Friday, February 26, 2010

The Paul McGrath Story

Personal information
Full namePaul McGrath
Date of birth4 December 1959 (age 50)
Place of birthEaling, England
Height6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Playing positionDefender
Youth career
Pearse Rovers
Dalkey United
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1981–1982St Patrick's Athletic27(4)
1982–1989Manchester United163(12)
1989–1996Aston Villa252(9)
1996–1997Derby County24(0)
1997Sheffield United (loan)7(0)
1997–1998Sheffield United5(0)
National team
1985–1997Republic of Ireland83(8)
Still punchy: McGrath is a legend in Ireland, for whom he won 83 caps between 1985 and 1997
A bygone age: McGrath lines up for United

'It was an on-the-edge existence. You can’t write this interview and portray me as a whiter-than-white individual. You would lose credibility. It wasn’t like that. I’m not proud of it. Certainly not. It’s just the way it was... I ran round the pitch trying to hold my breath on occasions. Mainly because the person I was up against would know that I’d had a drink and I didn’t want them to. I swear Alan Shearer must have smelled it on one particularly bad occasion. It wasn’t every week. It was only a handful of times. Well, maybe a couple of handfuls.‘

Paul McGrath has just hammered the living daylights out of himself in an interview. Just like he used to hammer the living daylights out of the best strikers in the world. Afterwards, he is standing, diet drink in hand, in the bar of a Dublin hotel when a grey-haired fella of a certain age breezes in.

‘Ah Paul,’ he says. ‘How are you? Great to see you. Are you keeping well? Are you OK?’ McGrath, who has already been accosted by half a dozen supporters eager to relive the glory days, is clearly embarrassed. And the man’s face looks vaguely familiar... ‘That was Bertie Ahern, ’ says the former Manchester United and Aston Villa legend about Ireland’s deposed Taioseach, who eventually wanders off after paying homage like the rest of them. The equivalent, on this side of the Irish Sea, would be Tony Blair greeting Gazza.

Genius on the pitch and troubled off it. Those who saw McGrath play would find it hard to disagree with his former boss at Manchester United and Villa, Ron Atkinson, that he was ‘better than John Terry and Tony Adams — combined’. But to describe McGrath’s
off-field life as ‘troubled’ is putting it kindly. Like saying Tiger Woods has a thing for blondes.
McGrath was black in a country where the only other black stuff was brewed. He grew up in orphanages after being handed over to the authorities by his mother. He suffered physical abuse, never knew his father and his only sister died. That was before drink,
prescription drugs and two suicide attempts. His book, Back from the Brink, is the most harrowing literature of its genre ever written. Actually, it is beyond harrowing.



For all his demons off the pitch, McGrath was something special on it. Gareth Southgate was asked, when he arrived at Aston Villa, how he coped with the prospect of facing Michael Owen, Shearer and all the rest in the Premier League after stepping up a level from Crystal Palace.
‘Easy,’ said Southgate. ‘I look across the dressing room and I see Paul McGrath.’

The man himself is now 50. Trim and still able to turn out in charity matches, in which he demands to play up front, his gentle demeanour gives no clue as to his issues. Or his iron will. As a player, McGrath was not nasty. Just physically tough, despite a knee problem that dogged his career.

He grew up a Chelsea fan. Other than that, the two clubs where he is still revered meet in the Carling Cup final on Sunday. Time to find out why his life careered towards chaos.

‘I hadn’t tasted drink until I was 18,’ he said. ‘The minute I did, I felt comfortable.
‘I used it as a way of being able to communicate with people, believe it or not. And then, because of it, you won’t be surprised to learn that I couldn’t communicate with them.

‘I was always very shy because of my upbringing in orphanages. It was a case of just wanting to slide into the background of things. If you weren’t heard too much, then people would leave you alone.

‘But if you caught people’s attention, then it wasn’t good. You’d normally have to fight your way out of trouble.
‘I hadn’t seen too many black faces in Ireland. It was a case of landing in Manchester and finding that I wasn’t alone, after all.

‘And I was happy in Ireland. Playing football part-time and working. Honestly, if it hadn’t been Manchester United, I’m not sure I would have bothered. It had to be something
special to drag me away.

‘When I first arrived, I saw the likes of Bryan Robson and Gordon McQueen floating around the place. You’d bump into John Gidman and Norman Whiteside. I’d just seen them on television.
‘The next thing I know, I’m in the side and I just used to be able to drink. But I wasn’t in the First Division of drinkers back then. No way. I was fit, young and able to train.

‘The problem was that myself and Norman Whiteside would be injured for such a length of time. We’d be in the gym or in the treatment room watching the other lads play and for us it was a case of, “What shall we be doing this afternoon?” Obviously, we could have been laid up in bed recuperating. But we would sort of look at each other and the conversation would develop along the lines of, “No, we can’t. We can’t. We can’t, can we? Ah, go on. Let’s go for one or two.” Eventually, we would be sat there all afternoon, drinking. We had serious injuries together at the same time which compounded the problems.

‘But we are talking about a different era here. I’m not making excuses. It’s a bit late for that now. But there was an unofficial league table of which drinkers were the best.
‘We met up with the Everton boys, the Liverpool lads, Nottingham Forest... you’d have a laugh with them, it was a lot more relaxed.

‘By the time I finished in 1997 it was a case of, “Jeez, I’m going to have to be half-right if I want this to continue”. People were stepping away from it.

‘We had the mentality that if you win a game then you would go out. The food was changing, they were bringing in psychologists. Not that it would have done much good with me.
‘They could have locked me in a room with six or seven of them and, no doubt about it, they’d all have left first. I’d have screwed the lot of them up.’

But not the man generally accepted as the greatest managerial psychologist of them all. Alex Ferguson replaced Ron Atkinson and, as McGrath now accepts, it was the beginning of the end. Now, he is staggered he lasted two years.

His ‘cozy world’ was shattered. But off the pitch, there was always solace in the bottle. By the time Ferguson pitched up at Old Trafford the warning signs were there.
Patience was wearing thin on and off the pitch because of McGrath’s drinking and the state of his knees.

‘The minute he walked in, I thought, “I’m not going to like this and do you know what... that’s the way it worked out. I was going to flannel my way around it, but that was the truth of the matter.

‘But there’s no doubt that if I’d have been in his position, there’s no way I’d have put up with it for as long as he did. I gave him some horrendous times.
‘I crashed a car when I’d been out drinking. He came to see me. After a short period of abstinence, I carried on as if nothing had happened.’

By this stage, Ferguson was determined to smash the drinking culture that dominated at Old Trafford.

Despite the fact that McGrath was turning in some flawless performances on the pitch, his boozing was becoming as much of a problem as his knees. He was eventually sold to Aston Villa for £400,000 in 1989.

‘Graham Taylor was brilliant to me in more ways than one,’ said McGrath. ‘He made sure I was OK on the pitch. But he didn’t just want that. He wanted me to feel good about myself off it.
‘He wasn’t one of those managers who just left it up to the physios. He did his homework. I wanted to pay him back. I played as well as I could that year.

‘I was sorry to see Graham leave for England. When Ron Atkinson came in as his replacement at Villa, my initial thought was, “More fines are on the way!” It could have been a lot worse. I was secretly delighted.

‘We didn’t have psychologists. We had the physios. And Jim Walker’s role in my life was pretty well established at that point. He was my guardian angel. I can’t begin to tell you about the scrapes he got me out of. He’d devised this method of training for me which involved, basically, me not training.

‘I did go on the bike, do my weights. I loved that. I’d go behind the goals and pick up the balls for the lads doing shooting practice. I wanted the lads to see I was there.

‘But I was in a mess on occasions. I’d go on to the pitch having had a few drinks. On one particularly bad time, I fell over the ball while taking a free-kick during a pre-season game.
‘Despite this, Villa’s supporters took to me. Even the mischievous elements of my personality went over well with them.

‘When I’d come back from a jaunt, I’d think, “Look Paul, you have to play well today.” That wasn’t like me, but there were certain friends in the team that I would have to rely on to keep everything quiet.
‘I don’t cringe now at the thought that I went on to the pitch sometimes having had a few drinks. Believe it or not, having those drinks helped me.

‘One or three times I went on having been on a jaunt. One was when I played against Everton. I had just come back from Ireland and I clearly still had some alcohol — actually a fair bit — in my system.

‘Duncan Ferguson had just boxed the ears off some lad who had tried to rob his house and I won the first header against him.
‘He was stomping around the place, pointing at me and saying, “You will not win another header against me.” Repeating it over and over.
‘I just looked back at him and said, “We’ll see”. I hate to say it, but I was determined to win everything against him from then on. And I nearly did.

‘The thing is, if he hadn’t said it, if he hadn’t done that, I’d have looked at him and thought, “Jeez, he’s a big lad. On you go.” A friend of mine who had travelled back with me from Ireland couldn’t believe it. He had been out with me and said, “What have you just done out there?” Actually, I don’t want to sound boastful but it was one of my better
games. Basically all I could think of afterwards was, “Thank the Lord it has gone well.”.’

Domestically, the highlight of McGrath’s career, Villa’s 3-1 victory over Mancheter United in the 1994 League Cup final that stopped an historic domestic treble, was not without its controversy, either.

‘I wanted to play in that one,’ he said. ‘I’d been fined £8,500 following an interview I had given saying Alex Ferguson should lighten up and have a few drinks! I hadn’t spoken to him in five years since leaving. We’d been in the same corridor as each other on numerous occasions but just looked the other way.

Highlight: McGrath and Mark Hughes tangle during the 1994 Coca-Cola Cup final

‘And my big day didn’t start in an ideal fashion. I woke up at 3am on the morning of the game, I’d never felt pain like it. I had a searing pain like someone was holding a poker inside my shoulder.

‘I went in to see Jim but he couldn’t really help. I just had no sleep. I just had injections in the back of my neck, my back, my shoulder. Even my head was numb by kick-off.
‘We played well and won 3-1. And then I saw Alex. It’s the strangest feeling. I knew he was a decent human being but he was the bigger man, he came up and said, “Well played, big man.” He gave me a friendly punch in the stomach that was a bit hard actually for a friendly punch!
‘What people didn’t see is that for about 10 nights after the final, I sat up in bed most nights, crying in pain.’

It gives a flavour of the man. But the madness of his drinking bouts has not left him. The days are more infrequent. But the demons remain. Just like the memories.
He said: ‘You don’t think to yourself now, “Weren’t they great days” when you are walking around a supermarket. You do still have in the back of your mind that they were. In fact, some of them were too good, if you get my drift.’

It had to be something special to get Paul McGrath to Manchester United but there is no doubt that, for all his faults, once on a football pitch he was something special.

And just think how good he would have been with perfect knees...

Thursday, February 25, 2010

144PB of Storage



How much storage do we need?
How about 144PB (PetaBytes)? That's 144,000 terabytes!

That is enormous.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

911 Aerial View Photos...






Handout image dated 11 September 2001 taken by the New York City Police Department and obtained by ABC News, showing an aerial view of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. The image was obtained by ABC News via a Freedom of Information Act request. If this image is posted on a website, a link must be provided to the ABC News website, www.abcnews.go.com

Utd 3 West Ham 0 - Rooney's double joy




Rooney fired United to a victory and state their intention to keep the English Premier League title. Owen added the third. Anderson started the game but soon replaced by Park JS after he was injured.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Everton 3 Manchester United 1




6th defeat, title dream is over?

Jack Rodwell, he could very well be the new Wayne Rooney! The way he ran past Johhny Evans and scored that 3rd goal shown his class and the lack of confidence of United defender... Wes Brown was equally awful. Ferdinand and Vidic must return quickly.

Friday, February 19, 2010

周蕙-瞬间


周蕙-

和你一起的时候

总会在某个瞬间
突然有一种错觉
世界曾经冻结
等著红灯的时候
等雨停的咖啡店
不经意回头一眼
时间静止了所有一切

在每次时空交错的瞬间

我相信自己看见了永远

以为永远还很远

其实已经在身边

和你共度的每一个瞬间

我相信自己看见了永远

我已开始有一点了解

所谓瞬间永远
以为幸福是终点
必须追逐的永远
才让我们都忽略
过程的每瞬间
在散场的人群中
在发呆的星期天
在我们没有察觉
幸福实现在每次擦

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Italian media united about 'unplayable' Wayne Rooney's quality


The Italian press is divided this morning over whether or not the Champions League tie between AC Milan and Manchester United is over after United’s 3-2 victory in the first leg in the San Siro stadium last night, but all the papers agree that Milan might be in far better shape if they had had a finisher of the calibre of Wayne Rooney, who scored with two second-half headers.

"The unplayable Rooney made the difference between Milan and United,” was the verdict of Corriere dello Sport. “Milan created, Rooney destroyed. And that’s the essence of the match at the San Siro between the rossoneri and Manchester United.

“Milan will have to accomplish a difficult mission at Old Trafford after having only a 3-2 defeat to show for some great football that they couldn’t turn into a result.

“Leonardo’s team dominated the match, especially in the first half, but froze in front of goal, once, twice, three times. And then Rooney, the England phenomenon, decided it with an eight-minute double.”

Il Giornale noted that United had waited a long time to beat Milan on its home turf. “Manchester United’s night came at last,” it wrote. “At the fifth attempt, the English fleet conquered the taboo of the San Siro. Milan played well for 30 minutes, but Rooney took centre stage.”

Gazetta dello Sport noted that United had had to soak up plenty of punishment before claiming a victory that had seemed unlikely. The visitors it said, “like an Italian team from another era, conquered San Siro and took a firm grip on qualification for the Champions League quarter-finals. Milan now face a daunting challenge to qualify in the second leg.”

“The first encounter between the devils goes to Manchester United," said Corriere della Sera. "The red devils prevailed 3-2 over the rossoneri devils.” But it added optimistically that “a late goal from [Clarence] Seedorf gives Milan some hope for the second leg."

La Repubblica quoted Leonardo, the Milan manager, as they also attempted to keep hope alive for the second leg. "We can win 2‑0 in Manchester, we played well enough to have been 3‑0 up in the first half of this match."

AC Milan 2 - 3 Manchester United - Rooney Magic!






Wayne Rooney proved himself head and shoulders above the rest of Europe with two superb headers that sank David Beckham’s AC Milan in the San Siro on Tuesday night.


Rooney’s two-goal burst in eight second-half minutes saw Manchester United recover from a disastrous start to win the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.


Monday, February 15, 2010

春节如意!

春节将至,在此预祝: 家庭顺治 生活康熙 人品雍正 事业乾隆 万事嘉庆 前途道光 财富咸丰
内外同治 千秋光绪 万众宣统 一帆风顺 二龙腾飞 三阳开泰 四季平安 五福临门
六六大顺 七星报喜 八方聚财 九久同心 十全十美 百岁吉祥 千金福禄
万事如意!!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Nani sees Red as United battled to earn a point

Ryan Giggs sees his cross-shot deflected into the Aston Villa net by James Collins


It says everything about Manchester United’s mood that their body language as they left the pitch last night was that of a team who regarded this result as two points dropped.

Such feelings will have been replaced with quiet satisfaction by the time that news filtered through of Chelsea’s demise at Goodison Park, but a good evening could, and arguably should, have been an even better one for them.

Left to play with ten men for an hour away from home against a team with Champions League aspirations, United might have been forgiven for holding back, but they were the team who kept running, fighting and attacking until the end as Aston Villa retreated into their shell.

As Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, put it afterwards: “We put [Antonio] Valencia on, we put [Dimitar] Berbatov on, we wanted to win the game because that’s what this title race is all about.”

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Always love toys like these...



You can see how detail they can make the toys to be... simply amazing.

Got to have them! :)


L.U * H.G

"Green and gold till the club is sold. Love United, Hate Glazer." Man Utd fans protest the Glazer regime at Old Trafford. January 24th, 2009.

Monday, February 8, 2010

How expensive can an art gets?




L'Homme qui marche I

Alberto Giacometti's life-size bronze statute set a new world's record when it fetched $104.3 million at an auction in London this week.
Sotheby's said the iconic statute was bought by an anonymous bidder who paid nearly three times the expected price after a round of intense bidding.

Nice Fox,... I mean Phone!

Megan Fox introduces the Motorola DEVOUR in the Motorola SuperBowl Ad.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

United 5 Portsmouth 0 - Easy afternoon





Rooney, Berbatov and 3 own goals take United to the top to the league. Relatively easy afternoon with Nani shines again.

Rooney nets his 23rd goal of the season. STAR PERFORMANCE.

***

Friday, February 5, 2010

寂寞城市


今晚的夜色很美
美得让人想迟一点睡
若是夜空少了星星的点缀
月亮会不会累
这夜色凄凄的美
没有爱的人容易憔悴
就像霓虹般亮丽的周围
只是一种寂寞颓废
城市里所有寂寞的人类
有几个和我一样偷偷的流泪
若是将它一滴一滴积累
会不会流成一条冰冷的河水
城市里所有寂寞的人类
有几个像我一样厌倦了疲惫
若是真心一颗一颗的摧毁
会不会全世界和我伤悲
今晚的夜色很美
这夜色凄凄的美
没有爱的人容易憔悴
就像霓虹般亮丽的周围
只是一种寂寞颓废
城市里所有寂寞的人类
有几个和我一样偷偷的流泪
若是将它一滴一滴积累
会不会流成一条冰冷的河水
城市里所有寂寞的人类
有几个像我一样厌倦了疲惫
若是真心一颗一颗的摧毁
会不会全世界和我伤悲
整座城市陷入漆黑
孤独人在寻找自己的定位
伪装变成了一种防备
防备怕被人看穿心碎
城市里所有寂寞的人类
有几个像我一样厌倦了疲惫
若是真心一颗一颗的摧毁
会不会全世界和我伤悲
今晚的夜色很美

Monday, February 1, 2010

Rooney and Nani destroyed Arsenal at home! (and in 3D!)








Manchester United moved to within one point of leaders Chelsea courtesy of an impressive 3-1 win at Arsenal. Wayne Rooney scored his 100th Premier League goal while Manuel Almunia palmed the ball into his own net and Park Ji-sung added a third.

Wayne Rooney did not charge out of the television towards the bar. Nor did Andrey Arshavin drift menacingly towards the jukebox. But the first glimpse of 3-D football in a British pub proved almost as convincing as Manchester United’s thrashing of Arsenal yesterday.

What appeared to be a roomful of Blues Brothers impersonators gathered near Liverpool Street station in Central London to watch United’s 3-1 victory, in a broadcast that Sky is hoping will change the way we watch TV.

“The depth is pretty amazing,” Ben Tranter, 26, said. “If you can’t replicate the atmosphere, it definitely narrows the gap.”

David Lubelski, 71, said: “It’s fascinating. I went to the Emirates last week and you get a better view of the match here. There, you’re so far away. Particularly in the close-up, it really does come to life. When it’s in their faces, it’s very dramatic.”