The English Premier League this season

The English Premier League kicked off this August with a lot of expectations . Spurs had brought a huge number of players and that all of the expectations were on them to give everyone a big fight . On the other front the top four had also purchased much required armory of their own
Liverpool bringing in a couple of new faces in Robbie Keane ,Andrea Dossena and the Swiss right back Phillip Degan . Robbie Keane being the pick of the transfers valued at around 20 million pounds .
The Champions brought in Dimitar Berbatov from Spurs landing the bulgarian at his dream club, the club also brought the likes of Manucho and a few other players !
Chelsea got the best bargain trasfer when Portuguese Deco was trasferred at a low cost price of 9 million pounds ..Roman knows how to get his players . I mean for such a quality player of Deco s calibre one would expect a large sum . The also brought the Jose Bosingwa who playes for Portugal . Scolari brought in in place of grant also changed the style of play chelsea played for the past couple of seasons .There would surely be some samba magic coming with Scolari adapting to the Brazillian style of play that won them the world cup in 2002.
Arsenal who have got one of the best youth systems of the world brought in French wonderkid Samir Nasri from French side Marseille !
But by far the biggest story of the new season was the takeover of Manchester City by a rich Arab ! That paved the way for Robinho s trasfer for a record 32 million pounds..
Robinho who was the transfer target for chelsea joined the blue side of Manchester , and with the City aiming to be one of the biggest clubs in the country the move of Robinho had come at the right time !

The season started on the high for all the big four clubs except for Manchester United who drew with Newcastle on day 1 . The rest of the teams strolled throught their fixtures !
Liverpool had lady luck with them , not for a one or two times but far from many times !
They showed their fighting character that that won them the champions league title in 2005 when they had defeated AC milan on penalties in Istanbul . The came behind numerous number of times to beat their opposition!
On the other hand Manchester United had problems drawing again against Everton and losing out the LIVERPOOL in a great match which saw United taking the lead but lost out in the end !
Liverpool found themselves top of the league but had Chelsea for company who strolled through wins on all fronts !
Arsenal were a bit dissappointing losing out a lot of games in the start !
but now they have got their season back on track with a victory over United !
Liverpool also beat Chelsea 1-0 at the bridge !
but lost out to resurgent Tottenham Hotspur .!!
hull city have been the surprise package of the season and are now 6th in the league .. They have played fantastic football and have gained inspiration from Brazillian Geovanni !

Well its jst the start of the league right now but i am willing to put my money on few of the teams here in the league .!
For starters i ll put my money on Chelsea because i think they will not lost points . They are strong team in all the departments and their bench strength is the best of all the clubs .
Liverpool are unexpectable . One day they play flawless football while on the other any team can beat them with ease !

Manchester United have a lot of work to do and i think catchin up with chelsea would be a very difficult job and as far are Arsenal are concerned i think they still have a couple of seasons more before they can mount a reasonable challenge for the championship !
Well we will see how this works out now and i ll update this post as soon as the season gets over !
MY BET TO WIN THE TITLE ARE CHELSEA
AND THE TOP SCORER TO BE FERNANDO TORRES
!!!!

The Environment : Are we losing it!?

This is one of the topics that have always been debated about and i have very strong concerns about it . Therefore i would like to start this topic off by a poem written by myself

The Environment "Man"handled :
Along the valley lies this beautiful place .

.full of natural beauty and grace

birds twitter on the barks of the tree the sun shines cloud free

animals roaming about their land

God made this earth with his beautiful hands

but wait he made someone that was more powerful than them

someone that could use the tree from the bark to the stem

someone who could rule

someone who could make stone turn to fuel

oh !! what was happening here

the mother earth was disappointed and full of fear

all of her creations were near extinction

and people were getting notorious with distinction

man wanted everything his

so he decided to hurt nature like this

but as the saying goes ..what u sow so shall u reapin

a few years time every man would be in his eternal sleep ..

Well that is what is going to happen in a few years. ! Well its not only our country that is facing this problem of environmental pollution but i must stress on the point that as five fingers make a fist similarly all the countries making together and acting right now could make a tremendous difference in our lives , say after a few decades . Well we read in the newspapers daily that some or the other glacier has melted or some or the other sea has gone dry . Famines , Floods. Well what is happening here we think and this thought is only for a second because after that the thought would come when we experience it . Well most of the Nashikites have got the experience of feeling the crunch of environmental problems . The power cuts which occur not only here but different parts of the states are giving people a hard time . Well i must say there are lot of reasons behind this problem but the main problem that the country might be facing would be poverty . Well nothing can be done to eradicate it completely in a short span of time and as the saying goes ' Rome was not built in a day' , we should also give the governers more time . Well the main thing about poverty is that people do not know about the environment until they are educated , and persons living in poverty cannot think of education as he has to fulfill the 3 basic needs of his family . So all he can do is to make his children work so that they can make a little sum of money ! ! . On opposite to this i must surely like to mention the advanced countries in the world ,where there is litte povertry . I must say in such advanced countries , scientists conducting experiments for making their countries proud and trying to make a name for themselves have just completely destroyed the environment . With so much of knowledge , they are doing no good to the environment by performing scientific experiments on the environment !

Well , agreed that there is always a need for development as man is a thinking animal and thinking takes him to those regions which are unexplored ! Well even if thinks a little about the environment i think that would give us a few more decades to live !

I must also make the point about surviving in the world after a few decades . With oxygen masks and alternative methods to breath , it would be hard to imagine that there used to be something called as trees a few decades back . Imagine such absurd things are surely not out of question.There are lot of things that are left to be answered! Environmentalists are also out of ideas on how to curb this kind of usage of resources so mercillesly by man!

It is like if you want a house here and if there are a few trees here , there would be no harm to clear the tree and that person would be happy what a great house he has ! But one thing he doesnt know is that the number of trees he has cut is a step in is own coffin !

people want houses that have the shade of the trees the quiteness of the villages and no pollution for that matter !! There is nothing that is left here now ! Whatever is left is for this generation to survive ! Its a matter of thought that requires a lot of thinking and planning !

Optimism is not a bad thing,but thinking that everything would be all right in the coming decades is just going to prove fatal to us !!

The conclusion : Are we losing the plot ?

I say we have already lost it ! With no entrepreuners coming forward to invest in ideas of a green future , the future seems dark with no light ! ( i literally mean no light because there would be no electricity) . The tunnel is dark with no end, the only thing that can save us now is the timely use of all the resources and proper management !

because if this continues , we may not be able to continue in the coming decades ,

Ajay Bhat

World Soccer in Comparison to India

You peep into any modern home and you will find teenage people watching soccer , wearing jerseys of their favourite stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lio Messi . Worshipping them as God , trying to play like them when they next kick the football . All these youngsters know that they have the ability to play the game and believe me some really have it , they would not like to play for the country. Ask any teenager or for that matter any football fan in India where he would want to play his soccer if he was given a chance, the answer would be prominent. He would surely say that he would love to go and play for clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool ,Arsenal and many more, but ask them about the players of their state teams and they will start laughing at you , asking you whether there actually is a domestic team of the state or for that matter asking you whether you yourself know the players there . You look like a country in Nigeria that has such talent and potential . We see loads of african players apply their trades in the big leagues in the world .They dont have that infrastructure, they dont have the amenities but still they practice and give it their best shot . In such countries these players become God for the younger generation, you look at Michael Essien , the Ghanian captian,who plays for a big club like Chelsea. He is one of the best players of the club. With a country such as Ghana whose size is not even comparable to the size of our country produces stars such as him, Why can't India do the same ?. Well this question has been asked so many times on television that now it has become a big issue , but yes , the question makes sense . In such a country like ours with so many young Indians watching the game of soccer why can't we produce a Leo Messi or a Ronaldo for the matter . I know that the game of cricket is like a religion to India but for such a huge country like ours is creating one wonderkid such a hard option .

You look at a nation like Australia, they were nowhere in the soccer world for the past decade , when the qualified for the soccer world cup in 2002 , the results were bad and then the federation decided that they would add even more funds to get quality players.. And yes they have suceeded, they reached the quarter finals of the 2006 world cup where the lost to Italy on penalties, is' nt that enough for motivation? . Well moreover they noticed that not any of the Australian clubs featured in the higher rounds of the AFC cup , which is equivalent to the UEFA champions league in Europe,and again they decided that the money should be put in in nurturing talent . and look the results have flown in with the local club such as Adelaide United reaching the finals, it is different story that they lost in the finals 3-0 to Gamba Osaka, but the kind of determination they showed in reaching the finals was just enthralling .
Now we have Australians in the top leagues in the world . Players such as Tim Cahill playing for Everton , Brett Emerton playing for Blackburn,Lucas Neill for West Ham and also players such as Mark Bresciano playing for a team such as Palermo . Well these players have made their mark for their club as well as country. This shows that if the right kind of approach and the right kind of attitude is shown there is nothing that the AIFF cannot achieve . Being a soccer fan myself suggesting measures for development of the game in India is an easy job , but for the implementation of a sport where the Indian supporters are themselves are supporting clubs of the other nations is a tuf job . Everyone in this country wants to become a cricketer,a doctor, an engineer , a politician for that matter , but soccer is untouched territory of the youth . There is not enough money say a lot of people ! but my view is that what would we do of money if the people are only not interested in playing this game for their country. And as far as money is concerned many footballers in India earn quite a sum of money , take for that matter Sunil Chettri , he earns around 35 lakhs a year , now that is quite a big sum of money and now he is attracting attention of clubs such as Leeds united who once had players such Rio Ferdinand, Nicky Barmby, Alan Smith, Mark Viduka !! Though they play in the lower leagues i think he is going to set a benchmark for the people of India to come and play the game of soccer .

I also specially want to mention the crowds of the country! Well no one is interested in watching a game of soccer in India apart from a few states of Kolkata and Goa . Well you see games on television and you really do not come to know whether it is a practice match going on ? . Such is the support ! Well if the supporters do come out in large number the crowds do influence a lot of results as we have seen in stadiums such as Anfield and Old Trafford .!!
People only look at profit while investing money and not at the creativity and the passion one can have in the game of soccer ! while people are investing millions and millions to the game of cricket and a sport such as formula one , i think Indian football still has a long long way to go !!!!
such a long way that i may not be in the world when we see the next leo messi or the next Ronaldo from this holy land of ours ! But the dream always remains of going to a packed stadium in India and watching a great game of soccer and believing that India will surely be the next big thing is soccer in the coming generations .

Ajay Bhat