When it comes to South African football or soccer, both Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs used to come on top of mind. Now is no longer the case as both teams are struggling to make the top 3 in the country’s [PSL] Premier Soccer League.
Both football clubs they have been battling to win the league for the past 5 plus years. Back in the days, Chiefs and Pirates used to be known for winning top titles and the league non-stop.
You might be asking yourself, what could be the reason for Pirates and Chiefs not to win the leagues and other titles in between? The answer is simple, both teams are stingy and don’t want to spent money on buying players that can help them to win the championships.
Instead, they focus on amateurs and they called it development. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against development and I’m not knocking it at all. Focusing on development is a good thing however, players from development alone cannot make the team to win the league, its other way around, big players in combination with development bring results.
The throne that Pirates and Chiefs used to enjoy over the years has been taken by Mamelodi Sundowns just after the billionaire and entrepreneur Dr. Patrice Motsepe has taken over the team. Dr. Motsepe invested a lots of money in the club and results are coming year in and year out.
Moving to England, Manchester United is in the same situation as Pirates and Chiefs they used to dominate English football however, today the emperor is naked and his balls are lingering and running around like marbles.
Man United fans are having a meltdown everywhere, one of them is the club legend Gary Neville. The club’s former defender is calling Man United owners, Glazers Family to sell the team because the team has been suffering from endless defeats since they have taken over.
According to Neville the Glazers family have taken the club to the dogs for the past decade and they don’t know how to run a football team.
Neville in broadcast rant on Sky Sports over the weekend said: “They can’t spend the money – and that’s a big problem. I said at half-time, if you’re a player watching that performance what are you thinking? It is a great club, magic club, its been the biggest thing in my life and I couldn’t be more proud to support them. But at this moment in time it is really desperate. There’s no leadership, no voice, you can’t blame individual players or the manager.”
“You have to look above, you have to look at the very top. This week, they’re going to get peppered. But there’s a family over there in America who are letting their employees take all the hits and that is unforgivable. Joel Glazer has got to get on a plane tomorrow, get over to Manchester and tell everyone what the hell his plan is with the football club.”
Do I agree with Neville’s rant? Yes and No…. Here’s my two reasons: In some parts I do agree with Neville that, the moral is very low at Manchester United and the new coach doesn’t inspire confidence at all.
1. The recruitment system of the team has been out of line and shambolic for the past decade, post Alex Ferguson. The team also struggled to identify the right manager to lead the team and bring better results to make fans happy.
2. On the other part, the current players need to take responsibility and respect the batch of the team and take pride in what they’re doing, after all Man United is not just another team is an institution, more like Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs.