This is more like an open letter - very short - to Spinner.

Be careful what kind of people you are choosing to represent you. They must understand that they are serving us - the players - because we are paying (or at least I was paying) to play this game. They are not feudal knights and we are not their slaves. To have some kind of common sense it should be mandatory.

Because of your "helpers" I will stop playing this game and as consequence you will have one less payer and one less person to watch your advertisment.

P.S.: it's all about the benjamins

I like reading blogs. Good blogs. Exceptional blogs. Blogs that want to send a message.

I don't like blogs that don't say anything. I don't like blogs that are just a copy paste from another site. I don't like blogs that don't have an added value from the writer.

I like writing blogs. I don't think that I'm very good as I don't have the proper studies for this and I don't have a natural talent for this.

I like ML and I would like to have better blogs  because I really don't like blogs that say: "I went on camp this week-end. I gained 14 at att".  I don't like blogs that are a copy paste from wiki or some other site.

So here is my proposal for improving the blogs: let's have a Blogfest(ival).  Everyone is invited. Only the best ones win - credits

Are you in for the contest? Are you in for sponsoring with some credits?

I have some ideas of how this festival would take place, but until I don't see any interest in it, I see no point for showing these ideas.

Last year two events made me sick and made me hate this new era of football. The first one was the Champions League final. First I would like to say that I'm not a fan of any of the teams that played the CL final - nor Inter, nor Bayern. I'm a big fan of my local club - Politehnica Timisoara - and I sympathize with FC Barcelona. Also I did not have anything against any of the teams. I could say that I sympathized with both of them before the final: with Inter because they strugelled for so many years to win a major trophy and with Bayern because of their fighting spirit. But when I saw the line-ups I definetly had a favourite. And the favourite was Bayern. Why? It was not really beacuse of Bayern, but because I was against Inter: an Italian team with no Italian in it. WTF?  OK, I understand, no football player raised by your club -maybe you just don't want to invest in your youth (although from my point of view this should be a must) but no Italian player in an Italian squad? This is outrageous. And when I looked at Bayern, it was totaly different: most of the players were German and many of them were from the clubs youth academy. Moreover, the only Italian that played for Inter anetered the pitch in extra time of extratime. (Materazi). This is totally wrong!!!

The second event happened in December I think when I read that Barcelona would now have a sponsor on their shirts. Can money buy anything in this world? Is there no honour left in us? It's like selling your soul to the devil for the right amount of money. One of the reasons I liked Barcelona was the fact that they did not have any sponsors. There was a thing that money could not buy in this world. Until this year. EARNING MONEY IS NOT EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD!

And there was another thing but I read about it this year (although I think it happened last year). Mourinho (or mouuuu-mouuuu. He's just a cow for me now). When he first appeared in big football (while at FC Porto and after that at Chelsea) I liked him a lot I can say. It was so good. It was so different from the others. He made miracles where noone else could (and at Inter and now at Real he showed us he is one of the great managers of our times). I accepted his arogance: I said that's OK for someone so good as he is. It was OK that he took all the pressure of the game on his shoulders. All the media attacks were on his shoulders. All the psychological wars with the enemies were fought by him while being a shield for his team and taking all the bullets. But there is a line somewhere. A line that should never be crossed. And the line that he crossed was when he said that the goal scored by Iniesta in the WC final could have been scorred by any defender. There must be something totally wrong in your head when you attack one of the best midfielders for no reason. No game against him closely. Attack just for the fun of attacking. This is just bullshit! I would suspend him for an year.

It's OK that such a thing just cannot happen in ML: I cannot annoy any player from the oposite team just for fun. In fact I cannot do this at all. The second one is implemented and everyone cannot sign the contract with the sponsor. But nothing happens if you don't sign the sponsors: the fun club isn't getting any bigger (because there is no fun club in the game ) and the club prestige isn't growing (no club prestige implemented also )

But the first thing that I mentioned  I would love to be implemented in the game.  I would like to be mandatory to have let's say 5 players from your academy in your first 17 and 3 players from your academy in your line-up.This way there would be players like Gerrard, Xavi, Maldini at your club.Players that made history. I would love to have games in ML where Everton (a 83Q team) would draw or win with Liverpool (a 93Q team) just because the players were raised by the club and understand the spirit of the game and the rivalry between the clubs. I would like to have a player like  Inter's Zanetti: a man who played  for so many years at the same club. Although he was not raised by the club, he began to feel he was part of the club because he played for so long for Inter. It would be nice not to consider the players just pieces of meat/ code. It would be nice not to sell two 73Q players for one 80Q player and a camp.

One month ago I bought 4 oranges from one of our local supermarkets. They looked pretty well so I said that I'm in the mood for some oranges. It didn't smell like an orange but I got used to the fact that none of the fruits or vegetables nowadays smell like they are suposed to.. So I put the oranges in my bag,  paid for them and went home. When I arrived home I pilled one of the oranges and began to eat it. WTF? For sure that was not an orange. It looked like one - it was orange. But the taste was horrible. It was sour. And it was so ...plastic like. I chewed the orange as if it was a not cooked beef. I threw away half of the orange and left the other 3 in the fridge. and forgot about the oranges for 1 month. Last week somehow I saw the oranges in the fridge and.. they looked just like in the day I bought them. It was strange. Because all our local fruits from my farm (apples, pears, peaches,...) usually begin to decompose in maximum one week. So I said to myself that it's time for a little experiment: how long it will take my oanges to decompose?

All these things make me nostalgic about the days when I was at my grandfthers' farm during my summer school holiday. I woke up every  day, opened the windows from my room and a smell of flowers and grass invaded the room. For breakfast I usually went in the garden and picked two tomatoes, some peppers and one cucumber. And everyone of them had a specific smell and taste. All you needed was some bread and some homemade cheese and breakfast was ready. If you were lasy enough you just ate the tomatoe - it was sweet and salty in the sametime. And for the desert you just ate some apples, prunes or peaches. Their smell was like parfume and they were as sweet as sugar. But...

Those were the days my friends,

We thought they'd never end,

But than globalization came.

****, but another blog on that topic.

P.S.: @ spiner: is there any possibility to insert some polls for the blogs

I like cooking. After a long day of staying in front of a PC and working with bits, all kinds of registers, programming injection timming, dwell time, MAF aquisition and engine synchronization, 2-3 hours of cooking really relax me. I cooked all kinds of food: soups, spaghetti bolognese, main courses and of course sweets. But one of the things that I didn't cook was pizza. I always preffered to buy one. It was easier and quicker. Until last week, when I decided that it's time for my first pizza (including making the dough - if you make a pizza with a bought dough it's like you didn't make any pizza). First thing was to buy a special pizza tray. I bought one of 28cm in diameter. ( from my experience it's important to have the right tools for the right recipe).

First I made the dough (the ingredients may be adapted proportionally depending on how thick you want the dough to be and how big the pizza tray is):

- 250g of flour

- 1 teaspoon of salt

- 3 spoons of olive oil

- 150 ml of water

- 14g of yeast

- 1/2 of spoon of sugar

I heated the water to 38 celsius degrees and I put the sugar and the yeast. I left the yest until it transformed into a foam on the water. Than I poured everything over the other ingredients. Than I kneaded evertyhing for 15 minutes. (if necessary flour may be added). The dough should not stivk on your hands but should be soft enough. After that I left the dough to yeasr for 30 minutes. It should double it's size.

During this I prepared the souce:

- tomatoe souce

- salt

-peper

- sugar

- basil

- oregano

- olive oil

- and every spice that you like

I boiled everything for 20 minutes (it depends of much water is in the tometoe sauce). It should result in something that has the consistency of shake.

Now I oiled the pizza tray (obviously with olive oil). Than I spread the dough to the pizza tray shape and I put in the tray. I creamed the dough with half of the tomatoe sauce. And that I put ham, bacon, mushrooms and cheese. (here you can put anything you want and you like. I made a lighter version because my wife is breast nursing and the food should not be very spicy). On top I put the other half of the tomatoe sauce.

Than I put the pizza in the oven for 25 minutes at 270 celsius degrees.

And here is the result

Bon apetit !

It's been now over 5 seasons (I know it's not too much) and I think now I have a(n) (small) ideea about the game. I know what I like about it - it's dynamic and I have to do something every day. It's not like that managers were there is only one game a week and you really don't have too much to do. Also it's not like those games where you have to be 24h a day connected in order to be the best. And in time you become atached to your team, your stadium, your youngsters. I tried another manager. It was somehow similar - I had a game each day - but the entire game was reset at the end of season. What's the point of building something that will be finally destroyed? For me it's the game that has the best balance between: fun, time consumption, atachment and money

But as nothing is perfect in this world (maybe only me )  I have some ideas that I think could improve the game and make it more attractive.

1. Transfers. Imagine this: you go into a market and you want to buy fish. You go to the seller and you see that the minimum price is 1euro. So you say that you want 1kg of fish and give the seller 1 euro. The seller: nothing. Than a second buyer comes and wants 1kg of fish. He sees that the 1 euro offer is not good enough so he gives 1.1 euros to the fisherman. Still no answer . But you really want that kilo of trout and you give 2 euros for it. At this moment the fisherman takes his fish and goes back home and you remain with your eyes staring at the sun. WTF??? This is how I see the current transfer market in ML. It's not one time that something like this happened to me: I had the highest bid and than the seller removed the player from the transfer list. If you want a minimum price than just say it. So from my point of view if the seller does not set the minimum price than a minimum price should be automatically set - the minimum price at which a player can be sold. Whe you don't have a lot of money this is really a problem because you cannot make a lot of bids.

2. I scout a player and than decide to buy it. OK. Than the season ends and a new seasons starts. And all knowledge in the club is lost. Noone knows how many stars has the player which was scouted the previous season. Come on!

3. Wouldn't it be nice to have Current stars and Potential stars?

4. Summer is coming  and I'm planning to go away for 3 weeks somewhere where I don't have access to the net. What will happen to my team? 2 - TWO - seasons might be affected by my summer holiday. All my years work will seriously suffer. So I propose to implement a sitter system. There should also be limitations for the sitter: should not be in the same department/divison with you. While he is the sitter he cannot: sell players, buy players, hire staff, fire staff. He cannot chaneg any setting for your games. Cannot change player names, stadium names. He can change tactics and play  friendlies. He can buy credits. Mainly he will be able to do minimum stuff in order for you team to progress

I have some other ideas but I'm still analysing them

While being at work I got on my mail the following picture:

What do you think, is this a strong enough argument for piracy? 

She came into this world on the 10th of September (last Friday) at 21.55. She is 49cm long and wheights 2750g. But she promises to eat everything from now on  . Her name is Isabela-Maria and she is my princess.

I watched on Friday and Tuesday - how in the world did they choose such days? (but as you know it's all about the benjamins  ) - the qualifiers for 2012 European championship. The general idea was that low quality football was played. Light years away from the football played in Champions League. So I was hardly able to watch the full game of my national team and not fall asleep. I tried to watch some other game but it was the same. It was like watching the game in replay mode. A lot of technical mistakes. A lot of fouls. Too little football.

After the game had ended - what a relief !!! - because was nothing better on TV (this is another interesting topic to be debated) I watched a TV sport show. There all the " great sport critics" tried to find out the reason of the poor football played by the national team.

From my point of view it's very simple. Here is the Barcelona team:

1  GK Víctor Valdés (3rd captain)
2  DF Daniel Alves
3  DF Gerard Piqué
5  DF Carles Puyol (captain)
6  MF Xavi Hernández (vice-captain)
7  FW David Villa
8  MF Andrés Iniesta (4th captain)
9  FW Bojan Krkić
10  FW Lionel Messi
11  FW Jeffrén Suárez
Substitutes:
13  GK José Manuel Pinto
14  MF Javier Mascherano
15  MF Seydou Keita
16  MF Sergio Busquets
17  FW Pedro Rodríguez
18  DF Gabriel Milito
19  DF Maxwell
21  DF Adriano
22  DF Éric Abidal 
 

And here is the French national team:

1 GK Hugo Lloris
16 GK Steve Mandanda
23 GK Cédric Carrasso
 
2 DF Bacary Sagna
3 DF Mamadou Sakho
4 DF Adil Rami
5 DF Philippe Mexès
12 DF Benoît Trémoulinas
13 DF Anthony Réveillère
22 DF Gaël Clichy
 
15 MF Florent Malouda
17 MF Yann M'Vila
18 MF Alou Diarra (c)
19 MF Abou Diaby
20 MF Mathieu Valbuena
21 MF Blaise Matuidi
 
7 FW Jimmy Briand
8 FW Jérémy Menez
10 FW Karim Benzema
11 FW Kevin Gameiro

I'm sure that if Barcelona would play France they would win without a doubt.

But this is not really what I was trying to say. One of the ideas the critics tried to support was that the football players are not playing their best football because they are not paid enough at the national team. The critics say that the players should play their heart out when coming at the national squad. Nothing should be above the national squad. Bla, bla,bla....

But I'm saying this: suppose you are working at a private company and you are earning 2000 euros for cutting the grass. One day the mayor of your town comes and say: "Im paying you 200 euros to cut the grass in my town". What would you say? I'm sure it would be a "**** off!" in the best case. I'm sure that none of us would accept this.

So let's not be virgin nuns. Let's not criticise someone for something that we wouldn't do ourselves. Becuase we look ridiculous. When you are playing around 60 games per year, when you have training every day, twice a day, when you are travelling a lot to play the games at your club I'm sure it's not easy to fly at your national, train there, and play another game (a game where you can suffer serious injuries). And in 3 days fly to another country  (for many players it's another continent) and play another game. And after that fly back to your home club.

It's easy to criticise when your ass is sitting in a nice, warm, confortable TV studio. Where you speak for 2 hours and after that a TAXI takes you back at your home which is 5 minutes away.

Ka-Ching!

Here are the lyrics of my club's anthem - POLI TIMISOARA:

Sunny day - no sun
We all come to Poli,
To see the big game,
To join our voices.

Chorus:
POLI, POLI, fight for us, hey!
Fight for us, hey!
Fight for us! (X2)

When you score we jump in the air
And we all enjoy,
For "polistii" are ours
And therefore we all sing:

Chorus: POLI, POLI, fight for us, hey!
Fight for us, hey!
Fight for us! (X2)

Our march towards victory
Nobody can stop him!
For it is only one POLI
Another one will never be!

Chorus:
POLI, POLI, fight for us, hey!
Fight for us, hey!
Fight for us! (X2)
 

Here  you can hear the interpretation by one of our rock bands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miK_k54PrVo

What do you think about it?

Also, if you want please send me a message with  your club's anthem (lyrics in english + an interpretation of it) so I can post it here. But please check the google translate

This day has started yesterday. Or maybe last week. Or last year. Or the day your father told you about it. Or the day when the club was born. You dream about this day from the moment you have heard about it. You make all kind of scenarios. Usually are dramatic scenarios: your team is one goal behind and in the 85th minute of the game. Your in hell!! Than one amazing shot from one of the midfielders and it's a gooooooal!!! You are back on earth! You have air! You can breath! The rain is not that cold anymore . Than it's 90+1 minute and the striker humiliates the opponent defence and the ball rests hapilly in the net. You're in heaven! Nooo! You're on the fence waving the flag!

For me such a day is when Poli Timisoara (my team - the violet guys) plays uta - our bigest rivals. It is something that cannot be esily described in words. It is something that must be lived. So first you can watch this video to see what I'm talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PIZZR-3F6M

What you see there it's just the game. But everything starts at least one week before. First everyone remembers the history of the derby. When everything has started. Why do we hate each other. Our big wins . Our defeats . Than the madness with the tickets starts (for the ones who don't have season tickets). Once you get the ticket you are reliefed. You have the ticket to history. The night before the game you don't sleep to well. And you get up early. You are nervous. The time seems to stop. The hours go so slow. With 2-3 hours before the game starts -altough you normally get to the stadium in half an hour - you say it's time to go. And you head for the stadium. Along with rivers of violet people. As you get near the stadium your heart pumps faster and until you're in the stadium you are breathless as if you have run a marathon. But once you're on the stadium everything is back to normal. You have a lot of air and you start singing and shouting. In 5 minutes you are hoarse but it doesn't matter. The boys must know they have all your support. In 20 minutes you are all sweaty from jumping and singing. It doesn't matter. The team must feel you are there. If they can run 90 minutes you must jump 90 minutes. And when your team scores you are on the fences. I really don't know where you get the energy but it's there. I think your body knows that such a day comes and somehow he stores in secret place the energy. And when these moments come somehow you don't run out of energy.

And if your team wins it is more than perfect. Like one of my friend says: it's sex with gods!

I wanted to write something about a personal football experience but after a week's work (40h of work /week in a metal building is not very nice) I'm just too tired . So right now I'm listening some Whitesnake, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Billy Idol, The Clash (if you know all these it's something wrong with you ) and Dragana Mircovici - Placi zemljo (now what's that? if you like balkan music you should try it). The weather is fine. A warm autumn day with some clouds and a Lazio blue sky. Everything around tells me that I should quit this kind of life:

6a.m.- my neighbour wakes me up. Ohhh God how I hate her!!!

7a.m. - I eat something

8a.am - at my desk, checking what has happened in ML   and playing some friendlies. after that I start working

5p.m. - going home

evening - watch TV, play real football (twice a week best case), take a walk if I'm not too tired, shopping

11p.m. - going back to sleep

For sure that there must be something better than this. Somewhere a mountin is waiting for me to climb him. To meet the gods on his peaks. Somewhere else a sunny beach and the warm sea waves are waiting to embrace me. Elsewhere the wild animals are expecting me to leave them alone and not to watch them every night on Discovery channel.

My ears are hurting from listening only car engines in the big city. Wouldn't it be nice to listen only to birds, winds, waves...?

 So I'm asking myself will I ever have the power to quit my current life and embrace a new way of living? Can I quit my car and use only my feet? Can I quit the supermarkets and try to find out all the secrets of nature in order feed me? Can I quit my music? Can I quit my medical insurance? Can I pass the social barriers and leave this kind of society behind?

Only time will answer these questions.

I'm sure that a lot of other people put this questions - I'm so sure I'm not unique - but do you know someone who radically changed her/his life?

P.S.: I hope I will have at least the power to quit city life and go and live at my grandparents' farm.

I never understood why someone - let's say from Debrecen - would be a big fan of Barcelona? Or worse,of MTK , instead of Debrecen

Why would you be a big fan of a team? 

From my point of view someone is a big fan of a team because the team represents that person, represents his dreams, represents his town. Or is winning everything? It would be the same as if the luxembourgese (the inhebitants of Luxemburg) would go to Germany because Germany is bigger, better and stronger. And they wouldn't care anymore for their country.

Has the local pride totally disappered? Don't the roots count? And being the best is the most important thing without taking in consideration anything else?

That's why Atheltic Bilbao is a club I admire. They try to do everything with local players. With persons that know, understand and live the local culture. They respect the town and the suporters for what they are. They are not modern mercenaries (e.g.: Rivaldo, Beckham, Henry,...)

That's why I'm a big fan of my home town team - although it has not won any major trophy for almost 30 years

How/why did you become a fan for your team?

All big championships have started. England and Premiership, Spain and La Liga, Italy and Il Calcio, France and Ligue 1, Germany and Bundesliga. What will be the outcome of the season? I will try to make a guess and see if I'm right next May

England: the Big 4 has changed: Liverpool is out and the Citizens are in. I'm sorry for Liverpool but they don't have a top coach and top players. At the moment they are a medium team. Altough City and Arsenal are good teams, I don't think that they will be a real threat to the crown of the Premiership. The battle will be between Chelsea and MU. With a plus for Chelsea.

Spain: Barcelona is still my favourite, because Real is a too big hat for Mou. His ugly style of play is not made for a club like Real and a championship like Spain. The other clubs really don't count in the battle for the title. Oh how I hate modern football !

Italy:  for sure Inter will be the big disappointment of the season. They don't have super players and for sure Bentiez is not a top coach.I think that the battle will be between Milan, Roma and Juve. I think Roma will win although my heart is with Milan

France: I really don't like French football  So I don't care who will win.

Germany: Bundesliga is closest to real football. Good academies and good financial status. My favourite is Bayern. But they'll have to put a good fight with Shalke, Wolfsburg, Dortmund and maybe Stutgart.