Should I do it ?

My coaching stint in Shanghai will end soon. It might be the complete end of my stint here or it will just be a brief one as I may return. Its all depending on how things work. My wife's contract is up after our 7 years adventure in Shanghai and frankly speaking its tough to leave after all these years of my involvement in the football scene here.

Everything is so connected. The club, the friends, the players, the routine...it will be a big adjustment for me once I'm back to Malaysia. As I have mention previously in my blog post, I have always wanted to promote our Malaysian young local players to be notice in an international level tournament. It will always be my goal, and this might be a chance for me to do it, but then should I take the risk ? Its no one man task. I know as I was involve on the day 1 of starting QiLin FC.

I do always ask myself...should I do it ? I have options to stay in Shanghai and continue what I do here. Or I can always coach for another club back home in Malaysia. Or even I can find a 9-5 job to support the family ( I seriously do not want to do this ). Why should I take a risk to promote local football where it may fail. I might be thinking negatively here but its a fact that starting my own football club is a huge huge task.

First, I need to find a group of people that I can trust, people that can complete their task when they are ask to. And that is difficult. So lets say I have found them. Then I will need a venue. If I don't own a venue, yeah I can always rent them. But by committing half of your budget to rental fees, this officially will make the club screaming for registration fees. And by that, quality of players maybe sacrifice in order to achieve the monetary target. OK..lets say now I have found a person that is willing to invest in a facility. And that I think should kickstart the club but then how am I gonna change the mentality of our Malaysian parents ? If I found a gem of a player, will the family willing to part ways with him in order for the player to achieve his experience overseas ? There are just too much unanswered questions but still to be honest I WANT TO GIVE IT A SHOT if given a chance.

As at now, I don't have the financial capacity to take the risk unless someone come forward. Ministry of Sports maybe..?? Hopefully...

So my options are

1) Come back to Shanghai once I have everything sorted out back home

2) Coach for a Malaysian club ( expat base ). This is because I have not seen any local clubs that are doing the right thing a football club should do

3) Take the risk...start my own youth football academy

3)

Warriors found in Singapore !

I brought my boys to participate in the ANZA International Football tournament last week and it turn out to be one of the best tourney I have been to. Although my boys did not win the championship, but they show character, passion and a never say die attitude.

On the 1st day of the tournament, we did not really play well. Hard to fault the boys as it is a big difference between playing 7 aside football and 11 aside football. In Shanghai, our league matches are on a 7 aside basis. Game play is always on short passing and since its half field, movement on the pitch is little. When we play in the 11 aside tournament in Singapore, our style of play makes it a little bit difficult to penetrate the opponents defense. In these 11 aside game, short passing is ok but there must be movement all around including off the ball movement which we are not used to.

We manage to scrap two 1-0 victory against the host teams and in the meaningless final group game, we lost 4-1. In the cup competition, we lost the 1st game 2-0 against CUKI from Thailand and drew 1-1 against Arsenal Football School. Although there are improvement in our play, but it is still not enough and I decided to do some changes on the next day. What I need now is a midfielder that can spray long balls for our forward to chase on.

On the 2nd day, we are up against another host team. We beat them 2-0 and played some great football. The test came when we are up against International Soccer Academy. Strongest team in the tournament and eventually they are the champions. We made a bad mistake in the early minutes and are down 1-0. But wow..my boys reaction is absolutely spot on. My boys fought back like losing is not an option. We manage to create some chances and eventually we concede in the last minute as we are pushing for the equalizer but I'll have to say although we lost 2-0, this is the best game my boys played during the tournament.

On our last Cup game, we lost 2-1 to Putra FC. Ar finalist in the tournament tat played ISA. We are 1-0 up but due to inexperience, we concede 2 goals in the last 5 minutes. A good lesson for the boys to learn on not to rush the play while you are leading with 5 minutes to go.

Now hopefully the boys understand why some teams are slow in throw ins, some coach makes last minute substitution, why some players suddenly drop down injured...these are all steps to cool down the opponents when they are all over you and trying to get the goal.

I'll have to say I'm pretty proud of my boys achievement on coming in 5th place in the tourney. The heat and getting used to 11 aside football is no easy task...but my boys fought hard..really hard. And I'm sure they did not fight hard for me or for themselves...they fought hard for their parents. On the 2nd day, before the our 1st match I told the boys you are not playing for yourself or for the team anymore, YOU ARE PLAYING FOR YOUR PARENTS...FOR THE SACRIFICE THAT THEY HAVE MADE TO BRING YOU HERE. I think that quote manage to raise the boy's game. I have never seen them work so hard in Shanghai and for parents of these boys..I thank them for allowing them to become a WARRIOR in my U12 team.

" Now win it for your parents eh !! "

On my personal view, ANZA tournament brought my boys closer together. They fought hard for each other. Also is brings the parents closer together as well and for me, there is a bond between me and the boys now. A strong bond...I'm all motivated to win something with these boys..and I know I will.

Charlie, Sebastian, Joe, Oliver, Toby, Lance, Max, Coach Wan

Kieran, Ola, Nicholas, Jacob, Spencer, David Gu

Now thats a bit arrogant

While doing my rounds on the cyber world, I came upon this local club in Malaysia. They called themselves a club that will provide football education but this quote on their website regarding on " Starting your own football club " does tick me off.

Title : Opening Your Football Academy

You think people will join your academy because of your name? Do you have any background in football? Who qualify you to work on your own? What are your objective, mission and vision? You just want to make money? By the way, what is your experience? How about knowledge, skills and management skills? What is your expertise? Have you done the market research? How much do you want to invest? You think your ‘A’ License is good enough? Ok. You are famous before, Sorry what is your name again? The truth is, we had tried to believe people like you before, sorry to say, however… why not?

Look at this guy. What? You have been with FAM and few states F.A before? Ok. So what? Are you a risk taker? What is your product packaging and services? What about representation? Do you think FAM can support you? What? You are jobless now? How many students you expect? How much you going to charge your students?

Sorry bro, where are you going to open your office? With whom you want to register your academy? Or you just want to be like most football academies, they don’t have office at all. Some of them operate in school, collecting money with nothing to promise! Most of them did not provide any receipts for payment!

Who is going to coach? How about you? How many players can you coach within 2 hours program? Where is your field? You know what? There are cases where school teacher think that the school field is their own property, not the public. What? You have got a politician behind you, so GOOD LUCK!

Tired of operating on your own? Or, want to give a try?

Now lets begin, first of all the about the above quotes. No doubt some of the questions are spot on. Stuff that you need to know when you start a football club, but still I found the way of this club sending this info out is pure arrogant. More or less like " We can do it right, you can't "

Then I begin to search for answers if they are that good. First thing I found out on this club website is they don't train regularly. From what I see is they only train once a week in multiple locations. I don't know what is their set up, but I will only comment on what kind of info I found from their website. Now come on..training only once a week ?? What does the players get ? We all know practices makes perfect ! So you train once a week and have multiple locations for your activities...I smell money making machine. Doubt they even care about improving the boys as training once a week just does not cut it.

Hopefully this club have a separate program that trains regularly and if not, I felt bad for these parents buying into this club goals and missions.

Then on this quote taken from above "What? You have got a politician behind you, so GOOD LUCK!"

I found out that the founder of this club is a Chief of Youth Movement in a certain political party AKA he is a politician..so yeah..Good Luck.

Its just sad to see our local Malaysian youth don't have any channels to improve themselves, to showcase themselves. No doubt there are some good youth development football clubs in KL, but mostly are targeting expats and wealthy local boys that can pay. And the price is just impossible for these parents of lower and middle income youth players to pay.

Me personally would like to change things, but its beyond my capacity. I have stated many times, in order to run a proper football academy for the locals, the 1st thing I need to have is my own football facility. That way, the club won't be relying on fees to survive as with its own facility, it can generate incomes through other means. Investors..anyone???

Then, we need to change the mindset of the parents why they should allow their boys to pursue a career in football. The list go on...

Certainly its hard work, but if I have the capacity to do it, I will as I believe many of our local boys have talents.

Who is at fault ?

First of all, this is not a blame game. This is a topic that I would like to discuss and see if there are any solutions.

I would like to touch on who is at fault if a youth player fail to progress or even losing interest completely in football. This is a situation that do really happen to talented youth players. During my playing days with PKNP, I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by very very talented players but they have not made it to the pro level which is a big loss for the development of football. So who is at fault ?

Parents ? Maybe, just maybe. I take an example for myself. To be honest, my parents did not fully support me during my youth playing days. My dad does come out and watch me play sometimes, but thats about it. He never really try to find me a better club to train with, never really comment on my game although I know my dad was a good player before. My mom, she was the worst as most of the typical Asian moms. For them, football has no future and study is the main priority. Lacking parents support I think does affect the growth of a potential player. Comparing to my mate, Chan Wing Hong, his dad drive him every single day to train with a club full of ex pros. And that actually makes a big difference as he is definitely well ahead of me by training with a group of experience players at a young age. He went on to play for Perak, Malaysia and currently still plying his trades in M-League.

I was lucky enough to be spotted during the PKNP football clinic. Thats where I got my offer to play for PKNP youth team and indirectly put me together with the current youth state team players as at that time, all but me in the PKNP squad was from the SM Gunung Rapat Football Project School. Being presented a chance to train with the best did keep me interested in football and I started to progress from there. I wonder what will happen if I was not spotted at the first place. I might not even play football anymore.

Support from parents are really important, but that comes with a limit. If its not checked, it can easily turn into pressure for the youth player. To to release the pressure, that potential player might give up on football all together.

Enough of the parents, how about the youth club system ? We all know back in Malaysia, youth football development is very poor especially for our local boys. No doubt there are many youth clubs back home, but how many are properly set up. I have surveyed a few local clubs in Malaysia that in my opinion is not doing enough. Many of those only train Saturday and Sunday. We all know practices makes perfect and how on earth these youth players can progress by only training on the weekends. If a player got selected for the District or State, yes they do train everyday but how long is the season ? We all know youth football season for district and state level in Malaysia is short. Where do they go after that ? Back to club football that train on weekends ? Also out of millions of youths in Malaysia, only a handful will be selected for the districts and state, what happen to those that have potential to improve ? Club football that train on weekends ? No way they can catch up with these better skill players.

Another problem for a youth football club is, grouping talented players together with other players that are not on par with them. A talented player if put together with a so so player, that talented player will not train as hard. I can guarantee that !! That talented player's progress will be stunted as he does not need to train hard in order to get into the starting line up. He knows he will play no matter what. It will be a different case if this talented player is group together with players of his same level. He will need to fight hard to gain a place in the team. He will have to battle. And by this, that talented player will continue his progress to be a better player.

Grouping of different level players in a same team happens as all youth clubs needs to make certain amount of money. And I am not talking about profit. I am talking about the cost of running a youth football club. Field rentals, coaches salary, administration fees, jerseys, equipments, setting up matches and the list goes on. The cost of running a youth football club is massive. This indirectly makes the club needs to take all level of players interested in joining the club. If not, there is no way a youth club can survive unless that youth club has its own field or having a lot of sponsors thus enabling them to choose the best. If not, that youth club can't afford to turn away players that did not make the grade as every fees paid by a player helps the club to survive.

So..who is at fault ?

Dreams come true eh...

This is a funny one.

31 Malaysians, 25 of them are winners of the Mister Potato Man U vs Liverpool contest went to Old Trafford to watch the historic match. I would say half of them must be Man U fans. Historic as in we ( Liverpool ) stuff them 4-1.

The first paragraph of this article have me cracking up

DREAMS do come true. Where better to realise it than at the Theatre of Dreams — at Old Trafford and watching Manchester United playing arch rivals Liverpool in an English Premier League match

Read Full Article here

Yeah rite, Theater of Dreams... dreams come true eh , to watch your team hammered 4-1 at home. For Man U fans, lucky enough to win the contest, but not lucky enough to make this a memorable one. But for Liverpool fans that won the contest, what a trip you guys have there !!

Walk on !! and Dream On..

He is a bit Special

During my association with QiLin FC, I have encountered many many talents. But there are only a few that really caught my eye. One of them is Willy Thompson.

Born is Detroit, Michigan on January 1995, he makes his debut for QiLin FC in 27th January 2007. That is the first time I saw him play and its against our biggest rivals in Shanghai, AKS.

After that game, this is what I have to say on one of my blogs in a forum, written on 27th Jan 2007

" Today is also a debut for a kid just sign with our club..His name is Willy..and is a great great addition to my squad..Strong midfield player.have a good technique in hitting the ball...and also his vision of the game is really good..and to cap off the perfect debut..he scored a cracker...Brilliant stuff "

Fast forward, 2009. Indeed my view of him as a good player is totally correct. Spot on ! He is currently playing for the QiLin FC U14 team and also a team mate of mine in the Senior Team.

He is also a part of the U12 and U14 Championship team that is unbeaten in the Shanghai International Youth League.

Click Here for his full profile

At his age, he is at a very important stage. In my playing days, I have seen many great talents drop out from football. He will need all the guidance, all the support in order to progress well. And besides that, I do hope our own football system will not hamper his progress. I will touch on that later on in my coming article.

And we still have a few young talents from the club that looks like will dominate their age group such as Nicholas De Vriese, wing wizard for the U12 team, Kosuke Namekata from Japan, 10 years old, currently playing in the U12 team and Charlie Thompson, another talented U12 player.

If you are in Singapore on the 24th April 2009, you can catch our young talents in action during the ANZA International Football Tournament.

Hattrick of good news !

First of all, I am a big big Liverpool fan, so me blog gotta have some Liverpool news in it.

First off, we beat the mighty Real Madrid 4-0 at Anfield. Not that mighty anymore.

Second, we stuff 4 past the Mancs at and this is a sweet one. Long time coming..

And the third one, news just in earlier today that Rafa has signed the extension of his contract that will keep him at Liverpool till 2014. With Rick Parry departing, I would say Rafa will have total control in bringing players in. Villa, Silva, Barry..the name goes on. We need these players in order to win the Premiership. No doubt about it.

Picture courtesy of Liverpoolfc.tv

Here is what Rafa have to say after signing the extension

"My heart is with Liverpool, so I'm delighted to sign this new deal," said Benítez, whose reign has yielded a European Cup and an FA Cup.

"I love the club, the fans and the city, and with a club like this and supporters like this, I could never say no to staying. I always made clear I wanted to be here for a long time, and when I complete my new contract it will mean I have spent over a decade in Liverpool. The club is greatly respected around the world due to its incredible history and tremendous heritage. It is my aim to uphold those values and help create a new chapter in our history. Throughout this process, I would like to thank the owners for their hard work in finalising the deal. All of us at the club want the same thing, which is to be successful by winning major trophies."

This is fantastic news for all supporters of Liverpool. I know there are doubters out there, but I do believe Rafa is the man to bring the Premiership back to Anfield. In Rafa we trust

I'm here...This is my story

I came to Shanghai back in 2002 following my wife as she was posted here. I was clueless at first on what I am gonna do. Since I still play football competitively, 1st thing I search for is a football club. Back home, I was still playing for the Ipoh District Senior team and during my teens, I have been with Sri Tahan FC in Ipoh League and also played for PKNP from U15 to U21.

After a few months here, I have found my team Shanghai Lions. At first, and to be honest I was crap. I just can't keep up with the physical and speed of the game. But slowly I manage to adjust myself and became an important part of the team winning a few tournaments such as Beijing International Tournament, Hang Zhou International tournament and also a few league titles in Shanghai. And with Shanghai Lions, my football journey here in Shanghai begins.

From this team I have known a few players that has been playing pro before and actively involve in youth coaching and by 2003 I was coaching youth football with High5 Activities Club.

It is more on recreational football and nothing serious in it.

Fast forward, summer of 2006 me and a few other coaches decided to go ahead on setting up a proper youth football club. QiLin FC was born. Read here QiLin FC History

Between 2003 - 2006, I have gain lots of experience working together with these experience coaches. Their approach of the game is much much more better. Valuable experience money can't buy !! I started of with the Under 12 team sponsored by Tourism Malaysia

By mid 2007, my boys won the Shanghai International Youth Football League U12 division. We manage to finish top of the league by winning all our matches. No draw..no lost..all wins.

Awesome achievement from the boys !!

We did not do too well in international tournaments anyway especially the one in Malaysia where we lost in the quarter finals.

By the summer of 2007, I was asked to coach the U14 team. I take it as some of my U12 boys will be moving up to the age group and this is a new challenge as well for myself. I manage to get together a strong group for the U14 squad and again we won the Shanghai International Youth Football League U14 division unbeaten again. Massive achievement from the boys and I am keeping my 100% unbeaten record in the league. We finished as runners-up in the AKSIL International Tournament, 3rd place Shanghai Cup and 4th place in Little League Malaysia International Tournament.

Currently I am coaching the U12 again as the club said they need a much much more technical coach for the boys. Well, I take it as a challenge although deep down inside me, I am gutted to leave my U14 boys. These boys has been with me since the start of the club and one of them have progressed really well which I will put up in my blog later.