Manchester United - 3 Bayern Munich - 2, Bayern through on away goals

What is it about United - Bayern games that always seems to bring about drama? I think it's fair to say that this has got to be on of the most disappointing nights in Europe in United's history. 3-0 up after half an hour and seemingly cruising into the semis, before Olic pulled a goal back we sloppily gave away a goal just before halftime. Rafael got himself sent off, O'Shea on for Rooney and a ridiculously good volley from the edge of the box from the judas that is Arjen Robben and our European campaign was over.

At the end of the match the boss criticised those "typical Germans" got Rafael sent off and we would never have lost the game with 11 men. The latter I agree with wholeheartedly. With our full complement of players, Bayern never even got a look in and were nervy all over the pitch. As we've come to expect from Sir Alex, our gameplan from the start was superb - we had Rooney, Nani, Valencia and Gibbo pushing up from midfield harassing a suspect back four, while Fletcher had van Bommel in his pocket. Rafael and Evra made Robben and Ribery virtually non-existant and we played some sublime football. Bayern were never in it and were never going to be in it when we had 11 men.

And then Rafael got sent off.

This is where I disagree with Sir Alex.I can understand some people saying it was a bit harsh but I think we have enough experience to know that European referees are much stricter than the ones in the Premier League.The fact is this -Ribery turned Rafael, and was clearly away. Tugging him back is not an attempt to play the ball and is therefore cynical and unsporting behaviour. Consequently, it is a yellow card offence. It just so happens he had picked up a cheap yellow card in the opposing wing in the first half for his naive retaliation and 2 yellows equals 1 red.

I think it's irrelevant whether it looked like the referee was about to let Rafael off the hook before the Bayern players surrounded him. We will never know what the ref was thinking at the time, and I think in this case we have to trust that the referee would not be unduly influenced by a pack of players, even if he did have the bulldog spittle of van Bommel spraying in his face. I suspect that the boss doesn't really dispute the sending off as well, and he's just saying that to try and protect Rafael a bit. I can't imagine what it feels like to be him right now - his sending off essentially caused us to lose a game which would seem to have been the reason we surrendered the league initiative to Chelsea at the weekend. Keep in mind that he is only 19, a little young, a little naive, and to make such a huge error of judgement on such a massive stage that is the Champions League would shatter anyone's confidence to bits. Let's hope Gary Neville or Rio or Giggsy or Scholesy puts an arm around him in training tomorrow and get him back to where he was mentally. There is no doubting his potential, let's not forget he did a great job against Ribery (a job I honestly didn't think he was capable of doing at this stage) before he got sent off. Unlike some, I hope he quickly learns from it, moves past it and goes on to be the player we all know he can be.

However, in spite of the loss I think we can say that there were many more positives for us than negatives. Let's look at the big picture people, we might have lost the CL his year, but there is still a CL next year and the year after next. Not sure about the 2012/2013 season seeing as the world will end and all. We had our kids out there today and they played a great game. The decision to start Gibson turned out to be a stroke of managerial genius. I think Gibbo enjoys the position he played in this game a bit further up the pitch rather than his usual role. He was constantly pushing up harrying van Buyten into mistakes and was a real problem for the center backs who weren't sure whether to come out and close him down or ease off and let him hit a shot. I know many who don't see Gibson as a long-term United player, but this game could turn out to be a landmark game for him where he pushes on and becomes our next Scholes. Watch this space.

And then we come to Nani. Oh glorious Nani. This isn't the same player we had 12 months ago. Everything he said in the off-season, about how much he loves United and now understands what it means to be a Red Devil seemed convenient lip service to try and convince Ferguson to give him some playing time. And so it was compounded when he had a pretty average start to the season and fans couldn't wait for the transfer window to open so we could at least recoup some money from the Indian Ronaldo. "Failure!" we cried. "Prima donna!" some shouted. And then Arsenal happened and it all changed.

Put simply, Nani was our best player on the night and showed why many thought he would be the next Ronaldo. Excellent on the ball, searing pace, intelligent runs, Rooney-esque commitment to getting back and most importantly for Nani great decision-making. It seems the boy has finally turned a corner and he's reaping the benefits of a newfound commitment to the shirt. Even when he was chucked up front alone he was great closing down defenders, chasing lost causes and almost sealed the tie for us if not for a good save from their goalkeeper. He was the one player that got the fans excited after Rooney went off and it's great to see him finally starting to live up to his potential.

It's really a shame that we're out. No one doubts that we were by far and away the better side over the two legs and some bad luck and sloppy defending cost us. The effort some of the lads put in - Valencia, Evra, Rio and Fletcher - really deserved more. Just briefl touching on the Rooney starting subject. It was a gamble, it did have some effect on the match in that it galvanised the players and created more space for Valencia and Nani to operate but I think he should have come off at half time. Granted he only played 10 minutes of the second half, but he was clearly struggling after rolling the ankle again, but I don't belive it's too serious and while he may miss Blackburn he should be back for the remainder of the games.

On the whole we can take a lot of positives from the game with regard to our younger players and the way the team played. Yes we were unlucky, but I think it's also a good learning experience for them and being United players, they will bounce back and be better for it. And as for the Champions League, Barcelona are going to win it easily now. We were the only team that would have caused them some trouble in the final.

Google vs. China

I'm sure everyone knows this isn't a new issue. About a month ago, Google servers somehow managed to get hacked by sources from China - eventually proven to be hackers with relations to the government - and the email accounts of various human rights activists were compromised. In retaliation, Google hacked the hackers back (thus finding out the identity of the Chinese hackers) and threatened to pull out of the country, before thinking about the dollar signs and instead threatened to stop censoring Google search results in China.

Well, since that whole fiasco, things have gone quiet until now. According to this article on Engadget, the big G is just about ready to lift the censorship, and surprise, surprise the Chinese government ain't happy bout it. But of course, in an issue such as this, we get the free speech zealots coming out of the woodwork trumpeting this decision by Google - Free speech for all! Censorship is bad! Screw the Chinese government and their totalitarian ways!

But do people actually realise that what Google is doing may be wrong?

Let's look at the facts here. I think by now there's no denying that the Chinese government got in touch with some people to hack into email accounts. Google's hack-back proves it and I make no excuses for the government here. It's a scummy act, and one that should not be condoned.

Google's initial reaction was to pull out of China. Right minded people called bullshit. No way Google was going to pull out of a country with the most Internet users in the world. It was just too large a market to not be a part of, and with Google basically being the Internet it would quite simply be a stupid move.

Now this censorship thing. Let me preface this by saying I lived in China for a while last year. And I admit I am no expert on the manner, but this is how I see it. Censoring information about factual historical events is wrong, censoring words like 'revolution', 'falun dafa' and 'democracy' is wrong. This is general information which should be available to anyone, regardless of where they live and how they access it.

But this is the policy of the government. Now, I am not saying that governments are always right nor that people should bow down to their government's every demand (*cough*Singapore*cough*), but who is Google to come in and tell the Chinese government how to run their country? The Chinese government allowed Google to operate there in the first place, and now they want to hold an entire country to ransom?

Make no mistake about it, the reason Google went into China and agreed to all the censorship laws in the first place was money. As much as they trumpet "Don't be evil", Google is a corporation - a publically listed one at that - and their goal is to make money. So for them to come now and suddenly tout themselves as guardians of the Chinese right to free speech; for them to disguise themselves as corporate advocates instead of a profit-hungry organisation is hypocritical and an insult to the intelligence of those who see right through it.

 Let's go back to the start. Why did Google make such a big deal out of some of their gmail accounts being hacked that they threatened to pull out of the country? Again, I am not advocating what had been done, but I can't help feeling that this was merely a smokescreen to cover up the REAL issue here - Google's servers got hacked.

Yes, the servers at the world's premier tech company got hacked and they had to save face by diverting our attention elsewhere. Where else better than the emotional and controversial subject of Chinese governmental policy?

All I'm trying to say is that Google have no right to fly in the face of the Chinese government like that. The Chinese people will eventually start to fight for their right to free speech, and it is not Google's business to interfere. People forget that slavery was still around in America only 50 years ago. China is a country which has only very recently opened its economy up to the world. They are going through their own Industrial Revolution right now, having gone from being a nobody to one of the most influential countries on the world stage. As China matures there will be more calls internally for better human rights policies - it is simply the natural progression of a country.

No one can change the policies of the Chinese government except the Chinese people themselves. Google are not the ones who are going to come and instigate a revolution. They should not use this a cover up their own fallacies. It is despicable. It would certainly be a shame if Google were to be kicked out of the country by the government but I can't say I would blame them. Google should get back to who they really are - a tech company. Leave the politics to the politicians.

Passion

Reading a recent blog post from an old classmate on passion and work really struck a chord with me. Basically, her story is she's from a pretty well-to-do family but she's still very humble and not snoot at all. She managed to get in to LSE and after that reached a crossroads where she got an amazing opportunity to do a postgraduate degree at some really prestigious university or go back and work for her dad in his business. She chose the latter.

So that's the backstory. She wrote the post talking about how lucky she is to be in a job that she is passionate about, in an industry that she is passionate about. Well, I find it hard to believe that she can be as passionate about the construction industry as she is about the Chanel Fall/Winter line, but I guess an interest seed was planted in her from a really young age and so she is where she is now.

Obviously, this got me thinking about my own situation. Currently unemployed (but looking!), my initial impression coming straight out of uni was that I was going to kill myself at an investment bank. Why? Well, it just seemed the natural progression from a Finance degree, and the pinnacle of the financial industry is investment banking. So that was my aim, investment banking.

But a year on I have to say I'm probably glad that I didn't get into that. I know I have no right to say this - I still have no job and am still going to apply for them this recruitment period, and if I get an offer (unlikely) I would accept - but it's just an industry I don't have a passion for.

I think it's pretty undisputed that the people at the very top of their industry are passionate about what they do. Jamie Dimon probably gets a hard-on from a 1 basis point rise in hedge fund returns. Vincent Tan probably rips his clothes off and gyrates vigorously to "You Sexy Thing" everytime a Cosway store opens up. (At this rate he's going to break a hip). Tiger Woods probably blows a load everytime the ball goes into the hole. Yup, I'm just gonna gloss over that one.

The thing is, these guys have a passion for what they do. Do what you love and you never have to work a day in your life. That's the old saying and how true it is. I recently attended an information session by JPMorgan and was just struck at the questions people were asking during the networking period. What's JPMorgan's policy towards risk management? How has the landscape changed since the GFC? What would you say are the core values of your firm? And they were genuinely interested in the answers to these questions GENUINELY INTERESTED. And the guy at IB wasn't giving simple one or two line answer either. Noooo, he was taking at least 7 minutes to answer a question. 7 minutes of constant talking. About risk management policies.

I think it was then that it really struck me that investment banking is not for me. It really is a 24/7 job, and I can't imagine surrounding myself with forex rates and securitised loan figures and debt market capitalisation numbers all the time.

So what am I passionate about? Hmm - Manchester United, hating on the iPhone, FIFA, the fried sotong at Nirwana, managing my love/hate relationship with Korean culture (hate) and their women (love) - not things I can envision building a conglomerate out of. But what I am looking for in a job I know much better too - good work/life balance, opportunity to pursue personal goals, the opportunity to work on different things, mobility (!). I don't see myself chained to a desk. I see myself out and about, meeting people and doing a varied range of work in different countries. That's the sort of work I can see myself enjoying and therefore, working my hardest at.

This time round, maybe I've found the industry. Management consulting. It's very interesting. And very very appealing. And it makes me excited about working. In the big players there. Much much more so than at a big investment bank. But it's as hard to get into as one of those big boys on Wall Street. So hopefully fingers crossed I get a chance. I'm just hoping to get interviews. One step at a time.

Hello world

Well good day to you sir, and welcome to this tiny corner of the web. Since this is the first post, it's probably right to give a brief introduction of the blog.

So what is the concept of fit?

Well, the real answer is I don't really know yet. The initial idea is that this is supposed to be a men's style blog, but not like all the other ones on the web which focus on USD$150 pocket squares and USD$300 sweat pants. See, there exists a niche of good style blogs which focus on affordability without sacrificing looks. There are millions of them for the ladies, but none for men. So here's to trying to fill that niche.

But a blog being a blog, there are definitely other things I will post about. It could be about music, movies, politics, technology - pretty much anything which I think is interesting really. So I guess the best thing is to just let things go, evolve, and then we can come to a conclusion of what the concept of fit is really about.