On Foreign Imports

Hi children, first of all, good job thrashing my friends 6-3, heard that the team played pretty well. Anyway my vote for player of the year would be KS wheras the biggest blunder surely has to go to Reubs one way or another. We might want to have one more "most number of foul throws". I'm sure everyone knows who is most deserving of that honor hahaha..

Anyway the purpose of this post is to comment on the issue of guest players. It seems like there are imported players featuring in the starting eleven while our own players are sitting out on the bench. If our players are sitting out as a 'punishment' (whether for being late, for missing training, etc.), I think that's fine. But if the reason for playing an imported player in the starting eleven is simply because he appears to be a better player somehow, then I think something is very wrong here. We started out knowing the various strengths and weaknesses of each of our players. There is no reason why anyone should be penalised for their weaknesses now. If anytime a 'better' player appears for 1 or 2 weeks, then we throw our own player out, we might as well not have a team.

Imported players should only be called up in the event we don't have enough core players to fill up a decently-numbered team. And imported players should be turned away even if our own player commits his availablity only one day prior to the match. I see no problem with telling your imported friend you have to play him out because your own keeper decided that he can play at the last minute.

My point is, we are not professionals. We play for leisure, and obviously its more fun when everyone feels belonged to the team. Some say that the team spirit seems to be waning - if any one of the nineteen names listed on the right panel of this blog gets dropped simply because an impressive outsider comes along, what team spirit is there to speak of?

PS: Just some thoughts to share, feel free to drop me for inciting unrest within the 'team'. Haven't been turning up for the past few weeks, so I may be wrong about some 'observations'. Anyway, just a gentle reminder to all - don't let fancy new players distract you from the fact that we still have a core of players zealously waiting to sweat it out for the team week in week out.