Let's admit it, we have no talent!

Let's admit it, we have no talent!

OKOCHA: In a class of his own

• Easy walk in the park for Nigerians

• Okocha's Nigeria thump Zimbabwe

• Fans disrupt Warriors' training

• Ndlovu taunts Nigerians

• Warriors hit by match fixing claims

• Nengomasha, Nyazika named in cheating scam

• EXPOSED: Footy cheating scandal

• Gumbo given 6 months

• Ndlovu hat-trick sparks riots Swaziland

• Hands off Rahman Gumbo!

• Zimbabwe in draw with Algeria

• Come on Zimbabwe!

• Gumbo guides Warriors to 1-1 draw in Gabon

• Marimo quits Warriors

• Sono tipped for Warriors

By Oswald Sibanda
Sports Editor

"ANGER is is seldom without an argument but seldom with a good one," Lord Halifax once said.

In the excited anger that followed Zimbabwe's 3-0 drubbing by the Nigerians on Sunday, fair analysis has been clouded by emotional claptrap dressed as patriotic comment.

It is interesting to see how head coach Rahman Gumbo is being blamed for almost everything that went wrong on Sunday, forget it was his first defeat since taking charge!

In fact, nothing should surprise us about this anti-Gumbo coalition which is backed by those sanctimonious clowns at the Herald.

It was the Herald which first criticised Gumbo - even before he had taken the job from Sunday Marimo who resigned because he didn't want the help of a technical adviser.

Gumbo, the Herald said, should have resigned in solidarity with Marimo.

It would be asking for too much, therefore, to expect the same people who have been falling over each other to undermine Gumbo to offer a fair analysis on the day things didn't go well not only for the team but for the country.

Every time the sorry state of Zimbabwean football is discussed, I am always reminded of Scotland - another country whose national expectation is not matched by ability.

Scotland have been hiring and firing coaches because they have repeatedly failed to qualify for major tournaments. They continue to hire more, and they continue to fail, and the anger and consternation has been growing.

What the Scots don't realise is that they neither have talent, nor technical ability and adequate stamina to compete with the best. Their squad is just a mixture of never-have-beens and nobodies.

All these are sadly true for Zimbabwe.

To expect Harlington Shereni, whose only claim to fame is scoring against South Africa several years back, to compete on the same level with Austin Jay Jay Okocha and the sterile Dumisani Mpofu to effectively deal with Yakubu Aiyegbeni is stretching it.

To quote our Harare correspondent Mthulisi Mathuthu, our Warriors are nothing but "a hotchpotch of ordinary players plying their trade in peripheral leagues
around the globe".

Even if they got a coach from mars, without talent in the squad, we will always be second best. We have been trying to qualify for the World Cup for nearly two decades, but that has not made these arm-chair critics stop and think. It surely can't be the problem of coaches all the time.

As the inquest into Sunday's defeat began, in came news of gross unprofessionalism in the squad. Now THERE lies the problem, not Rahman Gumbo.

The Zimbabwe Football Association is guilty of conspiring with an unprofessional bunch of failed players to not only undermine Gumbo, but also cause a national disgrace.

Take the case of Shingirayi Kawondera. He was spotted in a Harare nightclub in the small hours of Friday morning. What did the blundering, Herald-driven Zifa do? They just fined him $2 million and let him stay on in camp.

"This whole scenario did not start this time. It has been going on for a long time. They turned the training camp into a holiday camp and their girlfriends were coming in at the hotel," Zifa chairman Rafiq Khan admitted.

Khan's comments are a damning indictment of Zifa, and its attendent poor administration and lack of decisiveness within its ranks. It lacks men of courage and backbone.

Ok, for those who believe in miracles, if Zimbabwe managed to sneak their way into the World Cup finals with our football in its present state, that would cause a major international embarassment when we come against the Patrick Vieiras and Thierry Henrys!

I say we must be thankful that the embarassment which we suffered at the hands of Nigeria is nothing more than a domestic setback which we have become so accustomed to.

Instead of hurling stones at Rahman Gumbo, its time to start a slow and painful rebuilding process. We still have the Nations Cup and Cosafa Cup to play for, and we risk losing everything if we react with unnecessary emotion to a straight-forward defeat.
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ozzie@newzimbabwe.com