adminWHEN the English Premier Soccer League ended, age old questions over the definition of footballing success resurfaced as Arsene Wenger’s current generation of Arsenal players failed in their bid to win a trophy in seven seasons. Is winning trophies the definition of a good side? That is a question that we can debate on all night long, but if you ask players, they will tell you that winning trophies gives them a good measure of satisfaction, thus it means success. Most football fans would also agree that it proves something, but there are always those who judge teams on other merits.
They say history only remembers winners and there is no doubt that winning titles is the definition of a successful football club. But the best losers are not always forgotten, and the worst winners not always looked upon fondly, argued one writer.
Retired manager Alex Ferguson won 35 trophies with England champions Manchester United, presiding over their most successful period, and he makes an important distinction in his terming of success:
“I judge my success by trophies . . . We know we have to perform to make sure we are always up there. But what is success? You could have a team who finishes in the top three or four every season and get to the final of a cup competition but don’t go on and win it. I don’t think that is failure.
That is relative success. You have kept your team in a competitive situation throughout the season. You are in Europe and contesting the Champions League,” he was quoted as saying.
Ferguson managed United to success in trophies, but also relative success too, consistently maintaining competitiveness, and only going two or three years without a trophy, including in the transition years from 2004 until 2007. United undoubtedly replaced Liverpool as the dominant club in England based on the trophy record, English writers argue.
However, in perspective, United’s current wealth of trophies came after a prolonged period with few successes, and thirty five years without a league title. And the world seems to have forgotten that, and the world has even forgotten that Barcelona had no trophy from 1999 to 2005, but once they started to get them coming, and they are still counting, all the dark days are forgotten because everyone is enjoying the success of winning trophies.
French international William Gallas is on record saying Wenger is wrong to focus on qualifying for the Champions League over winning trophies. This was after Wenger claimed that securing a berth in the top four is more important than winning the FA Cup or League Cup.
But Gallas believes landing silverware should be all player’s number one priority, not finishing second, third or fourth.
“To finish second or fourth is not the same as finishing top, as champions. It is completely different. You are so happy to lift a trophy — it is the real thing to do. For me, a trophy is something you lift at the end of the season and I know it’s a fantastic feeling. It doesn’t happen many times through your career, so for me to finish second or fourth isn’t the same as finishing top, as champions. It’s completely different.
“You feel different because you are the best team — the best player. You are so happy to lift a trophy — it’s the real thing to do. It is a long time since Tottenham have lifted a trophy and I don’t know which one we are going to lift. But for sure we want to lift one — anyone will be pretty good so we will wait and see.”
You cannot argue anymore, those are the words coming from a player who has seen it all at club and national team level. And we come back home, a former Highlanders player took me to task a few weeks ago on why the media says “Kaindu is a history making coach” at Highlanders.
From his understanding, the history making should be positive for it to be hyped all over again, and to him, Kaindu was not yet successful at the club because he was yet to win a trophy.
“It’s too early to say Kaindu is one of the best coaches at Highlanders or is history making because he is yet to give us a trophy or a championship. That is how you measure the success of a coach and not just an unbeaten record,” he argued.
Football is a game where everyone has an opinion. When there are 30 000 fans at Barbourfields watching Highlanders play Dynamos, you are assured of getting 30 000 opinions on a single issue and perhaps that is what makes football exciting, but which ever you look at Kaindu and his performance thus far at Highlanders, you will agree that he has scored some “relative success” to borrow Ferguson’s words.
Kaindu’s predecessor, Mkhuphali Masuku, managed to win the Independence Trophy in 2011, which is always an invitational tournament and some leagues do not count such competitions when it comes to trophy statistics because some teams are left out not by “merit”, but by other factors. But in our case in Zimbabwe, we cannot afford to ignore the Independence Trophy and the Charity Shield.
They are important to us and count a lot because in any case, we have few cups to play for.
Nonetheless, apart from the Independence Trophy, the trophy cabinet at Highlanders has been empty, with the last cup being the Championship trophy in 2006 coming from Methembe Ndlovu.
Perhaps that is one reason that has excited football fans with the coming back of the BankABC Super Eight tournament.
It gives clubs something to fight for, apart from winning the title, as there is a tournament to play in after finishing in the top half of the log come end of season and the tournament has since become the richest in terms of prize money to the winners—$120 000.
To all teams, there are now four trophies to play for in a season, the NetOne Charity Shield, BankABC Trophy, Mbada Diamonds Trophy and the Castle Lager PSL Championship and with the Charity Shield already taken by Chicken Inn, the three are still there for the taking and we all know, big boys play to win trophies, just like what Dynamos have been doing in recent years.
The top eight tournament this season features Chicken Inn, Shabanie Mine, Buffaloes, FC Platinum, Highlanders, Dynamos, Motor Action and Monomotapa.
Highlanders were paired against FC Platinum, and they square off in Masvingo tomorrow, while Chicken Inn set the ball rolling yesterday against Shabanie Mine. Dynamos meet Buffaloes and holders Motor Action will date Monomotapa.
Motor Action won the last final in 2011 when they beat Highlanders 1-0 at Barbourfields stadium through an Allan Gahadzikwa first half goal and they however, go into the match a pale shadow of the side that was gunning for honours in recent years.
On the other hand, Highlanders are a relatively new team from the one that lost in the 2011 finals, perhaps with the likes of Ariel Sibanda, Innocent Mapuranga, Erick Mudzingwa and Graham Ncube the only players who were there before.
The Bulawayo giants also go into the match with a lot of expectations from their fans. While the Bulawayo giants are still much in contention for the league title, their fans and players know very well that winning a trophy during the course of the season will lessen the pressure come end of season.
The past two league matches have gone terribly wrong as they lost to Chicken Inn and CAPS United, but those who have followed football long enough will tell you that cup games are different.
What makes cup games more exciting, especially the BankABC tournament, is that winners are wanted on the same day, so there is no room for a draw, and after Highlanders and FC Platinum drew in a league game in Zvishavane, the same cannot happen this afternoon.
Both teams are playing away from home, though Platinum are closer to home, but Highlanders will find solace in that they have gone to Masvingo for some serious fights before and come out unscathed, and even had the luxury of sealing the championship away in Masvingo at the turn of the new millennium.
Highlanders coach, Kaindu, conceded that his boys were not at their best in recent league matches, but was optimistic that they will come out victors.
“It has been a challenging first half but the comforting thing is that we are in a position (top) that we really wanted to be at this time of the season. What is different this season is that every team is picking up points and games are just unpredictable which makes competition even more interesting.
“There are 15 more games to go, we have to work hard and take each game as it comes. We are going to beef our squad and we will have two or so players from the first Division joining us,” said Kaindu.
Kaindu is aware of his strikers’ impotence.
“We have come short upfront but the guys have done well under the circumstances. There is a need to beef up our strike force and there are players who we have been monitoring and we will have two or so players from the First Division joining us.
On the other hand, former Dynamos midfielder and coach Lloyd Mutasa became the seventh coach of FC Platinum since they came into the Premier league. He is likely to sit on the bench for the first time today.
Mutasa was announced as the acting head coach for the remainder of the season, with his role been stated as in charge of the developmental teams.
The concept of having him as the acting head coach could be signalling a new first team coach in 2014. Will he record a grand arrival with victory over Bosso?
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Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter