Part of Media job is to confuse readers and views. But sometimes other media workers take it too far (confusing people). And then there are supporters that are all talk without thinking.
Mamelodi Sundowns lost in two cups (MTN8 “Wafa Wafa” Cup and Telkom Knockout Cup), and part of media is questioning Sundowns' development. Robert Marawa went on his show to say, if Sundowns stop buying star players and concentrate on developing young players… Sundowns will be strong in the future.
Did Marawa forget that Sundowns is a big team? Are present results the ones that count? Does he know what’s the different between a small team and a big team? Does he know the pressure that a big team has? One expects someone like Marawa to speak after reasoning.
Let’s look at Orlando Pirates between 2003 and 2006, when Kosta Papic was coach of Pirates. He had more than 5 players under 23 that were regulars, and people were saying Pirates will be unstoppable in the future. The question is when is that future arriving? Most of these players were sold or given their clearance (Leremi, Manenzhe and others). And the time when Owen Da Gama was the Pirates coach; do you remember how many youngsters were in the first eleven of Bucs?
Tshepiso, Mkhwanazi, Walaza, Jele and others, how many of these players are regulars now? Most of you still remember Arthur Zwane's famous words "Kids don’t win leagues". Note that I’m not saying that big teams mustn’t play youngsters; all big teams around the world have at least 2 under 23 youngsters.
Even Sundowns have Robny and Twala. It’s like in South Africa we have lot of people who just talk. Media and supporters are both saying Sundowns should develop its players, on other hand they are saying Chiefs must buy players.
Which one they want, no one knows. If you want you can check all over the world what big teams are doing. AC Milan... how many players they bought and how many they are developing? Same with Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich. Manchester United is one of the team that has more players from their development.
If we think before we talk maybe we can take our football to another level instead of when a team lose we came up with different excuses.
Remember this is not personal but my view.
DR NDIVHUWO
