Just read a good article today from Arsenal's Monthly magazine at Borders.

In July(2006), he made very outspoken comments about Henry's departure and questioned the club's ambition and transfer policy. He even hinted at leaving the club, unhappy with the club's supposed lack of ambition. Then during the summer, (Arsenal manager) Arsene Wenger had a good chat with him about his career and the club's ambition, and he made a big decision. He decided he was going to stay on and fight for the club, and that he wanted added responsibility. He was (to the surprise of many) given the captain's armband for the ongoing 07-08 season, and has really defied his doubters, leading by example and even coming up with crucial goals against Manchester and Chelsea in the league.

And as aptly put by Wenger:

"He made a big U-turn in the summer. Now, he isn't just on board, he's one of the driving forces of the team, and their success this term."

This is none other than Arsenal's inspirational captain Willian Gallas. And he has certainly earned so much of my respect over the season. Not just the goals (which he as a defender has no right to score but still does), but also in the way he has presented himself and led the team. At the start of the season, I, like many other Arsenal fans, was shocked at the decision to appoint him as captain - he had only just come in a year ago from London rivals Chelsea, and kept moaning about the club's lack of ambition in their transfer policy....letting stars like Henry go away. Yet, he has shown his leadership qualities over the season and is certainly as important a player to us as Fabregas, Hleb or Adebayor, in an amazing season so far where more and more critics are made to swallow their words and eat humble pie this season.

Gallas is certainly a role model for me. I may not be the equivalent of "captain" or "driving force" of my cg, but it is certainly something i aspire to be. And I have made my big U-turn.

It's been a week full of pretty long nights, but I think this week has been a pretty good one for me. For at least 3 days, I think I've only had sleep for slightly more than 5 hours the previous night. And for some lessons the tiredness really kicks in, but somehow I think some combination of sleepy cycle and cold temperature, and of course entertaining classmates/tutorials means that I can stay awake most of the time.

Well so my days are now like H3 on Mon and Thurs, CCA on wed, CIP on tues, which leaves Friday free. =)
Not too bad.

So this week I spent a night rushing tutorials and reading stuff, a day doing presentation slides for my attachment project, and wednesday learning the worship pattern of strumming, which was time very well spent. And then Thurs was cg day and although it didn't turn out as planned it was very good to just relax out one night and joke around and stuff with wonderful fellow cg mates, after the other busy days. Really hope cg won't clash with anything for upcoming weeks.

Well what else was good about the week was that....I only played half an hour of FIFA08 (which was to reward myself for doing work or else I would really lack the will), and I did not watch Arsenal's league cup semi-final with Tottenham which turned out to be an absolute horror show. I spent my time well, and with all the time management stuff during civics I am by and large still a very big slacker but heck the only way I can go from there is to be less slack. =)

Didn't get to watch much Aussie open because of the late go-back-home times but managed to watch Fed v Djoker today, which Fed lost badly. Oh well, bad week in terms of the people I support. Still through reading the sports section everyday it is just so touching to know about the many stories that have taken place during the open, such as the emergence of the Serbians, and of course an unseeded French player who had his career is tatters years ago fighting his way into the final, totally destroying Nadal on the way. You will probably never see a lower division team win the FA Cup, or an eastern european team winning the champions league, but it sure happens in tennis, and very often. I guess this is one appeal that sports like tennis and golf (though I still think it is boring) have over soccer: unpredictability and upsets.

Still, soccer will always be my favourite, and the sport shows so many other things besides goals. Arsenal just broke down totally against Tottenham in the league cup, and there was even a ugly spat between Bendtner and Adebayor which apparently involved a headbutt too. Thankfully, no ban was imposed by the FA, which I think is really a very generous decision. I would have been fuming if such a thing happened at United. On another note, non-league team Havant and Waterlooville, who miraculously reached the 4th round of the FA Cup to get a dream tie against Liverpool, tried so desperately to get their best player (who was to serve a one match suspension) to be able to play in the tie by preponing a match before the weekend so he could serve his suspension for that match instead. Unfortunately, the club is so poor and small that the floodlights couldn't work so the match couldn't take place. Yet, the FA, upon finding out that they attempted this, immediately increased the ban to 2 matches so no matter what he couldn't play against Liverpool (unless they scheduled 10000 matches in a day, after which the FA would increase the ban to 10001 matches..zz). I think, comparing these 2 situations (Arsenal's where someone gets away with nothing despite headbutting a teammate, and the latter where the FA just denies someone a chance to play against Liverpool), it just goes to show that the FA practises double standards. I am a big Arsenal fan, but I know Adebayor really should have gotten at least a 3 match ban for what he did, which was appalling. And yet the FA chooses to go all out to ensure that this player does not get to play against Liverpool. The fact is that whether he plays or not, Liverpool will totally stuff them. 5,6, 56? lol. And yet they want to deprive a player the day of his life. With them devoting so much effort to such trivial stuff is no wonder why they couldn't even get a good coach for the national team for the euro qualifiers. This all links to governance. It starts from the top, and once the top is weak, England will forever disappoint.