www.Go To The Mountain - Musings of a Potential Guru

While I was travelling, I have to miss Game Week 18 but just in time to catch up with Game Week 19. Wow! A lot has happened during this time.  Jose Mourinho was sacked. Manchester United under interim manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer started winning in style. I said from the beginning it was wrong for United to have appointed Mourinho. Mourinho never groom young players, plays negative football and never lasted three years anywhere. Next time, he lifted up three fingers, it would not be about the three title he won but to indicate that he never lasted three years and he got the sack three times.  In this time, Liverpool increased their one point lead at the top of the table to now have a six point lead over second placed Tottenham as Champions Manchester City floundered twice in a row (2-3 to Palace at home and 1-2 to Leicester away).The Reds have even levelled City's goal difference having scored eight goals less but conceded eight goals less.  Tottenh...

Tis the season to be jolly! December and the Christmas can make or break teams as the fixtures pile up. There will be injuries and suspension among others. Last weak brought some interesting situation and results. Liverpool up the ante with an impressive 4-0 away win over Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.  The Reds were full of vitality and the result was vital. Bournemouth has been at their best this season so it can't be an easy place to visit but Liverpool were in control but firstly Alisson Becker showed what Liverpool has been missing all this time and should have been here few seasons ago. Virgil van Dijk has been the other reason and even with Joe Gomez injured they now have the best defence in the Premier League as the stats showed. 16 matches and 6 conceded and now owned their best record in a season with 42 points. If their defence were impregnable, their midfield displayed the potential with James Milner collecting his 500th games in the Premier League. Naby Keit...

More than eight years ago, I have mentioned about Singapore losing our food culture, especially the hawker food culture. When I was a little boy, we would gather at my maternal grandmother's place each Sunday where grandma, my mum and her sisters would whipped out a storm especially for dinner at grandma's huge kitchen to feed the entire clan. Mum would continue to cook for us  the same recipe from grandma's time and add on to the list with her own. Nobody does that these days do they? So, it will die a natural death over time or in a generation or two. Our street or hawker food is the same. I had the fortune of experiencing our hawker culture almost from ground zero and saw, tasted and lived through how they have evolved. As a result, every time I eat something my memory runs wild to the good old days and I try to recall when and where was the first time I ate that particular food. Street food have evolved and they will find their footing on every street around the ...

Last week threw up some surprises here and there or else much remains the same. Fulham won 3-2 at home and that was some Dilly Ding Dilly Dong stuff from Claudio Ranieri as I predicted. Manchester United limping to a 0-0 draw at the Theatre of Dreams against lowly Crystal Palace no longer have any effect on their fans because it is no longer a shock as it is a new low. Arsenal won 2-1 away to in-form Bournemouth stretched their record of being unbeaten since having lost their opening two matches. Manchester City's 4-0 away win at West Ham and Liverpool's 3-0 away win at Watford meant they are the only unbeaten teams till now. It is like let us see who will blink first. Tottenham's 3-1 win over Chelsea showed something different as both were good to win but it was the way Tottenham played and the way Chelsea meekly surrendered and conceded two goals in the 8th and 16th minute and by the 54th minute it was game over that gave us all something to ponder. Wolves's 0-2 home...

They say the golf shaft is the engine of the club. As I have to re-engineer my game, I have shifted from steel shaft to graphite and I have also chosen lighter shafts. These days, the technology in graphite shafts have made leaps and bounds. If you have played steel shafts before in your irons which are your bread and butter clubs, the you will know the feel of steel shafts are so true and pure. Then UST Mamiya introduced their ground-breaking graphite shafts that plays and feels like steel shafts and the original model even looks like steel. That was a few years ago and the "Recoil" is said to be more efficient than steel and more responsive than the old graphite with more precise distance and control, better feel with accuracy. As I have an older set of very wonderful irons - the TaylorMade RSi 1 that was with steel shaft, I was tinkering with the idea of switching them to graphite otherwise it is such a shame for not playing them. While I could still play with steel (...

The International break for friendly internationals and the European Nations League is or is not a welcomed relief? It offers a break to do other things other than sitting in front of a TV. Stars of the Premier League are all over the planet. The English had a good friendly win over the USA by 3-0. Jesse Lingard scored a wonder goal that resembled the one he scored in the World Cup. Liverpool's young right back Trent Alexander Arnold scored his first international goal and was named Man-Of-The-Match. Wayne Rooney got his final and 120th international cap and realised how time quickly eclipsed all of us when 18 year old Jadon Sancho gave another impressive display despite his tender age just days after helping Borussia Dortmund win 3-2 against Bayern Munich. Callum Wilson - Bournemouth's top scorer had a dream debut when he scored the third. More on Jadon Sancho - he left Manchester City because he wanted to pay first team football. Admirable and brave decision for one so ...

Last weekend everywhere, soccer officials, players and fans paid their last respect to Leicester City boss Vichai. The most solemn of solemn occasion was of course found at Cardiff where the Foxes played away. The entire Leicester team looked sad in particular as the camera zoomed in on Jamie Vardy and especially Kasper Schmeichel who was tearing. Even the Cardiff bench looked sad. As the camera shifted to the crowd in the terraces, many were red-eyed. After all, soccer cannot be more important than life. It was very emotional and when Leicester won 1-0 it was befitting the occasion. What marred the event was when Demarai Gray scored and removed his top to revealed a tribute "for Khun Vichai" and the referee booked him with a yellow card which is correct according to FIFA rules but even as the referee looked gutted for his decision, may have criticised him. Could he not have made an exception? On the other hand, what if some one else also remove his top in future to reveal a...