Back to Square 1

So losing 5-0 to the UAE is apparently a huge shock to Malaysia. Apparently we were supposed to do better than that. Apparently we expected the players to put up a better fight. Apparently not.





Everything went wrong against the UAE. Or rather everything went according to plan. B. Sathianathan is right, the M-League "is not football". Sure we can have committed players but if they're not good enough what's the point? Then again should anyone really have expected more? As usual the administration is not good enough, organisation is not good enough, structure is not good enough etc etc. In short it was coming. And yet very few seem to have seen it.

When I met Soh Chin Aun, currently national team manager, he said standards were improving. If what he meant by standards was commitment and attitude, then yes he's probably on the money. Anything else though and it's a completely different story. In the video above the fans vent their anger towards the players and administration. Maybe that was crossing the line because at the end of the day, most people agree that this is the fault of the current FAM setup.

It doesn't help that the team is painted in a better light than they should. People get caught up the in the hype when they read about "improving standards" and aims to qualify for the 2018 World Cup and other such nonsensical dreams. Why give us hope instead of the truth? Fans get worked up unnecessarily because they actually believe that we are better than we are. Kaka will move to Man City before Malaysia get involved in any high profile tournaments. There really isn't much to argue when all the facts point to one thing - we are not good enough. Maybe that should be reworded - we are not good AT ALL.

One fan criticised the state of the Malaysian league claiming players were pampered. I'm in full agreement. Players are happy to be winners among themselves and staying well within their own comfort zones. As if that breeds anything good. You only get inflated egos and false belief. Hence you get a national team with greater opinions of themselves than they should. Malaysian fans do have unrealistic expectation of their players but we are no fools. We love our football and we know exactly what's wrong when we see it. From the setup of FAM to the unbelievably low quality of our league, we know it's all pointing in the wrong direction.

No change, no results. Simple as that. Perhaps Sathianathan's attack on local football will shake up things and hopefully bring about change. Then again we get this crisis every single year and nothing new happens. It's a shame because with our infrastructure and facilities we really should be churning out quality footballers. This was meant to be a fairly long rant with me voicing my concerns and frustrations with everything and pinpointing problems but then I realised we suck. That's all there is to Malaysian football. We suck.

We need people like Sathianathan to stick around. People with realistic views and who aren't afraid of venting them. Everything he said was spot on. Hopefully he won't lose his job because of it. We have however lost our pride in the national team a long time ago. Time to give us a reason to get it back.

Back to normal

With many suffering from withdrawal symptoms post-Euro 2008, there is nothing to satisfy people like us, deprived of competitive international football until the World Cup 2010 qualifiers commence. Unfortunately, we're now back to the usual reports of players and managers in the traditional summer transfer frenzy. Only the media blow it out of proportion. A lot.

Then again, we're so starved of anything football related, we'll take anything that come our way. In this report, Andriy Shevchenko has reported agreed to join Sampdoria on loan for the coming season. Really? I thought Milan were open to the idea of the legend returning to the San Siro at anytime. That report is probably just that. A report. Full of nothing. Shevchenko may be desperate to quit England but although he's likely to return to Italy sometime, I doubt it'll be to Sampdoria. Milan's pursuit of Emmanuel Adebayor is likely to end in failure because they can't afford the measly sum of £35.6m for the Togolese hitman. Wouldn't they have a spot for Shevchenko to fill? I can definitely see it happening.

Speaking of Adebayor, £35.6m? Really? For him? With all due respect to the man, no one in world football is worth more than £35m apart from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. While he is a great player, he is certainly no world legend of the game. Neither are Messi or Ronaldo but you get the feeling they're more likely to reach the summit than Adebayor. I expect (and I suspect many others too) Ronaldo to pick up this year's FIFA Player of the Year award. The only question is which club will he be playing for then? I'm not too interested in the ongoing saga so I'll leave it at that.

Moving onto this editorial I found, Asia's next top talents are briefly profiled. One thing I have a problem with is the inclusion of two South Asian players, Sunil Chettri and Ali Ashfaq. Why do they deserve a spot on the list? I don't need to mention due respect because South Asian football is quite frankly rubbish. Let me put this into perspective. Those two Asian talents are from India and the Maldives respectively. India's best (Bhaichung Bhutia, once of Bury FC) has tried their luck in the Malaysian league and did not exactly turn on the style, leaving after a few months. Ashfaq, meanwhile, played in the Malaysian Super League for DPMM FC (Brunei), and was hardly a superstar either. Now to the damning conclusion of the article. Malaysian football is widely regarded as crap nowadays (and that's being polite) and I'm in complete agreement. So why do those two players merit a spot on the list of Asia's top talents when they can't even stand out in one of Asia's worst football leagues? It's not an official list, nor is it a conclusive list. But it reaches a large readership and certainly portrays a wrong view of talent in Asia. I won't comment on the rest as I have not seen them play. I've seen those two play, and they are not what you would call Asia's best. Not by a long shot.

That concludes the random rant of the day. The lack of solid football news leads me to write upon anything I set my eyes on. The concluded transfers to the Premiership may warrant some space but I'm tired of the focus on the Premiership. Jo's joined Man City for a club record. Great. I won't be bothered analysing whether he'll be a hit or miss. If Ronaldinho joined him there, that would be a lot more interesting. Apparently Man City are still confident of pulling off the coup. Intriguing.