SonOfAPitch

According to a source that wished to remain nameless, he is missing his family and his wife is sick and lonely.

Carlos, I for one will miss you and your reasonably no-nonsense approach to coaching a bunch of sissies and drama queens.  But, I wonder, what will happen now?

Trott Moloto has been appointed as caretaker coach how many times now?  And if memory serves me correct, wasn’t he fired as coach of the side himself?

With a country gearing to host the first World Cup on African soil this announcement from the graying Carlos could not have come at a worse time.  SA soccer SEEMED to have gotten its act together with a decent display against Paraguay when they drubbed them 3-0.  And with a wealth of friendly matches lined up for the hosts up to 2010 it looked like the much needed international experience a lot of the young players needed was being hand delivered by XPS!  But game time against world class opposition means jack s#@ t if you have no one capable of taking such a match and turning it into reference book for the players to feed off of.

It is probably too early to speculate about a possible successor to Carlos.  But I can almost certainly stick my head out by saying that it will be a South African taking charge.  For too long the bosses have denied themselves a bigger bonus due to the big paycheck they had to sign for old Carlos.  Who better to rope in than a man that would work for a year’s supply of petrol and a paycheck he could use to put one child through school.

I am very sorry if I come across as pessimistic about the future of our football come next Monday, but South African soccer bosses have, too many times in the past, stuck their foot in it and made great decision making look like a pipedream.  The last great decision they made was to appoint Carlos, and even then they were divided in that decision.  The man had no knowledge of our football, the tiny pool of decent players to choose from, a horde of pessimistic elitists breathing down neck and too many reporters condemning him for his salary to contend with.  Yet he did remarkably well.  I don’t want to speak too soon, but I don’t think for one second that we have someone inside our borders capable of taking the reigns and running with it.

Monday will be a sad day for SA soccer.  One could only hope that the dark clouds will lift and someone will take responsibility for the wellbeing of the soccer in this country in the same way a foreigner did until now.

Ciao