We can learn from the English Premier League some things, which will tell us the direction we are headed for. At the same time, there are also, from the same league, things we can learn to know how best we should live with or treat the leadership in the football industry in our country.
Let us, for instance, take from that league a team so publicized, so renowned worldwide, Manchester United. In our country and maybe elsewhere in Africa, the team is favorably referred to by adoring fans as Man U.
Alexander Chapman Ferguson or Alex Ferguson, as his darling fans refer to him, took over management of Man U in 1986 when the team was a horde of players with nowhere to go, a walkover pitiable team that always lost matches under a coach called Ron Atkinson.
Alex turned Man U round full circle. With Ferguson as its manager Man U ruled the British soccer world. Indeed, for 26 years Man U trounced teams across Europe to earn for its manager the prestigious title of ‘Sir’-- Sir Alex Ferguson.
Surely, Sir Ferguson was a superb football manager fort in 1999 his team Man U won three title- the Champions League, Premier League and the FA Cup in the same year, an achievement which won him the Knighthood.
Let Atkinson and Ferguson be for now. Our story is about why we keep losing marches despite our hard training by foreign coaches from all nations. We mentioned Alexander Ferguson only to show that success comes after long hard work.
That is, in a period with some people at some place. Then it will be gone as it came. Why that happens is what will take us back to Ferguson.
Talk of the great footballers the great Scotch has been with his team; David Beckham, Dwight York and Andrew (Andy) Cole. Put them all together and give them a manager with the temperament of Alex Ferguson and you have a formidable team of football players.
It takes a long time for such a combination to come along once again somewhere, sometime. When the winning days come along, you can say you are on your high days. The losing days form the converse.
No matter what you do during your low days, you just won’t succeed to reverse the situation. It simply means good coachers or managers for that matter, are always there. So are good players.
All it takes is bringing the two together. That, you may say, is the right time. All the defeats our national team has suffered merely compose a period for a search for the right time. The dismissals and hires of coaches from overseas and within are but a search for the glorious time. Hopefully, that time is around the corner.
For quite some time, our national team has not done well enough in international matches. Apparently though, they seem to be improving and the day Taifa Stars will be a force to reckon with on the continent of Africa is somewhere in the air.
Diligence and patience will bring the glory. So while we may argue there are good trainers, their skill to train alone cannot win a match. And although there are good players, their ability to play well alone cannot win a match for the team.
That is perhaps why despite engaging good coaches, both local and foreign; we have not won a major international championship. Moreover, there are many things to learn, the presence of a good coach and good players notwithstanding.
We have perhaps set too high expectations to live up to every time we have a new coach. To us the new coach, despite the quality of players under him, must produce good results immediately despite the absence of other important or necessary aspects the background of players and the political state.
Time allowance for the coach and his new team to produce good results is what has been lacking in our soccer world. A new coach has more been expected to listen to the whims and preference of the fans than given time to teach the team the way he knows.
