Friday, December 14, 2007

Who wears a yellow shirt!!??!!

There was time when my mother bought me an orange t-shirt and I freaked out. I was extremely embarrassed about wearing that color in front of my friends and so I passed it onto my sister who happily made it part of her favorites.

I let my mother know that she should never pick out clothes for me, especially if she was to think that a light green or a sun yellow t-shirt would go with the black pair of jeans I own. Never in my wild dreams did I see myself wearing a 'girly' color, if I may call it.

But as I say this, today, I own 3 yellow tees and one of them is actually a favorite of mine. That change came from the time I enrolled into Michigan. It's absolutely a norm to wear yellow tees out here. Yellow shorts, yellow sweats, caps, jackets and what-nots. Yellow shirt over a pair of blue jeans makes you a Michigan dude or dudette in a way.

I was at Nike once and I liked a blue jacket. I loved it, but for the fact that it had yellow as a secondary color, with zippers in yellow and inner pockets in yellow and pocket edges in yellow. Then my friend pointed out that it looked more like a Michigan jacket rather than just a Nike jacket and that was all I needed to convince myself to buy it (It was on sale too...just another pull). And now it's my winter jacket, which means I need it 4-5 months a year.

This post just came as a thought when I remembered a certain incident when I was in India last year. I had to just step out of the house for an errand, and I chose to wear my favorite yellow Michigan and my mother just stood there looking amazed at me wearing that color. I said this was an exception and that she should not run out and get me another orange or green shirt.

Capello Regime!

It's not been long since Steve McLaren was axed as the English coach after failing to qualify for Euro 2008. The dust hasn't settled and the FA has gone and appointed a new man already. You would think if they have given thought to the decision. Why would they be so hasty in selecting a manager so soon. It's not like they don't have time. The next competitive games won't start till the end of next year.


Then, can they not give themselves time to first appoint better people to the decision seats in the FA and then deliberate over the most dangerous coaching job there can be. I mean, if these are the same people who had the short-sightedness of picking McLaren over proven men like Gus Hiddink and Scolari, then I am confident this is a disaster decision. Nothing against Capello, but time will tell.

First things first though. Why pick McLaren. What are his possible qualifications other than winning one lousy Cup with Boro and being an assistant to Ferguson at Manchester United. He tried to be bold and dropped Beckham when all he needed to do was break the Gerrard-Lampard misfiring axis and all would fall in place. He brought Beckham back, maybe to little to late and see what's happened.

A disaster is likely to happen when non-footballing minds come together to make a decision about something that they haven't themselves experienced. Even though he may have the backing of the world's best managers, it remains to be seen what Capello's first step would be to make England the footballing prowess it has always dreamed of being.

Now I am an avid English supporter. But even I know that they are far from being the best. As someone said somewhere, the best players do not necessarily constitute the best team. Team: that's what it comes down to. It's a team game after all. Individual accomplishments are actually not that important here.

I just hope that Capello won't make any bold moves and stick to a regime which will actually bring success. He should not pull out a McLaren and so something altogether absurd only because nobody though you would do it and it would show, you are afraid of no one. That won't work. He has to now bring together a team.

But finally, I still feel. It's just too hasty a decision that only spells more trouble. And of this move fails, the next to go after Capello should be the FA.