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Local teams can do better than this

Some news from camps of self-confessed big teams in the country this week left me bemused on the direction most of our teams are taking.

Take, for instance, an interview a Mighty Be Forward Wanderers official gave to a local radio on the prospects of the Nomads winning the TNM Super League. Here was the official banking on Wanderers’ resurgence in the second half of the league on fatigue that would likely affect Big Bullets’ squad.

The official is not talking about whether the team will rectify problems that made the Nomads to concede goals unnecessarily in games they were comfortably leading in the better part of the first round.

So, from the thinking of this official, the Bullets would be snoring in the second part of the season, allowing fatigue to overtake the squad while the Nomads are cruising, really? The assumption is that Bullets would be too naïve to engage an extra gear themselves; hence the Nomads would overtake them.  What strange logic?

It would do the Nomads camp some justice if they concentrated on the food that is in their plate other than that is in the neighbour’s. What happens if their neighbour applied sand in the leftovers in his plate, would they still eat the food?

Then there was the news that some Nomads main supporters committee members assumed the roles of the teams’ technical panel, taking it upon themselves to question the players on their dismal performance. Wait a minute! I thought these are supporters whose mandate does not go beyond that of the technical panel?

I do not, for example, expect to see Mr Chikaiko Phanga and his friend Mr Chikhwana, (self-confessed Nomads fans that I know) to be telling players how to hit the ball when there are proper structures at Lali Lubani Road.  I think supporters of teams in Malawi assume too much power for the detriment of the game. It is no wonder that some even control gate takings at matches, leaving team officials with no say.

Can someone bring sanity to our game, please?

Now, haven’t we all been tired of this disease of parading a team, (ask Big Bullets and Wanderers) as a big brand yet it is a perpetual beggar?  If Bullets and Nomads were big brands as officials have always wanted us to believe, they would have been running as companies by now, entities that would generate their own income. It is not like these teams were formed yesterday; why can’t they, therefore, wean themselves off this dependency syndrome?

We are always advised not to read too much into preseason games, yet the fall of Chelsea at the hands of a second string New York Red Bulls was a baptism of fire to Asmir Begovic that made rival fans laugh at and mock the team with equal measure.  But you can’t judge a player on the account of one inconsequential pre-season game. When the season begins, the player might come good to haunt all those who laughed at him.

One good thing though is that when the leading leagues finally kick-off in Europe, all teams will start with a clean slate as more will be at stake than during pre-season. Still more; enjoy the games.

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