Mninawa Ntloko
1 July 2009
column
Johannesburg — DEAR Joel.
Given that I am supposedly a member of a cabal hell- bent on forcing you out of the Bafana Bafana coaching job, I'm sure you didn't expect to receive one of these from me anytime soon.
I need to first point out that Bafana's performance in the Confederations Cup has not changed my opinion of you and I still maintain that if it was entirely up to me, you'd sure as hell be halfway to Rio by now.
You have still not convinced me that you actually know what you are doing and the jury is out on whether those bright sparks at the South African Football Association (Safa) are doing the right thing by continuing to entrust you with the mammoth responsibility of guiding the national team in the Soccer World Cup next year.
We both know that this Bafana team did not reach the semifinals of the Confederations Cup by design and even you are still trying to figure out just how this cosmic accident happened.
Your countrymen told us last week that back home in Brazil you are widely regarded as one of the luckiest coaches to ever walk the face of the earth. Mmmm, I wonder why.
Which brings us to the reason that we have decided to pen you this letter.
I am a man of my word and as I told you on the eve of this tournament, you needed to at least reach the semifinals of the Confederations Cup for us to leave you in peace and allow you to continue to pull that king's ransom of a salary your employers at Safa are parting with every month.
So today I'd like to turn your attention to that familiar tuneless noise that the Benni McCarthy Mercy Choir is quietly humming in the corner.
I'm sure you've noticed that members of this annoying choir have been crawling out of the woodwork at an alarming rate over the past few days, campaigning to have the petulant Blackburn Rovers striker recalled to the Bafana squad.
They are desperately trying to get their messiah a ticket to the World Cup and the campaign is under way to convince you to include the insolent one.
They argue that McCarthy should be the last piece of your jigsaw puzzle and that his finishing prowess will make Bafana a complete unit.
All of this noise is really an insult to the players who were part of the squad in the Confederations Cup as these are the men that should be the foundation of your World Cup team.
Their greedy opportunism on the eve of the Confederations Cup notwithstanding, these are the players who should take you to the global showpiece next year and you only need to make minor adjustments here and there in the next 11 months to get them to be competitive. So the name Benni McCarthy should really not even be an afterthought and you should permanently relegate him to the sidelines.
Surely you haven't forgotten how he pulled down his pants and let one rip in your direction in open defiance of his call-up for Bafana's clashes against Norway and Portugal in April?
We're so tired of his antics that many of us would much rather have Helen Zille or even Julius Malema lead the team as strikers than see McCarthy back in the squad.
Quite frankly, the days of begging the man are gone and we should move on only with those players who do not pick and choose when to play for the national team.
You developed a backbone and showed McCarthy who is the boss when you dumped him from the Confederations Cup. Now stick to your guns and do not give this prima donna so much as a sniff of the Bafana jersey ever again.
Yours faithfully,
Mninawa.
Ntloko is sports editor.
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