The writing has been on the wall for our National football team Bafana Bafana for so long that the writing has now desperately resorted to screaming at us for action.
Another unimpressive performance by Bafana in an international friendly against an under strength Senegal at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday 29 February has extended their winless run to six games.
Pressure continues to mount on South Africa coach Pitso Mosimane. I do have some sympathy for the coach because there are some issues that are making his job very difficult. Things like players arriving late for training camps, lack of co-operation from PSL and overseas clubs, etc.
Inspite of these challenges, I’m convinced that Pitso is not the man to turn around the fortunes of Bafana Bafana. And with AFCON 2013 fast descending on us, at home, we need a national coach who can turn things around fast, very fast.
We fortunately do have such a coach in our country. He is a South African citizen, he knows local football better than most of us would ever care to know. He is the most successful coach in the PSL over its 15 year excistence.
Right now he is the best football coach in South Africa.
That coach is Gordon Igesund.
What more does Gordon have to do to prove that he has what it takes to turn Bafana Bafana's fortunes around in a short space of time. Anyone who needs to be convinced of this should just look at his track record.
Igesund is the only man to coach four different top-flight teams to the Premier Soccer League championship.
He first made his name when he led unfashionable coastal team Manning Rangers to the inaugural PSL title in the 1996/97 season. He followed this up in the 2000/01 season with another title, this time at the helm of Soweto giants Orlando Pirates. Despite his success with the Buccaneers, Igesund was not popular with the Pirates faithful, who demanded a more attacking and entertaining brand of football than the efficient and controlled game that Igesund had fostered, leading to his departure.
He proved his critics wrong the very next season, taking another unfashionable team, Cape Town’s Santos, to a surprise PSL title in 2001/02. Igesund added to his record number of PSL titles leading Sundowns to a comfortable PSL win in 2007.
His other successes are 2000 BP Top Eight Cup winner (Orlando Pirates), 2007 SAA Supa 8 winner (Sundowns).
And to prove his immaculate pedigree as a coach, Gordon was last season roped in to save Moroko Swallows from relegation. The situation at Swallows was almost impossible. Gordon took them out of the jaws of relegation to finish 13th out f 16 PSL teams.
Gordon was then appointed Head Coach at Swallows. He immediately put plans and programmes in place to improve the situation at Swallows. Halfway down the next season Moroko Swallows are playing good consistent football, they are scoring goals, and they are sitting pretty on the PSL log.
Gordon has loyally served South African football with distinction.
But unfortunately and sadly he has always been overlooked for the position of National Football Coach of South Africa for a long time. The reasons for depriving this decorated coach the honour and opportunity to serve his country at the highest level can no longer be tolerated.
We can’t continue acting politically correct in the face of obvious solutions for the challenges facing us as a nation.
SAFA just need to be bold and do the right thing, for the sake of South African Football and to restore our much traumatised National pride.
South African Footall can no longer afford to overlook Gordon Igesund’s pedigree as a coach.
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