He scored goals

Yesterday the best midfielder of his generation retired. A living legend who has been at the heart of Man United's success for the best part of two decades, one of the best players I've ever seen live and one of my favourite players to ever grace the red shirt. Instead of writing an essay about his quality I'll share a handful of quotes from his contemporaries, more qualified than anyone to judge a player whose performances always spoke louder than words...

Xavi: "In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen — the most complete — is Scholes. I have spoken with Xabi Alonso about this many times. Scholes is a spectacular player who has everything. He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn’t give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more"

Zinedine Zidane: "My toughest opponent? Scholes of Manchester. He is the complete midfielder"

Andres Iniesta: "Rooney is one of the best players in the world and I love watching him play. But if you had to pick out only one, then for their history and for all that they have achieved it would have to be Paul Scholes or Ryan Giggs. They are two shining examples for any player"

Sir Alex Ferguson (Jan 2003): "Everywhere I go the coaches all tell me that Scholsey is the player they admire. But if they think they’ll get him they’re wasting their time! Paul is a Manc lad pure and simple. He loves the club and there’s no chance of him leaving here. If ever he decided to go there would be a stampede, but he won’t be going, he’s here for life"

Edgar Davids, in his prime: "I’m not the best, Paul Scholes is"

Pep Guardiola: "Out of everyone at Manchester United, I would pick out Scholes – he is the best midfielder of his generation. I would have loved to have played alongside him"

Laurent Blanc: "I tell anyone who asks me – Scholes is the best English player"

Sir Bobby Charlton: "I have no hesitation in putting a name to the embodiment of all that I think is best about football. It’s Paul Scholes"

Patrick Vieira: "The player in the Premiership I admire most? Easy – Scholes"

Cesc Fabregas: "He is the one whose level I aspire to. He is the best player in the Premier League"

Thierry Henry: "I can’t understand why Scholes has never won the player of the year award. He should have won it long ago. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t seek the limelight like some of the other ’stars’"

Jose Mourinho: "Why isn’t he playing for England? It is crazy. Only in England. Scholes is a great, great player. So experienced and still, for me, one of the best in the world in midfield. Manchester United are lucky to have him"

Marcello Lippi: "Paul Scholes would have been one of my first choices for putting together a great team – that goes to show how highly I have always rated him. He would have been one of the first players I’d have bought, given the chance"

George Best (after Paul retired from international football): "England have lost their best player"

Rio Ferdinand: "For me, it’s Paul Scholes. He’ll do ridiculous things in training like say, “You see that tree over there?” – it’ll be 40 yards away – “I’m going to hit it”. And he’ll do it. Everyone at the club considers him the best.”"

Gordon Strachan: "Paul Scholes has been the best England midfield player for 30-odd years. You’d probably have to go back to Bobby Charlton to find someone who could do as much as Scholes"

Zinedine Zidane: "Scholes is undoubtedly the best midfielder of his generation"

Thank you, Paul Scholes. Forever adored in Manchester.

Parabéns pra você

O dia mais importante do ano...

ANIVERSÁRIO DA MINHA NAMORADA LINDA!

Happy birthday gorgeous Belinha, see you on June 17th. I can't wait x

Waiting for next year

It’s been a magnificent season; winning number 19 and overtaking the scousers, Berbatov winning the golden boot, Nani developing into a real threat, Chicharito exceeding expectations, Valencia’s return from injury, and Rooney’s redemption from a terrible start. However, when you lose on the biggest stage of all, in the final, in the last match of the season, it’s a bitter pill to swallow.

I am gutted! It was a valiant effort, and while you can blame the loss on individual errors, or an overly attacking formation, the bottom line is we were beaten by the better team. Not just the better team, but the best team in the world, playing at their very best. Losing to them once hurt, but losing to them again was worse. It’s not that they’re particularly unlikable; apart from some of their play-acting and theatrics they’re a lot more respectable than teams like Madrid or our domestic rivals. It’s the fact that beating them is beginning to look like a tough task for us or any team for that matter.

In Messi they have without doubt the best player in the world, playing alongside probably the 3^rd and 4^th best players in the world in Xavi and Iniesta. Not to mention other names like Villa, Alves and Pique. Most of them are young and they’ve got the finances to improve. They’re not going to fade away any time soon. So how do you beat them?

First of all, they are not unbeatable. Madrid showed us that this season, when they’re not on their day, they can be frustrated. From a United standpoint we need to invest. Not just to compete for the Champions League, but to cement our grip at the top of English football and keep the mercenaries of Chelsea and Man City at bay (the two clubs I feel capable of challenging for the next few years). We also need to invest due to the retirements and departures expected this summer.

Assuming we have the money, which is a big “if” considering the lack of activity since the Glazers took over, we need to invest in two key areas, on at least 3 players who will improve our first team, rather than add to our squad.

A goalkeeper is top of the list as our Dutch legend is finally hanging up his gloves, and it seems we already have a replacement. De Gea has big gloves to fill, literally and figuratively, and I hope he fulfils the potential that our scouts and management see in him. He’s very young for a keeper; I just hope he can handle the pressures of playing for a club our size.

In my opinion, in defence we are set. Smalling will be the natural replacement for Ferdinand when the time is right. Evans has potential, Vidic is the best centre back in the world, Evra has had a poor season but is still a top player, and the Da Silva’s are really making progress; even O’Shea can do a job. Upfront we are also set. Rooney and Hernandez have developed a frightening partnership which I can’t wait to see blossom even further next year, Berbatov is still around and provides class, and Owen can still prove clinical off the bench as he proved on the last day of the season against Blackpool. We also have Wellbeck coming back from a very good season with Sunderland.

It’s our midfield that really needs the investment. We have a lot of “good” players, but to challenge the likes of Iniesta and Xavi, or to even match the likes of other rival players like Fabregas, Essien, Yaya or Ozil, we need to invest in real class. Nani and Valencia have both shown they work better on the right, so the left is an area we could improve (with all due respect to Park). Ashley Young may be a decent signing, and would improve us particularly with his crossing, but will he scare the big teams? I may be wrong but I think we should be aiming for someone with a higher ceiling than Young, like Alexis Sanchez of Udinese. He can play either wing and has the pace, tricks, power and finishing to cause havoc in the Premiership and in Europe. In centre mid we need someone who can create and score goals, who can give world class support to Rooney and Hernandez. That someone is Wesley Sneijder. How realistic that is depends on how much money we really have, but if possible that would be a marquee signing that would give the club, and our set pieces, a huge boost; he’d thrive in England. Carrick has been decent for the past 2 months and Fletcher has been a good DMC before his decline this season, but perhaps investing in that area of midfield, in a player of a higher class, could be important to thwart the best teams. Lassana Diarra doesn’t always start for Madrid and could be available at a good price. I certainly don’t expect us to get all three of those midfielders, and we may well get none of them, but Fergie can’t unearth gems like Hernandez every season and these are the type of players we can aspire to, that would improve our first team a lot. If they aren’t available, the likes of Charlie Adam and Ashley Young will still be decent signings.

So, that’s my 2 riyals worth regarding what we need in the summer. Coming the day after a loss it may look like a knee-jerk, but I can assure you I’m not the only one who has realised for a while we need some changes.

I’ll leave you with a picture I took in Rome at the Stadio Olympico after our 2-0 loss to Barca, as relevant today as it was then unfortunately. We’ll be back though, and I’m already excited about the new season. Bring on City, bring on Barca, bring on number 20 and number 4.

We’ll keep the red flag flying high, cause Man United will never die

Homecoming

I was told to change the date of my flights. I changed them. Now I'm coming home on June 16th for four eagerly anticipated weeks. These are just a few of the things I'm looking forward to seeing...

 Bacon

 Beer

 Black Boy

 Chemical Brothers

 England vs Sri Lanka

 Clowns

 Asians

 Parents

 Siblings

Amor

and a lot of other friends, family, food and drink along the way. See you soon Insha'Allah

19

On Saturday Manchester United were crowned English champions for a record 19^th time, surpassing the 18^th title won by Liverpool all those years ago. In the early 90’s, in the infancy of Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure at Old Trafford, the record stood at 18-7 in Liverpool’s favour, and even the most optimistic of United fans would’ve been hard pressed to believe that in merely two decades, with the same man still at the helm, we’d have not only clawed back the deficit, but surpassed it and added two European Cups for good measure. As he promised, Sir Alex Ferguson has “knocked Liverpool off their fucking perch”.

Perhaps the way we have won this most recent title is fitting; written off by pundits and fans alike at the beginning of the season, Ferguson has defied the odds again to inspire a team of individuals to play above the collective sum of its parts. I call it fitting in the sense that this has been happening for years. In 1993, after years in the footballing wilderness watching Liverpool dominate both domestically and abroad, on the back of league wins from Arsenal and Leeds, Sir Alex managed to turn the “drinking club” he had inherited into Premier League champions, 27 years after our previous triumph in ’67.

At the beginning of the 95/96 season Alan Hansen famously declared “you don’t win anything with kids”, after the national newspapers came out with headlines such as “Sold Trafford” when three of our biggest stars, Hughes, Kanchelskis and Ince, were sold in a summer clear out leaving us with an inexperienced, but talented side. We went on to win the double.

After Arsenal had gone unbeaten for a whole season in 03/04 and then the Abramovic funded Chelsea had blown away the competition under the management of Mourinho the following two seasons, the critics came out with their knives sharper than ever, and it wasn’t just the tabloids. Rob Smyth of the Guardian suggested Ferguson was “shredding his legacy at every turn”. After three years without a trophy, and transfer spending limited under new owners who had saddled the club with debt, Rob Smyth wasn’t the only one who thought the “baggy mess of has-beens and never will bes” wouldn’t succeed. We went on to win the league in 06/07 playing attractive, attacking football spearheaded by Ronaldo and Rooney. The following year we trumped this by winning a domestic and European double. In ’09 we completed a consecutive hat-trick of domestic triumphs and equalled the record set by Liverpool.

Even after these considerable successes, and even after Sir Alex had proven everyone wrong by rebuilding his team time and again to achieve success, we were written off. Tevez was let go, Cristiano Ronaldo was sold and we invested in an Ecuadorian winger from Wigan, an unfit ex-Liverpool striker, a homeless Portuguese guy, a Mexican teenager and a Fulham substitute who was playing non-league football two years ago. Chelsea winning the league last year only reinforced people’s belief that we were finished.

A typically slow start to this season was made to seem even more apocalyptic when our shining light, the player we had relied on so much last season, handed in a transfer request in October claiming we couldn’t match his ambition. To lose one of our few remaining world class players would have not only harmed the quality of our team, but would have sent out a signal to the footballing world that we were a team in decline. It was, and it is, yet another feather in Ferguson’s cap that he managed to convince Rooney to rethink his decision and resign. Now Rooney knows he made a mistake, and now the critics have also been proven wrong yet again. Berbatov and Nani shared the weight of goals and assists during the first half of the season while Valencia was recovering from injuring and Rooney was struggling for form. Since January Rooney has taken over the mantle of leading the attack, Chicharito has exceeded expectations in his debut season, the ever-green Giggs has defied the aging process with vintage performances in big matches, our captain and rock at the back, Vidic, has defied the opposition, Valencia has hit the ground running after a lengthy spell on the sidelines, and even squad players like Park have proved they have the ability and attitude to change big games for us when it matters.

If we manage to overcome Barcelona on May 28^th it may go down as Sir Alex’s greatest achievement. Not for the first time this season we’ll be underdogs, but if anyone can do it, it’s Fergie’s red and white army, the most competitive team in the world who you write off at your peril.

T.W.A.N

Last month my parents went on holiday to Brazil. They stayed at Asalem in Ilha Grande, a small island just off Rio de Janeiro, look and become jealous http://www.asalem.com.br/
While they were there they met an Iranian man who goes round the world taking pictures of the night sky. He runs a website called The World at Night (TWAN), and it has some great pictures. Here are two he's taken of the sunrise over Ipanema, the Atlantic coastline, and the Vidigal favela with the Morro Dois Irmãos in the background. Enjoy

courtesy of Babak A. Tafreshi
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/photographers_about.asp?photographer=Babak%20A.%20Tafreshi

Saudi Bin Mourning

“Teacher, we are very sad today”, “Teacher, America very bad”, “Teacher, in 5 years... I kill Obama”

It’s fair to say the reaction to Bin Laden’s death is pretty different here in Saudi Arabia than it appears to be elsewhere. I’m not sure what I was expecting when the news broke. I certainly wasn’t expecting scenes akin to those we saw outside the White House; people celebrating and rejoicing over a death. While I think rejoicing at the death of an enemy lacks taste and class, I have slightly more sympathy with those doing it than I do with the numerous Bin Laden sympathisers I’ve encountered since his passing.

Those who start ranting about America as soon as Osama’s name is brought up seem to be completely missing the point, and implying that his actions were in some way justified. As for those who paint him as some kind of freedom fighter; I’m just glad that my judgement isn’t as warped and clouded as that. I’m in no way “pro-America”, their government has done some terrible things over the years, particularly the previous administration, but that is in no way an excuse (let alone a reason) for the slaughter of thousands of innocent people, worldwide.

A misconception you may have, reading the first couple of paragraphs of this blog, is that Saudi’s are bad people, who lack morality. This isn’t the case. They’re by no means perfect (racism and laziness are particularly rife here), but their core values are the same as ours, the same as all people around the world. They take care of their family and friends, they’re kind, they’re extremely generous and very accommodating. Their religion teaches them to lead good, honest lives. However, they have grown up in a society which completely brainwashes them. Go to the Saudi Arabian museum in Riyadh and read the (almost comical) propaganda about Kind Abdul Aziz, ask someone their views on Saddam Hussein or even Hitler (or Israel), and it will quickly become clear they’ve been fed twisted information from a young age. Censorship and totalitarian oppression in the Kingdom have restricted their access to the outside world, and in turn coloured their views. Not all of the Saudi students here at Al Jouf University support Bin Laden, the teachers of the higher ability groups (probably not a coincidence) tell me that a lot of their students are glad to see the back of him, and realise that what he did was wrong.

The practical implications of the reaction have not affected us (the Western teachers) too much. We have doubled the security at our compound, and put up an extra gate. Our proposed camping trip the desert has also been postponed until further notice. While some are suggesting the death of Bin Laden will reignite Al Qaeda, I cannot see it happening. I read an article the other day suggesting that the rise of democracy in the Middle East did more harm to Al Qaeda’s long term ambitions than anything the American government did. Forward thinking and democratic ideals go completely against what Al Qaeda stands for, and the uprising of various Middle Eastern nations against their oppressive regimes has proven these fundamentalist ideas could not flourish on a large scale as it wouldn’t receive popular support. Of course I’m not naïve enough to think the death of one extremist, whose power had already been marginalised, will bring an end to terrorism. However, I am pleased the world is rid of one of its most evil inhabitants. Someone who has caused suffering to thousands of innocent families all over the world and whose death shouldn’t evoke an ounce of sympathy from anyone, anywhere.

Unfortunately support for Osama hasn’t just been confined to a handful of Middle Eastern countries, as the picture below shows. On the anniversary of the July 7^th London bombings by Al Qaeda, people marched on the streets of London, celebrating the life of Bin Laden and holding an unofficial funeral for him, vowing to take revenge on America. Perhaps more sickening than the fact they’re taking advantage of democratic rights they’d never be allowed if Al Qaeda had their way, to voice their disgusting opinion, is the fact they’re giving their fellow Muslims a bad name, and fuelling the fire of sensationalist/racist newspapers like the Daily Mail, and moronic groups like the EDL. This small minority are making life difficult for the vast majority of Muslims who live their lives like anyone else, and follow their religion the way it should be followed.

This was a serious post! I’ll get back to more trivial, entertaining stuff tomorrow, Insha’Allah of course

I'm out for Presidents to represent me

for anyone that hasn't seen it yet, courtesy of http://beforetheblogs.com/

what a legend.

Lembranças do Brasil

Um ano atras, mais ou menos, eu estava ouvindo para isso canção o tempo todo. Provavelmente o meu cantoro favorito do Brasil (ele ou Jorge Ben Jor). Se você gostar deste então ouvir a Voz da Massa, Eterna Busca, América do Norte e Burguesinha

Vou voltar em menos que 10 meses, esperar pra mim!

Tomorrow's blog will be all about the reason we suddenly have twice the security at our compound - Osama Bin Laden

Until then, fica com Deus, galera!