As one of the Strettie End Favourite goes...
You are my Solskjaer,
my only Solskjaer.
You make me happy,
when skies are grey.
Oh Alan Shearer,
Is fucking dearer.
Please don't take,
my Solskjaer away...
After having enjoyed the services of loyal players like Solskjaer, Keano, Giggs, Scholes etc etc etc, can anyone blame us for lamenting the level of commitment of the likes of Richardson?
As one Stretford End banner reads simply>> 20 Legend
Steve Tongue meets a man who really does smile at adversity
Independent 29 October 2006
Amid all the excitement of Manchester United's struggle to evict Crewe Alexandra from the Carling Cup last Wednesday night - two long-serving heart-patient managers, the late winning goal from a teenaged debutant and so on - one significant aspect was understandably overlooked: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played 120 minutes of football.
During long periods of the little pixie's career, that might have been the ration for half-a-dozen games. Worse, for the past three seasons this time of year has resembled not so much the autumn of his playing days as the grim Norwegian winter. But suddenly, delightfully, Solskjaer is enjoying an Indian summer, the calendar no longer ringed with knee operations.
Ask how many of those there have been and the baby face creases up in concentration. "Let me have a think now. The first one in September 2003, then a major one in August 2004 - that was the [cartilage] transplant - and another one in summer 2005, same type of injury but a different place in the knee. So three decent-sized operations. And lots of arthroscopy and things in between. They've been inside the knee a few times!"
The day after undertaking a full shift like last Wednesday's, rather than one of his famed cameos from the substitutes' bench, he takes things "a little bit easy - swimming, on the bike, no running, not at my age". But there is no apparent discomfort as he bounds up the stairs at United's training centre, where over the past three years he spent so many long, hard days of rehabilitation.
As recently as last December Sir Alex Ferguson looked and sounded wretched when admitting that the prospects of a return to full fitness for one of his favourite sons were not encouraging, and that a testimonial match was under consideration. Solskjaer insists that his own concern was whether he would be able to return to the high standard demanded by himself as well as his club.
"There were times when I had pain in the knee and thought, 'Is this ever going to be 100 per cent again?' After the main operation, it was a test of patience. I had a cast on for three months and was in bed, just moving the knee, eight or nine hours a day. But I never went to sleep thinking I wouldn't play again. I was always positive about that, mentally preparing myself every night.
"There was a woman who worked with the Norwegian Olympic athletes and she made me keep a diary, writing things down about how I felt, which I did during training as well. When you write something negative, you realise that's bad and you must start thinking positively again."
Not that introspection was everything. Typically, Solskjaer was concerned to lift the spirits of fellow sufferers in the treatment room such as Alan Smith, who described his "inspirational" effect in these pages last week.
"I knew that I would be out for a whole season and that I couldn't contribute on the pitch, so trying to be a good example would help the young lads and anyone feeling sorry for themselves. As for me, I knew I would get back to playing but the worry was, 'Am I going to be good enough again?'
"Towards the end of last season, after a few niggles I must say I was a bit more doubtful. I didn't play particularly well in the reserves and dominate the games. But I noticed the difference after this pre-season. I played and trained with the first-team lads all the time and my own performance got up to that level. When you've had it in you before, you can find it again if you're determined and motivated enough."
The enthusiasm has never waned and can rightly be described as "boyish", stretching back as it does to earliest days in Kristiansund, a tiny town situated on three islands just off the Norwegian coast. Such was the hunger there for English football that consignments of Match Weekly and Shoot! would arrive every Thursday, the highlight of young Solskjaer's week.
As a footballer, he was a self-confessed late developer, whose professional career was further delayed by serving in the army for two years; he was 22 before joining a leading club, Molde. Success there led to an international debut in 1995 and, the following year, one of those chance occurrences that change careers and lives.
United wanted to sign Norway's central defender Ronny Johnsen and sent Ferguson's assistant, Jim Ryan, to watch an international against Azerbaijan. Ryan not only got his man, but found his eye taken by a young forward called Solskjaer, who scored two dazzling goals and was recruited as well, at a cost of ?1.5 million.
It was hardly a leap into the unknown for him. "I think I knew everything about Eighties football in England," he smiles. "Match Of The Day was always on and I used to write down all the team-sheets and formations. So I just jumped at the chance. Eighteen months after playing at a very low level with my local team in front of 50 or 60 people, I was playing with Eric Cantona, Ryan Giggs and Roy Keane."
Making an early impression at a club who had just done the Double was important. Ferguson gave him a couple of reserve games, then threw him on at home to Blackburn for the first of what are now almost 150 substitute appearances in a total of 345. "I've been asked many times what's the greatest moment of my United career. Scoring that goal in my first game and turning round to see that Eric Cantona was the first one coming towards me celebrating, that just made me realise, 'I'm at Old Trafford now'."
Those questioners might reasonably have expected an answer relating to events in Barcelona on the night of 26 May 1999; United's attempt to make history by completing a treble of Premiership, FA Cup and Champions' League. Despite having finished as leading scorer in his first season, two years earlier, Solskjaer had become less of an automatic choice than a supremely reliable supersub. Many players might have resented the role.
Ferguson knew he had a genuine team player in his hugely popular Norwegian, and would drop in a carefully chosen phrase occasionally as a reminder of his faith. Such an occasion was the final League game of the season, at home to Tottenham, when victory was required to complete the first leg of the Treble.
"The main strikers were Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, who rotated with me and Teddy Sheringham. The last couple of months of that season I didn't play many games, but I was on the bench. We were drawing against Spurs and the gaffer put Coley on for Yorkey and said, 'If you haven't scored with 10 or 15 minutes left don't panic, I'll just put Ole on'. I still remember how my confidence shot up. That was his man-management, and it will always be with me."
As it happened, Cole scored the winning goal and Solskjaer was not needed. His reward, as well as a second Premiership medal, was a place in the FA Cup final victory over Newcastle the following week. Two down and a European Cup final to go.
"I just felt something big was going to happen to me that night. I spoke to a friend of mine before the game who said he was working a night shift and wouldn't be able to watch the last half an hour of it, but I asked him to make sure he did.
"It was one of those stupid things you feel. At half-time, one-nil down, I was looking at the gaffer and thinking, 'Why don't you put me on, I need to get on here,' but he put Teddy on. And eventually I came on and, well, we got two goals in the end."
Right at the end, of course, in quite sensational fashion, the second of them as David Beckham swings in another corner, Sheringham gets the faintest touch on and the slender choirboy with the machine-gun finishes off Bayern.
Best day of your life? "No, I wouldn't say that. But professionally, yes, I would say you can't top the last 10 days of that season, winning three trophies in 10 days. And all in it together, that's the best thing of all. I could never have been an individual athlete, like my dad, who was a Greco-Roman wrestler. I'm so happy to be part of a team, see how people gel together and work for each other and win together. That's one of the things that makes me want to go on in football after I've finished playing, as a coach or manager."
There is more to achieve before then. Aged 33 now, he has a contract until the end of next season, by which time United hope to have pushed Chelsea a whole lot harder than in the past two years and sustained a more lasting challenge in Europe. The boy from Kristiansund wants to play his part, even if he has more reason than most players to welcome the advent of those new, lavishly furnished, substitutes' seats.
"There's no chance you'll get me moaning about being a sub. I'm so proud of having been a part of the history of Man United. To be known as a good substitute at Man United is better than to not be known at all. My dad still says, 'You've been very, very fortunate, you've been at the best club'. It's just fantastic having been a part of it."
LIFE & TIMES: From the fjords to Old Trafford
NAME: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
BORN: 26 February 1973, Kristiansund, Norway.
VITAL STATS: 5ft 10in, 11st 6lb.
POSITION: Forward.
CLUB CAREER: Clausenegen FK; Molde 1995-96 (42 games, 31 goals); Manchester Utd '96-current, fee ?1.5m (345 games, 123 goals);
Premiership title '97, '99, 2000, '01, '03; FA Cup '99, '04; League Cup '06; Champions' League '99. Patron of Manchester Utd
Supporters' Trust.
INTERNATIONAL CAREER: 61 caps, 21 goals for Norway; debut v Jamaica '95; World Cup '98, Euro 2000.
AND ANOTHER THING: His father was Norway's Greco-Roman wrestling champion '66-71.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Bye bye Schumi...
In racing, he will always be my hero....
From The Straits Times
Farewell Schumi
German star thanks fans, Ferrari family for their support after his final race
SAO PAOLO - WHEN the end finally came, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was left struggling for words.
His glorious career had come to a dramatic end at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
'Today, my racing career comes to an end,' said the German star. 'Obviously it's a special moment for me and I am proud to have lived my career with some fantastic people - namely everyone who is a part of the Ferrari family.
'There is so much to say - I can't find the right words.
'The things I will miss are probably the fans. In every moment, they have been behind me and have always supported me.
'Their support helped me perform, especially in moments when it was difficult.
'Over the years, that was immensely important. I can only say thank you to those people and those fans.'
The seven-time world champion finished his career with one of his most stirring drives. He started in 10th place and worked his way up to finish fourth and just off the podium.
But he still managed to find a metaphor to end his 15 years of extraordinary racing.
'In a way, it's a closed circle now for me because my Formula One career started and finished after 500 metres which was, maybe, a symbol of what happened on Sunday.'
His words referred to his first race and his last, which were hit by problems thatwrecked his hopes of victory.
But his actions on the track spoke volumes for his talent, speed, courage and determination as he stormed from the back of the field after a puncture.
'The race was chaotic, I think that's the right word,' he said, as rival and second-time champion Fernando Alonso began his celebrations.
Alonso finished second behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa, but it was enough to give him the drivers' championship.
Said Schumacher: 'We really had a superb car. From the pure speed, we could have lapped everybody.
'So I have to say it was the perfect end to the season in terms of car performance. But for me, it didn't work out well.'
He needed to win his final race to keep alive his remote chance of another title.
But he punctured a tyre less than 10 laps into the race, dropped into last place, and finally finished fourth.
His plight brought tears to grown men in his hometown in Kerpen, Germany.
Around 750 fans watched the Brazil Grand Prix on giant television screens, many with faces painted in Ferrari colours.
'It's just so sad, sad, sad,' said one weeping middle-aged man after Schumacher suffered his punctured tyre.
'Formula One without Schumacher is over,' added another heavy-set man who was also in tears at the crowded sports arena near Cologne.
Schumacher won his last five world championships driving for Ferrari, for which he also helped win six constructors' titles from 1999-2004.
He added that his best memory was his win in 2000.
He said: 'We had a lot of hard work and setbacks, so when we finally won it, it was the most beautiful championship.'
Any regrets?
'There were things I would do differently. But if I went into that, it would get too intense and we don't have time right now.
'But there is the song 'My Way' and I think that is true right now.
'My dad was happy to see me after the race and he said: 'Finally, it's over'.'
'He was quite happy. I feel more relaxed although I think his heart rate was higher during the race than mine.'
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to the driver, calling him one of the 'real greats of German sport'.
She said that Schumacher was helped by 'what are called German virtues in sport: hard work, meticulous preparation and, above all, the absolute will to make it.'
She added that he 'enriched his sport with a touch of genius'.
From The Straits Times
Farewell Schumi
German star thanks fans, Ferrari family for their support after his final race
SAO PAOLO - WHEN the end finally came, Ferrari's Michael Schumacher was left struggling for words.
His glorious career had come to a dramatic end at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.
'Today, my racing career comes to an end,' said the German star. 'Obviously it's a special moment for me and I am proud to have lived my career with some fantastic people - namely everyone who is a part of the Ferrari family.
'There is so much to say - I can't find the right words.
'The things I will miss are probably the fans. In every moment, they have been behind me and have always supported me.
'Their support helped me perform, especially in moments when it was difficult.
'Over the years, that was immensely important. I can only say thank you to those people and those fans.'
The seven-time world champion finished his career with one of his most stirring drives. He started in 10th place and worked his way up to finish fourth and just off the podium.
But he still managed to find a metaphor to end his 15 years of extraordinary racing.
'In a way, it's a closed circle now for me because my Formula One career started and finished after 500 metres which was, maybe, a symbol of what happened on Sunday.'
His words referred to his first race and his last, which were hit by problems thatwrecked his hopes of victory.
But his actions on the track spoke volumes for his talent, speed, courage and determination as he stormed from the back of the field after a puncture.
'The race was chaotic, I think that's the right word,' he said, as rival and second-time champion Fernando Alonso began his celebrations.
Alonso finished second behind Ferrari's Felipe Massa, but it was enough to give him the drivers' championship.
Said Schumacher: 'We really had a superb car. From the pure speed, we could have lapped everybody.
'So I have to say it was the perfect end to the season in terms of car performance. But for me, it didn't work out well.'
He needed to win his final race to keep alive his remote chance of another title.
But he punctured a tyre less than 10 laps into the race, dropped into last place, and finally finished fourth.
His plight brought tears to grown men in his hometown in Kerpen, Germany.
Around 750 fans watched the Brazil Grand Prix on giant television screens, many with faces painted in Ferrari colours.
'It's just so sad, sad, sad,' said one weeping middle-aged man after Schumacher suffered his punctured tyre.
'Formula One without Schumacher is over,' added another heavy-set man who was also in tears at the crowded sports arena near Cologne.
Schumacher won his last five world championships driving for Ferrari, for which he also helped win six constructors' titles from 1999-2004.
He added that his best memory was his win in 2000.
He said: 'We had a lot of hard work and setbacks, so when we finally won it, it was the most beautiful championship.'
Any regrets?
'There were things I would do differently. But if I went into that, it would get too intense and we don't have time right now.
'But there is the song 'My Way' and I think that is true right now.
'My dad was happy to see me after the race and he said: 'Finally, it's over'.'
'He was quite happy. I feel more relaxed although I think his heart rate was higher during the race than mine.'
Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel paid tribute to the driver, calling him one of the 'real greats of German sport'.
She said that Schumacher was helped by 'what are called German virtues in sport: hard work, meticulous preparation and, above all, the absolute will to make it.'
She added that he 'enriched his sport with a touch of genius'.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Who do you share your secrets with?
Thought that the article below is pretty interesting...
From The Straits Times
Oct 23, 2006
No bosom pal? You're far from alone, study shows
LONDON - LONGER working hours and a growing Internet society have left young men with almost no close friends, a study has found.
Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina repeated research conducted by sociologists 20 years ago and found that the average man has only two friends with whom they feel they can share their closest secrets.
This compared with 3.5 'confidants' in the earlier study, reported Britain's Sunday Times.
A quarter of the men in the study said they had no one in whom they could confide - twice the number of those who felt so in 1985.
These are mostly men in their 20s who have lost touch with their school friends, and pensioners who have outlived their peers.
The study found that close friendships have been replaced by groups of 'semi-detached' work colleagues and 'chatroom chums' on the Internet, The Sunday Times reported.
Duke sociology professor Lynn Smith-Lovin said people typically have as many as 750 acquaintances, but nearly all of them fail the 'trust test'.
'You would only share your most vulnerable secrets with a true confidant if it is already proven you can trust them,' she said.
'Another significant change is who we trust: 20 years ago, a young man might have discussed sports or politics and avoided the personal. Now, the best friend is more likely to be a spouse with whom we share more interests.'
About 38 per cent of the study participants said that they trusted their spouses, compared to 30 per cent previously.
The researchers surveyed 1,500 people and found that middle-aged men in their 40s and 50s had almost three close friends each.
From The Straits Times
Oct 23, 2006
No bosom pal? You're far from alone, study shows
LONDON - LONGER working hours and a growing Internet society have left young men with almost no close friends, a study has found.
Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina repeated research conducted by sociologists 20 years ago and found that the average man has only two friends with whom they feel they can share their closest secrets.
This compared with 3.5 'confidants' in the earlier study, reported Britain's Sunday Times.
A quarter of the men in the study said they had no one in whom they could confide - twice the number of those who felt so in 1985.
These are mostly men in their 20s who have lost touch with their school friends, and pensioners who have outlived their peers.
The study found that close friendships have been replaced by groups of 'semi-detached' work colleagues and 'chatroom chums' on the Internet, The Sunday Times reported.
Duke sociology professor Lynn Smith-Lovin said people typically have as many as 750 acquaintances, but nearly all of them fail the 'trust test'.
'You would only share your most vulnerable secrets with a true confidant if it is already proven you can trust them,' she said.
'Another significant change is who we trust: 20 years ago, a young man might have discussed sports or politics and avoided the personal. Now, the best friend is more likely to be a spouse with whom we share more interests.'
About 38 per cent of the study participants said that they trusted their spouses, compared to 30 per cent previously.
The researchers surveyed 1,500 people and found that middle-aged men in their 40s and 50s had almost three close friends each.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Work blues
My boss is currently attached somewhere else until the end of the year. Which means that he has to do jobs on 2 sides. Which also means that I would also have to do 2 persons' jobs when he is not around. Which totally sucks because I am only a one bar, not meant to do a 3 bar job at all.
As if I am not dying under the pile of work (or rather the level of difficulty of work, I mean you don't ask level 3 hero to go fight a level 20 monster right?), along comes something extremely extremely shitty which creates extra work for me and my guys.
All I can say is, if you can't help, at least don't fucking screw things up. You can ORD happily but people got to clean up the mess after you! BIG FUCKING CHEEBYE!
And NO! I am a fucking normal human being. I am not the boss when you like it and someone whom you can push around when you feel buey song. If you so li hai, go talk to the star and bring my boss back lah!
At the moment, I feel dying is much better than being tortured till I ORD. WHY OH WHY???
As if I am not dying under the pile of work (or rather the level of difficulty of work, I mean you don't ask level 3 hero to go fight a level 20 monster right?), along comes something extremely extremely shitty which creates extra work for me and my guys.
All I can say is, if you can't help, at least don't fucking screw things up. You can ORD happily but people got to clean up the mess after you! BIG FUCKING CHEEBYE!
And NO! I am a fucking normal human being. I am not the boss when you like it and someone whom you can push around when you feel buey song. If you so li hai, go talk to the star and bring my boss back lah!
At the moment, I feel dying is much better than being tortured till I ORD. WHY OH WHY???
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