*Let Us Pray

Our father, who art in the Emirates
hallowed be thy turf
thy players come
then they are gone
to colney as it is in heaven
give us this day our daily football
and forgive us our fouls
as we don’t forgive those who foul against us
and lead us not into offside positions
but deliver us from 1-0 down
for thine is the premiership,
the FA Cup and the champions league
forever and ever
Amen

* taken from a comment on A Cultured Left Foot

Ali Azmat, one of my favorite singers recently released his new Album named Klashinfolk.  And it has got me absolutely stunned. Album cover is a work of a Freemason. Look at the symbolism, the pyramid, the famous Freemason compass, the eye of illumination, sun, cup & chalice symmetry of compass and the crescent, the pentacle in between themes, the all seeing eye, Freemason symbolism on all four corners.  It  is nothing other than freemasonry. Its quite unbelievable but then  I look at his personality and his previous works and I think why not. I am not trying to suggest if it is a good thing or a bad thing, its just interesting to find out Ali Azmat so much involved into Freemasonry

BTW most songs sounded crap except for this one (Naina). Its absolutely awesome. Nothing like anything that I have ever heard before. Click below on the play button to listen to it without leaving this very page.

[audio http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/9/2/2078214/Klashinfolk%20-%20Naina.mp3]

More later...

Now that the early euphoria has settled down quite a bit I have much clearer idea of my new life at this new workplace. And its quite positive TBH. There are times when I feel really lucky to be in this company.

I had joined this company on August 01, 08'. In last 30 days or so I have slowly settled down and integrated into the mix there. And if last 30 days are anything to go by,  I am going to have a stable working experience in this company.

Let me summarize how I spend a typical working day.

My phone alarm starts ringing at 7:36 AM. It takes it six 4-minute snoozes to reach 8 Am when I'm finally out of my bed. It takes me about 40 minutes to be in proper shape to leave my house for the office.

I commute to office via cab of one of our neighbors, Pervaiz Sahab. He is a nice bloke. Another coworker, Touseef sahab also accompanies me to the office in that cab. He is a good outspoken person who most of the times knows what he is saying. His total command on his speech and expressions is quite impressive. At times he can be a headcase but that too for proper moral reasons, not a moron by any stretch of imagination. Every good thing has a downside and only thing where he might do good to improve is that he makes us wait because he comes out of his house in the morning and then again comes late out of his office  in the evening when we leave for home. Overall its a good company I have.

I share my room in the office with 4 more people, all senior to me. Best thing about the room is that there are no females. It might sound strange but my experience from the previous job suggests that however good or bad a female coworker is, she is always a hindrance to free and proper work and something one would do good to avoid. I don't know, its difficult to explain. Men with office experience would understand what I'm trying to suggest here. Just to be clear, I don't mean any disrespect to females, its just the way it is. Female presence is, lets face it, a factor that realistically affects males in their performance, work ethic and above all being themselves. OK, enough about the females at the office (BTW there are about 15-20% females in this company. That is above average for a software company). So I was describing my office roommates. Yes they are 4, all senior, somewhat reserved all of them and apparently good people. When I reach office none of them is in the office yet. A few minutes later one of the coworkers arrives, another one also arrives in like 20 minutes. Other two are little bit more liberal and one of them arrives good 60-90 minutes lates. Last but not the least, my team lead arrives whenever he feels like. there is no time constraint for him. Make it two hours, three hours late or even after the lunch time. Apparently he is having some troubles in his family with one of his relatives fighting against cancer. May God give her strength and courage to fight cancer and may God protect us all.

When I reach office, first thing I do is to check my email, and first email I recieve in the early morning is the yesterday's daily Internet usage report. They have a policy at the com[any that they publish an Internet usage report at the end of each day and it is shared with all the employees. The report contains top 10 users, most requested websites, amount of data downloaded and uploaded by each user and similar other statistics. I have been in top 10 only once while my team lead is always in top 5 despite coming late to the office on a regular basis. Hats off! :D

After seeing my emails and checking out on Arsenal I put my head down to work. When I have some work to do which is most often the case, time seems to fly by but on the otherwise days, its a slow and boring ride to 1PM which is the time for lunch break. Around 10 in the morning, kitchen boy comes with a tray of tea cups. In the first few weeks used to say thanks but no thanks to him but now he doesnt ask me anymore. I don't drink tea. In the lunch break we go downstairs in the mess and have our lunch. Unlike the previous workplace, here there is no convention of coworkers going for the lunch together. During the lunch break when some one has to go for the lunch, they simply leave their seat and head towards the mess. No one asks, not even tells anyone else that I am going for lunch, you might want to accompany me. Lunch is usually quite good in quality and we are billed only half of it, the rest is paid by the company itself. Lunch break lasts for one hour and during that time apart from lunch, almost everyone is playing multiplyer games on the LAN. This luxury however, is only available to employees in our group (SDG, Software Development Group) because we are the so called 'operations' folks', our hardwork gives company something to sell and make profit. After the lunch break we resume the work and by 4 PM the kitchen boy comes with another tray, and to my delight, this time with a tray loaded with glasses of Tang (orange juice type thingy). I like it. At 6 PM exact I leave the office and go for the cab which is already there outside the office at that time. The other coworker makes it 5-15 minutes late usually which I dont like really but I live with it. On each friday we pay the weekly cab fare, 500 each. I am usually home by 6:30 PM with only 15 minutes of travel. Life's Good.

In the middle of last month I registered with FBR (Federal Board of Revenue) as an employed tax payer. I feel proud to be paying tax especially when not many people in this country like to pay tax. I think those who do not pay tax, they do not have the right to drive their car on a road, walk on a footpath or use any such public facility, because its put in place by the govt. by the money of the tax payers. Ok I must not go bananas with the fact that I pay tax and majority don't but still, you get the idea of what I'm trying to suggest here :D But on a serious note I think this country's fortunes can change if all the people payed their due amounts of tax. Usually its the middle class people like us whose tax is deducted at source. All these businessmen who earn millions and billion, they either pay minimal tax or don't pay it at all. Its a shame. In that week I also had my bank account open in a bank nearby the office. Now I have four bank accounts but still not a lot of money :D

Our Setup team consists of 5 people who were one day taken to Lunch at Texas Stake House by the project manager. Food was great but the best thing I liked there was the cowboy costumes of the waiters. That was cool.

Last month I deliberately missed a one day trip to Ayubia/Nathia Gali. It was a company sponsored trip and was totally free. I missed it because I wanted not to miss something more Important. I wish was able to write something different here but Arsenal lost that match 1-0, not a really good performance on that evening. Still I don't regret the trip not taken. We win together and we loose together.

Recently there has been talks going on in the company that they want to shift this office from its current location (Rawalpindi suburb) to downtown Islamabad. While there are mixed opinions among the employees about the proposed move, it seems that there might be quite a few complications in the proposed move. we shall see. I for one would love to stay at the current location as it is just 15 minutes from my place but there are others who leave their home at 7:30 in the morning. Lets hope we get something that is best for all.

Thats about it I guess, I feel a lot more comfortable at this place than on my first day here and things will only get better. I can not thank the almighty enough for being so kind on me. I hope the things stay smooth and pleasant for me in the future and I gather as much prosperity in this job as possible.

Thank you God.

It took me full two weeks to compile this post. These days my routine is a little bit disturbed due to holy Ramazan and I lack the temperament to write a long blog post. Still I have a lot more to post. Lets hope I gather strength to make it sooner rather than later.

Till then...

This an interview article with Arsene Wnger published in the daily Independent on Saturday 23rd August 08'. Its priceless.

Arsene Wenger: Success - I make it, I won't buy it

In a rare interview, the Arsenal manager explains his footballing philosophy, recalls the values inherited from his parents – and tells Glenn Moore about the promise he made his wife five years ago

Among the nicknames attached to Arsène Wenger when he arrived at Arsenal, with his stopwatch, studious air, and what Tony Adams called "his boffin's glasses", was Le Professeur. Little did Adams, Paul Merson and company know that, 12 years on, the French academic would be engaged in one of football's most audacious experiments, with their club as the guinea pig.

When Arsenal committed themselves to moving from Highbury early this decade Wenger decided to embark on a bold, some would say suicidally naïve, venture.

In a rare interview this week he revealed:

"When we decided to build the stadium I wanted to anticipate the possibility of financial restrictions, so I concentrated on youth. I also felt the best way to create an identity with the way we play football, to get players integrated into our culture, with our beliefs, our values, was to get them as young as possible and to develop them together. I felt it would be an interesting experiment to see players grow together with these qualities, and with a love for the club." He pauses, smiles wryly, and adds, "It was an idealistic vision of the world of football."

This credo, which has never previously been expressed so clearly, has provided Arsenal fans with both delight and frustration. There is pride among supporters at the club's development of young players, and joy at the football they deliver, but there is also frustration at the lack of trophies. The investment in the Emirates was supposed to provide Arsenal with the financial muscle to compete with Chelsea and Manchester United in the transfer market. According to the recently departed director Keith Edelman it has. He said there was £70m available to Wenger. If there is, it sits in the bank, gathering interest. Another transfer window is about to close and Wenger, as usual, looks like roughly breaking even.

Last week he said he could spend £30m on a player if he wanted to, but he does not need to. Results this season will demonstrate whether that is the case or not, but the reality is Wenger does not want to. This visionary is a stubborn one. The board would clearly give Wenger whatever he asks for, even if it stretched the finances, but the economics graduate will only ask for £30m in extremis. Nor is he about to countenance a £135,000-a-week contract even if Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb have departed for better paid employment elsewhere, and Emmanuel Adebayor was evidently tempted to follow.

Wenger believes his team are already good enough to win one of his two targets, the Premier League or Champions League, but feels they will not peak for five or six years.

"The challenge we face is to keep them together," he admits. "It is very important to meet their needs inside the club, the way we play, the way we behave, with success on the field and in financial rewards. If you can achieve that as a club you can keep them together. I don't feel at our club you have to make any other sacrifice than financial, because all the other aspects are better at our club than anywhere else."

The financial sacrifice is, however, non-negotiable.

"I believe you need a wages structure," says Wenger, "if you want to be fair with everybody, or try to be as fair as possible. You could make the odd exception but you need a logic in the way you pay your players and in the way you structure the whole wages bill. Personally, I don't think it is right to lose £100m and to play football. I feel that the skill of a manager is to do the maximum with the resources he has and try to be successful. I don't believe that [£100m losses] can last a long time, it will not be accepted, not only because it will implode [if the benefactor pulls out]."

"If you do not balance the books you go bankrupt and die. I could push the club into big debt. I go away with success and the guy who comes after me suffers for five years because he cannot buy a player any more and the club goes down. The guy who comes after me has good players he can work with, he has a healthy financial situation, and he has a club in good shape. That is part of management as well."

Elite footballers, obviously, already earn more than any normal person can spend but the same applies to stars in the financial world. In football, as in the City, the biggest pay packets are not about spending power.

"It is more a status thing than the actual money," says Wenger. "The player compares himself to other players he thinks are on the same level, not because of the money, more for the respect for his own quality. That is where meeting their needs comes in. Money is only one fraction of the needs that a player has at a club. On that front you can sometimes accept a small disadvantage knowing that the rest is superior."

Wenger has done this himself, rejecting offers from clubs such as Real Madrid and Barcelona because he believes his working conditions at Arsenal could not be bettered elsewhere.

Only Sir Alex Ferguson's tenure at Old Trafford now exceeds Wenger's at Arsenal and, like the Scot, Wenger has steeped himself in, and deliberately abided by, the culture of the club.

"I feel if you come into a club as manager you have first to work out its specific qualities," Wenger says. "For me Arsenal is a club which tries to respect tradition, style, honesty, fair play. If you come in and behave like a gangster you will not last long. The supporters will be the first ones not happy with that. A club needs values. If a club has no values you go nowhere."

Wenger's own values come from his parents, Alphonse and Louise, who ran an auberge in the Alsace village of Duttlenheim when the young Arsène was growing up.

"Everyone is an extension of their parents," he says. "When you are very young you do not feel that the influence of your parents or your education is decisive. The more you grow into your maturity you realise you feel you are only comfortable with yourself if you are respecting the values you got when you were a kid. It takes you some time to discover that. You feel independent, but when you look back at your life you find that what guides you is the values you got when very young. Then you accept it.

"A trait of my parents I recognise in me is the belief that you work very hard and you shut up. If you are good someone will see it. You try to do as well as you can and, if you are honest and you work hard, you will be all right."

We are speaking on an afternoon when Wenger's faith in such natural justice has taken a blow. Together with Cesc Fabregas, Manuel Almunia and Faye White, the captain of Arsenal Ladies, Wenger has been touring the Young Persons Unit at University College Hospital, London. It is a prime example of the facilities developed by the Teenage Cancer Trust, which has been chosen by Arsenal this year to be their club charity. The unit, from which Arsenal's Emirates Stadium is visible, is exclusively for teenagers and Wenger has been taken aback by the sight of so many sick youngsters. Cheerful as many appear in front of the Arsenal party, whose visit hugely overruns such is their popularity, their baldness, the cruel imprint of chemotherapy, reveals their true condition.

"Personally, it is a shock," says Wenger. "When you are used to seeing teenagers together in good health, to experience them together like this is difficult to take. You do not expect them to be sick.

"What is very impressive is the team attitude to fight against cancer. The children are brought together, the parents are brought together. What comes out of that unit is, 'Let's fight it together'." Wenger inevitably recognised parallels with the mood in a successful squad, the same sense that, he says, "You can be stronger together."

Wenger places great store by team spirit; it is one of the benefits he hopes to realise by building a club from the youth ranks. Maintaining it, however, requires a constant vigil.

"You check that every day that the team is bonded. You try always to make sure it is integrated. It is never guaranteed, and it is very fragile and vulnerable. It can be upset by exterior factors or interior factors and can disintegrate very easily. It is the skill of the manager to always assess it and to address the situation when needed. A team is made of a collection of individuals. Sometimes a few individuals feel they do not need to put their energy into the team as much, and think more about themselves. That quickly has consequences for the team."

Once Wenger balanced his squad between what he described as "an English block and a French block". Now his squad features 17 nationalities but there is one dominant accent. The French core grew to six leading players with the acquisition of Mikaël Silvestre. Is that a risk?

"It is natural the same culture gets together. If you yourself met some English people in Jamaica you will speak to them, you will have dinner together. You cannot fight against that because it is a lost fight. If you have a dinner together you will choose the same kind of food. It is a glue, it is part of you. What you can fight for is to keep the communication going inside the team and make sure this does not go into a clique situation."

The decline of "the English block" has been endlessly commented upon and, when pressed, Wenger addresses the subject wearily. Yet while it is true that high hopes are being expressed for the rising generation of Jack Wilshere and Henri Lansbury, not forgetting Theo Walcott, it is only four years ago he sang the praises of Ryan Garry, Justin Hoyte and Ryan Smith. All have since left the club.

"They were victims of the competition. It is not a question of nationalities. The Premier League today is a competition among the players of the whole world; at the top clubs it is a competition among the top players of the whole world. Of course that is detrimental to some English players and it will be tough for Wilshere and Lansbury, but if they make it they are world stars and you do not have many world stars in any academy, not now you can only recruit locally."

In assessing a player Wenger says he looks for "intelligence, motivational level and talent". The first criterion would, to many cynics, rule out most English players but Wenger insists they were not lacking in this area. He admitted they may seem under-educated compared to foreign players, not least because the English are inordinately impressed by anyone who speaks more than one language, but adds,

"Don't worry, the big players in England are intelligent."

Maybe we just start too late. In his first job, as a youth coach at Strasbourg, Wenger began taking a class of five-year-olds. The club academy began at seven. At the time English clubs were not allowed access to children until they were 14. After a few years the two groups in Strasbourg were compared. The class which began at five had developed a technical advantage, says Wenger, which could not be bridged.

"You have to pause every 20 minutes as they cannot keep a longer focus, but the big row in the Olympics, about the gymnast who they said was only 12, teaches you at 12 you can be technically at the top level in the world."

But I ask, speaking as a father of a five-year-old, what can I teach him at that age? "To kick correctly the ball. To put him in situations where he develops his skill. The talent of a coach is to put an exercise to a player that he has to find the solution to. If he does not, you teach him to do it better. If the exercise is too easy, or too difficult, he will not learn. And he has to find it out for himself. What makes football special is you have a billion techniques. It is not like in tennis where you hit the ball." Wenger demonstrates a low forehand. Then, with more demonstration, he adds, "In football when you come to hit the ball you have someone pushing you on the top of your left shoulder, and you still have to keep your balance and hit the ball right. At the start your basic movements have to be right, then you adapt."

The first time I sat down with Wenger, 11 years ago, he was still new to the capital and I wondered what he had seen of one of the world's great cities. He said he knew only the journey to Heathrow, to Highbury, and the training ground. I remind him of this and he smiles, almost sheepishly.

"You know, nothing has changed, except the way to the Emirates is slightly different to Highbury. If someone says, 'Can you show me London?' I say, 'Buy a good guidebook and do it on your own'."

Is this sad, or admirable? What it confirms is that Wenger is one of the great football obsessives. There is this perception that Ferguson is the football nut, hewn in the tenements of Govan and honed on the terraces of Ibrox. Yet, compared to Wenger, the graduate from the Continent via Japan, Ferguson is a renaissance man, keenly interested in wine, art, the piano and horse racing.

Even with this hinterland Ferguson has found it hard to leave the game and Wenger you suspect will continue until his health gives way. Now 58, he has said he recognises the pressures of the job could cut short his life but it is a risk he will take to pursue "the only life he has wanted". He says,

"Ten years ago I said to my wife [Annie], 'Five more years and that's all', and I am still here. So now I do not want to make those statements any more. I hope I will be strong enough to say one day 'that's it', but I am more focused on beating Fulham [today] than my longer future.

"I cannot imagine not working. Fishing in the morning is not so much what I like. It is a trap, this job, you are under high pressure, with big targets, but you cannot imagine not having it. That is not enough in itself, you must enjoy it. At the moment I enjoy it, I am healthy and successful, and I hope that lasts."

Inevitably the family – he has a daughter, Leah, approaching her teenage years – suffer.

"It is difficult to find time to see them but there are jobs [which are worse]. You have guys who leave for work on Monday and come back on Friday. In my job I travel, but the problem is not so much the quantity of time you spend with your family, it is the quality. That is where this job is more damaging. You do not always give them the quality they deserve when you are at home because you are thinking of the next game."

Do the family share his passion? "My wife [a former basketball Olympian] likes watching football, she watches all the games of Arsenal at home. She is not a fanatic but she likes watching sports. No, she does not have much choice."

The enigma that is Arsène

Nick Hornby

Arsène's shadow has cast a gloom all the way up Seven Sisters Road [which leads to Tottenham] for quite a while now. I and the vast majority of Arsenal fans have an enormous amount of faith in Wenger.

Melvyn Bragg

It's lovely to watch Arsène's Arsenal play. When we're flowing we're terrific. I rate Wenger – he's a very polite, well-mannered man, not forceful, though but sometimes you have to be a bit of a ruthless bastard. Ferguson did the trick, very brutally, up at Man Utd and maybe Wenger should have been a bit more brutal. I suspect he is a rather sentimental chap. There's no anger in what I'm saying, I'm just thinking that Wenger's over-wary in some way. But Wenger knows what he's doing, and I think, on the whole, that he's bought well.

In the fanzine Highbury High

John Lydon

Wenger is the best manager in the Premier League – way better than Fergie.

Lewis Hamilton

I have faith that Arsène will deliver the FA Cup and tie up the Premier League again. That would be just fantastic. And I'd love to be there when they do it.

Clive Anderson

Arsène Wenger has made a fantastic input in terms of style, I'm happy to be patient and wait a year or two for some trophies if necessary.

Ian Poulter

Arsène Wenger is a very clever businessman.

Kevin Costner

When I came and made Robin Hood, I got invited to Arsenal as a guest. I didn't know what to expect, I was very moved by the singing in the crowd. I now follow Arsenal and I am a great admirer of Arsène Wenger. I like the stylish football Arsenal play and that is down to the manager Arsène Wenger.

From The Offside Arsenal fan site

Steve Earle

I started supporting Arsenal in the 1980s when I was living in the UK, they really sucked! However, now they are great to watch and support playing beautiful football. That is down to Arsène Wenger – and I think Arsenal fans couldn't thank him enough.

The American musician, from The Offside Arsenal fan site

Piers Morgan

Arsène Wenger is the best manager Arsenal have ever had, and one of the top three or four in top-flight British football history (along with Shankly, Clough and Ferguson). Wenger is the Heston Blumenthal of managers – a quirky, studious, highly intelligent professor-type man, who believes in creating teams that have flair, surprise, flamboyance and breathtakingly high technical quality. At Arsenal, the banners read "Arsène KNOWS". And that's because he usually does. I've met him many times and he is a cultured, polite, amusing and entertaining character. A rarity in football, trust me.

Compiled by Rob Sharp, Tom Parker and Ben Coles

My other life

There is not much time for anything outside football but I do read books. At the moment I am reading about Mossad, the Israeli secret service, which is interesting because they speak of Henri Paul [the Frenchman who was driving the car in which Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed]. I do not see movies but on television I watch sport and documentaries about politics. I have been watching the Olympics. The British success is amazing because you have no structure here. In France every village has sports facilities provided for the public, here there is hardly anything. Where do they all train? In Paris there are 50 competitive swimming pools, in London two, and yet you got the 2012 Olympics.

Wenger and a humbling afternoon

Roger Daltrey, whose earnest, gentle nature around the Teenage Cancer Trust unit is wildly at odds with his past as a hellraising rocker with The Who, made the point that it was appropriate for Arsenal to be involved with the charity as, more than any English club, they have put their faith in youth.

That is down to Arsène Wenger who said he was humbled by what he had seen at the TCT's unit at University College Hospital, London, on Thursday.

Wenger had joined Daltrey to launch Arsenal's sixth Charity of the Season initiative. Last season it raised £519,541 for Treehouse, the autism education charity, twice the target. This season Arsenal hope to raise £300,000 towards an education zone within a new day centre at UCH. This will enable teenagers to continue education while fighting the illness, and to receive treatment as day patients.

The guiding principle behind TCT is a desire for teenage cancer patients to be treated among their peers, rather than on wards largely populated by, in children's hospital, infants. Research shows this aids recovery. Much consideration is given to the architecture in an attempt to make units appear more welcoming to young people. This not only cheers those on the wards, but also encourages friends to visit.

"The most significant thing when you are sick is you are isolated," said Wenger. "If you are sick tomorrow the first thing is you will lie in your bed thinking, 'When will I be well again?' They have to face that for a year, or longer. To have support is wonderful."

Anthony Whitehead, a 21-year-old in remission after suffering Hodgkin's lymphoma, endured eight months of chemotherapy and several operations. He was in an adult ward but discovered the TCT's social programme towards the end of his treatment and now visits wards. He said: "I feel jealous of the guys here. I had no one to talk to. I felt I was doing it all alone. Here teenagers can help each other."

Wenger added:

"I believe a club has a social responsibility. We are very conscious of that."

When I opened wordpress today for making a new blog post I never knew in a million year that I would be writing this but just when I logged into Wordpress today I came accross a blog which had this  awesome video in one of its posts. Its difficult not to mention it because this is some out of this world stuff. Ammazing! Or maybe I'm too obsessed with Mona Lisa.

This is the actual post on Aravind's blog and the video is below. Enjoy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU]

With that I shall resume normal blogging. A lot to come in next few hours.

Its been a long waiting period but finally the the big time is back. Premier League kicked off yesterday  evening with the opening match being that of my beloved Arsenal. I have to say the summer break is the hardest time of the year in the life of someone as obsessed about football as me. Seriously , in the last 2-3 months I felt like a fish out of water. It was boring, annoying and downright painful to bear all the doom mongering and silly season's transfer speculations and no football. Then yesterday, it felt like I dived into an ocean full of oxygenated water :D It feels good.

Its always great to have a winning start to the season. We kicked off the season against last season's Coca Cola Championship's winners West Bromwich Albion who got promoted to the Premier League. We won 1-0 thanks to Samir Nasri debut goal for Arsenal. Welcome to the Premier League, you baby faced assasin.

Now I really hope this is the kind of start required for a sustained run in this marathon that is the Premier League. Among other results, Liverpool also had a winning start thanks to a late strike by Fernando "el-nino" Torres. I like that boy. And Egg on the face of every pundit who predicted that sp*rs finally had the chance to break into top four on the expense of their north London neighbours and rivals Arsenal. Gareth Southgate is a good boss. Chelsea and ManU kick off their campaign later today and they would do good by starting off the season with a negative goal difference :D Thats what I am hoping anyways. I expect both of them to win their opening fixture. Its a straight forward prediction on paper. But then, the game is not played on paper. We shall see, fingers crossed.

With most of the analysts, moron pundits and bloggers over the Internet writing us off even before the first ball was kicked, Arsenal virtually have no pressure to deliever. Its an irony that all these people are discounting an Arsene Wenger side. You can never discount an side whose in-charge is Arsene. He wears a magic hat. I planned to do an analysis of Arsenal's chances but instead boring readers with all kinds os details, I will just copy paste contents of an email I sent to Espn's Football Focus the other day. Its a great show, with good analysis, at time a bit anti-Arsenal but enjoyable nonetheless. And I love the anchor Jhon Dykes. He conducts the whole show so well.

Wenger is uncomfortable handling big guns? Arsenal to fail?

From: Muntazir Mehdi (muntazironline@hotmail.com)

Sent: Saturday, 16 August 2008 9:27:09 AM

To: footballfocus@espnstar.com

It was really disappointing to hear from Mr. McMahon that Arsene Wenger cannot handle big names. They way Mr. McMahon kept repeating this in football focus and then in football forecast, it made me wonder if he has only started observing Arsenal for last 2-3 seasons. I mean come on! get your eyes open and see. Tony Adams, Steve Bould, Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry they all had fairly long runs under Arsene Wenger and with these superstars he won two doubles!! a season unbeaten in the league and a few more FA Cups. Just because Arsene has not signed a big name player does not mean he cannot handle the big guys. And then he says in Football Forecast that none of the big name players would like to join Arsenal because they will not be winning anything for 4th year now. How do you say that!

Let me explain. He says Arsenal are weaker this year than last year. Did you for an instance try to analyse it realistically. Arsenal only lost one player in the real sense and that is Hleb. lehman and gilberto virtually did not play the whole of last season. Hleb is now replaced by Nasri who has played 4 seasons and has had 150 plus league appearances for Marseille. He is just as good as Hleb technically and he can score goals for a change. With Ramsey signed from under the nose of redNose it was a great pleasure for the fans. Arsene says he will sign another experienced midfielder before UCL qualifier home leg. As for Flamini, he was free to sign with any club. Milan used that to their advantage and the the transfer that they would have paid had Flamini been under contract, they added that to player's wages. Arsenal could not match that and however good a player Flamini those wages would have been unjust considering the wage structure at the club. And to put the record straight Arsenal's wage bill is almost exactly as that of United and certainly more than his beloved Liverpool. You can't say that Arsene pays his kids less.

Seriously review Arsenal's squad and tell me that they cant improve on last year when horrific injuries and stupid refereeing cost them more than 10 points if not more.
Had Taylor not broke Eduardo's leg and referee not given a stupid penalty Arsenal would have went 8 points clear that day at Birmingham. Had Drogba been booked when he scored  the equalizer at Chelsea v Arsenal and took his shhirt off and then booked again for diving into the crowd, I am not convinced Chelsea would have won that game with ten men. Had Patrice Evra not dived, and referee not awarded a free kick, Heargreaves would not have scored the winner at old trafford. Not to mention the UCL ties where Liverpool were taught how to play football yet the referees got key penalty decisions wrong. Peters why did you forsake us? :( List goes on when Arsenal were hard done by. Point is that you don't get unlucky with injuries and stupid refereeing every season. So its unfair to write Arsenal off like he does season in season out.

Ok, Mr. McMahon is entitled to his opinion and I respect that but this is really disrespectful to the great man. Last season he said Arsenal wont be in top 4. And I emailed then and said that Arsenal might even pip his beloved liverpool and they did. I say that again this year. If Arsenal finish behind Liverpool I will kiss a goat. Otherwise Mr. Mcmahon should eat his very own hat. If you heaven't learnt anything in the past 10-12 years, learn this. Never discount an Arsene Wenger side. And him saying that Arsenal fans are desperate to win trophies and that wenger needs to deliever otherwise fans would question him and blah blah..

Let me tell you something as an Arsenal fan. Arsene Knows! And he wears a magic hat. And in Arsene we trust!

I just wanted to register the opinion of Arsenal fans here and I hope the panel can live with that. If I have been harsh I apologise but seriously Mr Mcmahon can at times do more with respecting Arsenal, Arsene and the fans. I really felt hurt when he was repeatedly saying "He cannot handle big names", hence this email. Thanks for reading all this, I really appreciate it.
Cheers
Muntazir Mehdi
Islamabad, Pakistan

So now on a note of positive anticipation and good will I leave you here praying that finally this is one of the years for Arsene Wenger's red and white army.

Till next time..

Finally I get the time to write yet another blog post. If you have been waiting, I am sorry. I know this lapse in posting is annoying for my already very few regular readers. Maybe I need to learn more about time managment.

So I am finally at the company where I first appeared for the interview back in April. Its a bigger company than the previous one. Much nearer to my home. For the first week or so I was commuting via local transport. It meant I had to take a walk of 5-6 Km each day because local transport did not cover the exact suburb where my office is located. Now I commute via cab along with another one of my co-wokers who happens to live near my place. Its much less hectic now. I can now get up at 8 in the morning and be at office at 9. Office closes at 6 PM and I am usually home by 6:30 PM. It feels great to reach home and know that still sun hasn't set yet. Although its a matter of days now when winter arrives. But still 6:30 PM is very early as compared to the previous job. Food and the dining area at the new place is quite good. Much much better than the previous place. Coworkers are nice people, at times a little reserve but thats how it feels like at the beginning in a new place. Big thanks to Arbab bhai, one of my seniors from university  who also works here. He has been really helpful and motivational. Work in itself is going fine. Its not too difficult and since I am new, they are not putting me under a lot of pressure. With time I am confident I will adjust good and integrate really well. Future looks bright.

Not much else to say really. In the next post I plan to do a complete preview of new football season. So you can look forward to a much lengthier post and hopefully it is going to be tonight.

Till then..

Its been so long, its hard to remember the exact dates of the events that I am going to mention in this post. But have to start from some where so here I go.

You must be wondering what the devil this topic really means. Superlatives that come from the name of the man that is Cesc Fabregas should not be a surprise nowadays and indeed not in the coming decade too. Last month or so has been fabulous fabregas for both me in many ways as well as for our very own Cesc. For the first time in years I saw a football team that won a major trophy and that in beautiful style, deserving every bit of it. Yeah, I'm talking about Euro 2008 and Spain's victoy. They deserved it through and through especially Cesc whose inspirational performances translated a lot into Spain's victories in the tournament. It was great to see a victorious smile on Cesc's face and I hope he can win something with Arsenal too.

Talking about Arsenal, this has been one of the worst silly seasons ever. Dont want to talk about it too much. Long awaited transfer of Samir Nasri touted as the next zidane, finally happened. Alex Hleb left for Barcelona and then spoke all type of sh*te about the club. Adebayor was too noisy about his demands for a better contract and earned nothing but fan's disrespect. No pay rise, no new deal, no move to barca or milan. Arseblogger summed up his situation relaly well

So Adebayor may find himself in the very uncomfortable position of having agitated all summer for a move away from Arsenal but with nobody out there to buy him. Interestingly El Mundo run a story saying Barcelona want to sign a 'mega crack' (superstar) with the money raised by the sales of Ronaldinho and Eto'o but Adebayor's name is not mentioned at all. Another article says that Barcelona fans would prefer to keep Eto'o than spend money on Adebayor. Ooooops. Egg on face, tail between legs, and Mr Unpopular with the fans. That's a good summer's work for a player who should have just kept his fucking mouth shut and thought about his career rather than his retirement.

Players have started pre-season training and have also played a few friendly games. Tougher pre-season games are coming up in the form of Stuttgart, Emirates Cup and the Amsterdam Tournament. Should be a nice and healthy warm up for the lads and should put them into the right shape for season starter on 12/13th August, the champions League 3rd round qualifier. I am really excited to see Samir Nasri and Carlos Vela in action. They are great prospects. Go Arsenal!

On 26th of June my three months with the company were completed. It made me eligible for recieving a stipend worth Rs 18,000 from PSEB (Pakistan Software Export Board) I applied for the stipend but I am still to recieve my cheque. They say the process of fund releasing is complex and it involves my papers moving to ministry of science and technoloy and blah blah.. Before this I worked for a govt. University for two weeks in February I am also yet to recieve my cheque from there. In total, Govt. of Pakistan owes me around 22,000 Rs. now [:D]

On 28th of June I opened a PLS savings account in MCB (Muslim Commercial Bank) near my living place. On the same day I applied for a new PTCL landline telephone connection. Since the other landline fone at home is official (through my father's office) I was unable to get a broadband connection on that line. Hence the new application. It took two weeks for them to install and activate the new telephone line. Once I had that, I applied for PTCL broadband DSL on 12th July. Sadly, on 14th July all the PTCL workers went on strike. Finally today they ended their strike and when I enquired today, they tell me that it would take 2-4 days and my broadband will be done. Apparently it will be really helpfull when there is no tv channels in Pakistan telecasting a live match of Arsenal, also it will help me talk to the relatives and friends abroad for free. Downloads are always fun to do :)

Quite an unprecedented incident happened at the office last week. It involved junaid and one of our female co-workers at the office. I really hope she never reads this because it may be kind of awkward for her to read. Junaid and that girl have been working on a project together for last two months and fair play to junaid, he has done the most amount of work on that project. He even did her share's work for her. Then one day when Junaid was busy with working on a module that was actually responsibility of the girl, she told the boss that my work is finished and its only bcz of junaid that project hasnt finished because his work is pending (well actually these were not her exact words but gist of her conversation was this). junaid tols the boss that I will complete it very soon. junaid was absoloutly livid with her. But instead of saying anything to her he opened my msn window and talked off his frustrations. Its not a good thing but me and junaid have named almost every one in the office. Incidently her name happened to be one of the most hillarious ones. In the msn, instead of mentioning her real name, junaid mentioned her alias that we use for her in private. it is said that the moments of rage are often the moments of madness as well. That was not my chat window. Junaid had accidently opened the chat window of that same co worker he was talking about and sent all that rubbish to her. That was unexpected, uncomfortable and downright hillarious. Since that day that girl has talked very minimal with everyone at the office. Every cloud has a silver lining and silver lining with this incident was that Junaid no longer has to leave his seat every 10 minutes to assist someone in solving a trivial problem, someone who is at a higher wage than Junaid himself.

In the first week of July I was assigned a new project. It was the type of work more related to documentation than programming, something that is boring and uncomfortable to work with. Still I put my head down and started working on it, it was boring to the core. Then one day, when I was extreemly bored in the office, I was starring at my monitor, my elbow on the table and my hand on my cheek. A msn alert popped up saying you ahve recieved a new email message from xyz person. To read that name I was surprised and I was surprised further to read the contens of the email. Apparently I had got a job at Ultimus. A job that I had applied a few months ago and untill that time, I had almost forgotten about it. To work for a company such as Ultimus, it is a privellege and only a lucky few get to work in this company. I never needed a single moment to think about leaving the current job. I was leaving for Ultimus the moment I read that email. Only drawback was that I was leaving the company of my beloved and very good friend Junaid who also has to do that boring project now. I signed the official contract this monday will be joining on August 01. The icing on the cake is that my travel time to work place will now be reduced to only 30 minutes (before it was two hours) and my salary will be more than the double of the previous one. Boy! Life's Good!

Just 2-3 days before getting this new job, I had opened a new bank accoint in NIB bank just next to the office. Too bad it lasted only a week :D I think now that I am no longer the part of that Office I should not write the details of how a co-worker spoiled three plates of biryani just out of nothing. What I have written just now should be enough to remind me of the incident in the future. It was a disgrace really.

I would like to pay a mini tribute to my now ex-employers here for being kind cooerative and understanding with me during my short stay at the company. Especially the boss who, in my opinion is one of a kind. A true gentelman and one who deserves so much good things for his nice and gentle attitude toward the entire human race. May God bless him and his company with happiness and all the success in the world.

With much more money now at my disposal and a very respectable job, a thousand thoughts have already crossed my mind. One of them is my lifelong dream of owning a beetle car :D Yeah, you heard me right, its wiered but that is how it is. Other wishes have been quite random, some good and some not so good. I pray to God that he gives the right kind of wisdom to use that money and keeps my feet firmly on the ground. Money is a tough tests and most people do not withstand it. I hope God has given me the resources to ward off the evil temptations.

I felt proud when I came to know that another one of my friends has now read Angels and Demons and liked it quite a bit. The Da Vinci Code is next. "And the end is near" :D

till next time..