LETTER OF THE MONTH

Up the rant!

In response to Borneo No.1 Liverpool Fan, I couldn't actually believe that he and most Liverpool fans were ecstatic after winning that cup. I didn't even feel sad when Chelsea were kicked out, since most of the Chelsea players aren't even motivated to win that cup. I don’t rate it, and I’m sure most people don’t either.

As for O'Neill vs. Fergie debate, I definitely think that O'Neill has been the better manager of the past 20 years. He is so motivated and spiritually-attached to the game. Look at the way he jumps around like a small kid when his team scored. His sincerity is almost beautiful. I even predicted that Chelsea might lose points at Villa, despite being a Chelsea fan. That’s how good he is.

I disagree with you making McClaren a ‘Zero’ after appointing John Terry instead of Steven Gerrard for the captaincy (call me biased). I think Terry performs more consistently than Gerrard does. Besides, when the captain of any team is a defender, he will be able to direct play from the back, because he has a better tactical view of the entire pitch, whereas an attacking midfielder like Gerrard can only direct the attack. Look at how Terry rallies his team to defend with his overwhelming-spirit and liferisking- tackles. Gerrard, like Frank Lampard, can only rally the team when they are on form, which isn’t that often anyway.

And about the Italian match-fixing scandals, I’m curious as to why there are teams that got punished so seriously (Juventus) while the others escaped with a mild punishments? There was no transparency as to how they actually judge the scandals.

Last but not least, I believe that Barcelona won the league not solely by virtue of them being the best team there – it also says a lot about how bad the other teams are. Most Spanish teams defend terribly, and make Barca look better than they actually are. Barca only raise their game for big opposition, and tend to look down on soso teams because of their ego. I do hope they get kicked out at the group stage by Chelsea and Werder Bremen.

Jeffrey Ng Cern Yang