to the masses gathered on the streets. If he had really wrote all that on his own then I am really damn impressed. I didn't even know what is "腐败" and "贪污" when I was 7 lah! never mind 6 years old.
I got no opinion on this anti-Bian issue coz I am a cock at politics.... but I can only hope that years later, when this boy grows up, he will look back and felt that what he did was correct. And not feel that he had been used as a political pawn to bring down somebody, (In the media, it really sounds rather impressive that even a 6 year old is composing anti-Bian poems) for there is nothing more du lan than to feel duped WMD style...
But the ultimate had to be this 6 year old kid reciting his 3 anti-Bian poems that he supposedly wrote himself to the masses gathered on the streets. If he had really wrote all that on his own then I am really damn impressed. I didn't even know what is "腐败" and "贪污" when I was 7 lah! never mind 6 years old.
I got no opinion on this anti-Bian issue coz I am a cock at politics.... but I can only hope that years later, when this boy grows up, he will look back and felt that what he did was correct. And not feel that he had been used as a political pawn to bring down somebody, (In the media, it really sounds rather impressive that even a 6 year old is composing anti-Bian poems) for there is nothing more du lan than to feel duped WMD style...
Monday, September 11, 2006
When in Rome, do as the Romans do
http://newsinfo.inq7.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id=20134
Singapore clampdown casts shadow over IMF-WB meet
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 11:51am (Mla time) 09/10/2006
SINGAPORE -- Singapore's uncompromising clampdown on free speech has tarnished efforts to showcase itself as a modern Asian financial center during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (IMF-WB) meetings, activists say.
The city-state is going all-out to exploit the presence of the global financial elite to highlight its claim to being a "First World" economy.
But a ban on protests and the blacklisting of "undesirable" foreign activists has soured the atmosphere ahead of the Sept. 19 to 20 meetings and related events starting this week.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz told the BBC over the weekend that Singapore made a "bad" decision when it blocked activists invited to the event as part of an established dialogue process.
"I hope Singapore's authorities will change their minds and allow the people in that we have accredited, as originally agreed," he said.
"We may not always agree with what they (the activists) have to say, but it is very important to have that discussion," Wolfowitz was quoted as saying.
Lidy Nacpil, international director of Jubilee South, a non-government group campaigning for greater debt relief for poor countries, said "what this shows is that the Singapore government is afraid of democracy."
"Our activities are not even directed at the Singapore government but at the IMF and World Bank," she told Agence France-Presse by telephone from Manila.
Both lending institutions have for years engaged "civil society" groups critical of their policies in a frank dialogue.
But Singapore, citing security reasons including fear of terrorist attacks, has refused to waive a longstanding ban on outdoor protests despite an appeal from the World Bank.
Police have also banned a number of overseas activists from entering the country during the meetings. Local press reports said about 20 names are believed to be on the blacklist.
With demonstrations forbidden here, foreign activists decided to hold protests and an anti-globalization conference in the nearby Indonesian island of Batam, which is 45 minutes away by ferry from Singapore.
Critics say Singapore has merely reinforced its image as an authoritarian state despite its phenomenal economic progress.
Nacpil blamed the IMF-WB for picking Singapore to host the meetings despite knowing its track record as far as protests are concerned.
Sameer Dossani, executive director of the activist 50 Years is Enough Network, said: "If the Bank is interested in accountability and preventing corruption, why are they holding their meetings in a police state that has openly said it plans to cane protestors?"
While a recent World Bank survey ranked Singapore as the easiest place to do business, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) gave it dismal marks for press freedom.
Singapore placed 140th out of 167 countries in RSF's 2005 World Press Freedom Index, ranking below countries like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Russia, Sudan and Yemen.
Yet it is also Singapore's reputation as an oasis of political and economic stability in often volatile Southeast Asia that has made it a key destination for foreign investment.
A low crime rate, a clean environment and an efficient and reputedly incorruptible bureaucracy have also won worldwide admiration.
"By now, people know what the image of Singapore is, and they realize we are who we are," said Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
"We're one of the most disciplined societies in the world because the environment we live in is special," he was quoted as saying in the local newspaper Today.
---------------------------------------------------------
Balls to those protestors. I am just glad that my government has the courage to say this is lim bei's country, please respect our rules if you step onto this land! Hey when some bomb goes off, it's my friend and my brother who is out there risking his life to save people! Most of you can just fuck off back to your families back home. This is my FUCKING COUNTRY. I am just glad that I can still go to Suntec City if I want to without having to face a shitty demonstration blocking my way. Balls to you.
Singapore clampdown casts shadow over IMF-WB meet
Agence France-Presse
Last updated 11:51am (Mla time) 09/10/2006
SINGAPORE -- Singapore's uncompromising clampdown on free speech has tarnished efforts to showcase itself as a modern Asian financial center during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (IMF-WB) meetings, activists say.
The city-state is going all-out to exploit the presence of the global financial elite to highlight its claim to being a "First World" economy.
But a ban on protests and the blacklisting of "undesirable" foreign activists has soured the atmosphere ahead of the Sept. 19 to 20 meetings and related events starting this week.
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz told the BBC over the weekend that Singapore made a "bad" decision when it blocked activists invited to the event as part of an established dialogue process.
"I hope Singapore's authorities will change their minds and allow the people in that we have accredited, as originally agreed," he said.
"We may not always agree with what they (the activists) have to say, but it is very important to have that discussion," Wolfowitz was quoted as saying.
Lidy Nacpil, international director of Jubilee South, a non-government group campaigning for greater debt relief for poor countries, said "what this shows is that the Singapore government is afraid of democracy."
"Our activities are not even directed at the Singapore government but at the IMF and World Bank," she told Agence France-Presse by telephone from Manila.
Both lending institutions have for years engaged "civil society" groups critical of their policies in a frank dialogue.
But Singapore, citing security reasons including fear of terrorist attacks, has refused to waive a longstanding ban on outdoor protests despite an appeal from the World Bank.
Police have also banned a number of overseas activists from entering the country during the meetings. Local press reports said about 20 names are believed to be on the blacklist.
With demonstrations forbidden here, foreign activists decided to hold protests and an anti-globalization conference in the nearby Indonesian island of Batam, which is 45 minutes away by ferry from Singapore.
Critics say Singapore has merely reinforced its image as an authoritarian state despite its phenomenal economic progress.
Nacpil blamed the IMF-WB for picking Singapore to host the meetings despite knowing its track record as far as protests are concerned.
Sameer Dossani, executive director of the activist 50 Years is Enough Network, said: "If the Bank is interested in accountability and preventing corruption, why are they holding their meetings in a police state that has openly said it plans to cane protestors?"
While a recent World Bank survey ranked Singapore as the easiest place to do business, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) gave it dismal marks for press freedom.
Singapore placed 140th out of 167 countries in RSF's 2005 World Press Freedom Index, ranking below countries like Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Russia, Sudan and Yemen.
Yet it is also Singapore's reputation as an oasis of political and economic stability in often volatile Southeast Asia that has made it a key destination for foreign investment.
A low crime rate, a clean environment and an efficient and reputedly incorruptible bureaucracy have also won worldwide admiration.
"By now, people know what the image of Singapore is, and they realize we are who we are," said Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
"We're one of the most disciplined societies in the world because the environment we live in is special," he was quoted as saying in the local newspaper Today.
---------------------------------------------------------
Balls to those protestors. I am just glad that my government has the courage to say this is lim bei's country, please respect our rules if you step onto this land! Hey when some bomb goes off, it's my friend and my brother who is out there risking his life to save people! Most of you can just fuck off back to your families back home. This is my FUCKING COUNTRY. I am just glad that I can still go to Suntec City if I want to without having to face a shitty demonstration blocking my way. Balls to you.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Shameless
Costs of owning a 1.6 litre car in Singapore is approximately $1000/month...
Fixed Costs
Date Amount Remarks
26/03/2006 54300 Car price
26/03/2006 1359 Insurance
26/03/2006 765 Transfer fee
17/08/2006 488.5 Road tax
Price of car per month 502.7777778
Insurance per month 113.25
Transfer fee per month 7.083333333
Road tax per month 81.41666667
Fixed costs per month 704.5277778
Running Costs
March/April
Date Amount Remarks
27/03/2006 20 Cashcard
27/03/2006 20 Parking coupons
28/03/2006 71.73 Petrol
04/04/2006 299.75 Servicing
09/04/2006 47.43 Petrol
23/04/2006 58.96 Petrol
517.87 Total
May
Date Amount Remarks
13/05/2006 70.9 Petrol
26/05/2006 20 Cashcard
90.9 Total
June
Date Amount Remarks
17/06/2006 63.02 Petrol
17/06/2006 71.69 Petrol
17/06/2006 20 Cashcard
29/06/2006 73.37 Petrol
228.08 Total
July
Date Amount Remarks
08/07/2006 150 fine
08/07/2006 67.79 Petrol
08/07/2006 20 Parking coupons
27/07/2006 6 fine
21/07/2006 74.9 Petrol
318.69 Total
August
Date Amount Remarks
19/08/2006 25.8 petrol
25/08/2006 73.93 petrol
99.73 Total
Average running costs for 5 months is approximately $251. Add $705 fixed costs and you get around $956 per month. No shit!
Implications
- It is probably advisable to get a car smaller than 1.6 litre (for better fuel economy) if you are earning less than $4000 per month (going by a general rule of thumb that expenditure on car should not exceed 1/4 of your income...)
- You would need to earn above $3500 to have a car to be comfortable (I feel...)
- Fines are not worth it!!!
- Parking in SAF camps is free, can you imagine if you had to pay $300 per month for season parking in CBD? I hope schools don't implement cashcard parking =S
- Touchwood but there are also no repair costs in case of accidents factored in yet...
But yet one can't deny the convenience of having your own set of wheels. Without my wife,
- I would have needed to wake up at 530am everyday to get to Boon Lay (or even stay in) during my course.
- I would have needed to carry the stack of 20+ books out of Pasir Laba camp to take a cab for my course.
- I would have needed to carry the air weapon papaer and pellets on public transport for every training.
- I would have to depend on the goodwill of others to fetch me to and fro my house if there was an outing at night...
- I would have needed to transport the speakers for Air weapon competition in a cab, AND thereafter go to CMPB to collect the trophies for the same competition. How to make the uncle wait or to put the speakers at a safe place while I go collect the trophies?
All the above might sound like excuses, but after commissioning, I am expected to be much more independent, and to do a lot more things (i.e. run around Singapore more) and having a car really really helps. And one can't deny the fact that as you get older, the timings of outings also get later and later, meaning you either take cab or drive...
And so there goes my dream of owning a Honda Integra or even a Honda Civic, which woulld double the fixed costs of the car. Hopefully, I won't get sacked in future so that I can comfortably afford a Honda Fit (1.3 litre) (and no Cherry QQ thank you very much) in future.
But you know what's the worst thing? It's that you feel utterly ashamed of yourself because you are so lucky to even to be able to think about a car, while others around you got to grapple with much bigger problems. Stuff like rents and utilities to think about, or even the possibility of going blind, and having everything taken away from them if they go blind...
Shihua Shihua, you are a very lucky boy... Don't always complain that you have no girlfriend, at least you have *stop reading here if you are female AND sensitive* 5 best friends and FHM =P
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