THANK GOD, THE COLD WAR IS OVER

Sharuko on Saturday

I FIRST arrived in Birmingham in July 2002. My home, during that stay, was a friend’s rented ground-floor apartment in Edgbaston – an affluent, neat suburb southwest of the city centre.

This is also the home of Edgbaston – one of the premier cricket grounds in the world, which was first opened in 1885.

The exclusive Wellington Road in this suburb has some multi-million dollar properties where the likes of Gareth Bale and Dwight Yorke have lived in the past.

It’s also the home of Jude Bellingham who, in his youthful days, was a student of Priory School, which is in Edgbaston, before his talent took him to Real Madrid.

I was in town for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and I would commute daily between Birmingham and Manchester where the Club sports festival was being held.

It quickly dawned on me that Aston Villa and Birmingham City were the kings of Birmingham although there was also significant support, too, for West Bromwich Albion.

One day, I was in a JD Sports shop at the Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham, at a section where some Manchester United jerseys were being displayed.

I realised that the shop’s attendants appeared reluctant to help me even though they were showing a lot of enthusiasm in helping others, including some who had come after me.

Eventually, one of them came and the lady’s first question to me was why I wasn’t interested in buying either a Villa or Birmingham City jersey or even a West Brom one?

I told her I was a United fan.

And, she replied, “You live here in Birmingham?”

The message from her was very clear – this is the West Midlands, here we are loyal to our clubs – Villa, Birmingham and West Brom.

Eventually, I got my Man United shirt and even as I paid for it, I could see that there wasn’t even a hint of a smile from the guy who processed my payment and gave me a receipt.

Maybe, when I think about it now, I should have bought a Birmingham City jersey, at least for Peter Ndlovu’s sake.

The Flying Elephant had played for the Blues at the turn of the millennium and, although he had since left the club, he was still very popular with the local fans.

A few weeks later, I met King Peter and had a meal with him at a Nando’s shop, along Broad Street, in the heart of Birmingham city.

At that time, questions had started to emerge about his commitment to the Warriors’ cause with some analysts suggesting that after a dozen years of service to his country, the King appeared to have lost the appetite for battle.

He was now in the lower leagues of English football and there were some who even suggested that he was past his peak.

During that meal, against a background of Oliver Mtukudzi hit songs playing at that Nando’s shop, the King bared his soul and gave a special message to the fans.

He still had a mission to accomplish in his country’s colours. I duly delivered the message via this newspaper, the following day.

KING PETER AND IMMORTALITY

A month later, the King was the captain as Lazarus Muhoni scored the only goal in a 1-0 win over Mali at the National Sports Stadium.

It ensured the Warriors got their 2004 AFCON qualifying campaign to a perfect start.

Ten months later, on July 5, 2003, it was the King who fittingly brought the curtain down with a brace in a 2-0 win over Eritrea at the National Sports Stadium in the final game of the qualifiers.

That result powered the Warriors to their first AFCON appearance and catapulted the King and Sunday Chidzambwa into immortality.

The King is still involved in football and it appears it’s now just a question of time before he becomes the Warriors’ team manager.

After all, one of his teammates in that record-breaking Class of 2004, Kaitano Tembo, is now the Warriors coach.

The English city where we had that meal, twenty-four years ago, is today hosting Kaitano and his Warriors.

They have been based there since they arrived in the UK this week for their Unity Cup assignments next week where their first test is against the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

It’s also a return to familiar surroundings for the captain, Marvelous Nakamba, whose first dance with English football was with Aston Villa.

It’s also familiar territory for midfielder Marshall Munetsi, who has returned to the Warriors after a difficult few months, who is on the books of Wolves.

It’s a 30-minute drive, on the M6, from Birmingham to Wolverhampton.

Whoever decided that the Warriors should camp in Birmingham deserves a drink when I meet him.

They arrived in a city which is celebrating Villa’s stunning triumph, in the Europa League final, which ended the club’s 44-year wait for a European trophy.

In the past two days, the Warriors have been watching, from ringside seats, the power of success when it comes to this game.

On Thursday, they watched as thousands of Villa fans filled the Birmingham streets in a wild party of the ages which came to a climax at the city’s Centenary Square.

They know that just three years ago, their captain was good enough to play for this team, which has just won the Europa League, and brought their city to a standstill. They know that we also want them to be successful and if a club like Aston Villa can emerge from 44 years of a barren spell they, too, should also dream that they can touch the heavens.

I always tell my friends that I believe we have a decent squad of footballers who are representing us now in international assignments.

The only challenge, which I see, is that for some strange reasons, our coaches, driven by the madness of their egos, don’t seem to want to pick our best possible players.

Some of them, instead, even choose to pick fights with players.

Mario Marinica was the perfect example of a toxic disciple of this self-destruction syndrome and divided our team in a way which will take a bit of time for the cracks to be mended.

 THE COLD WAR IS OVER

He somehow decided to fight a Cold War with Munetsi.

During that impasse, I deliberately picked a side, and sided with Munetsi because no one could tell me what this inspirational Warrior had done wrong to deserve that kind of ill-treatment.

I talked to Munetsi and he was very clear and he convinced me that he had done nothing wrong and all that he needed was to represent his country.

I chose Munetsi because, unlike Mario, whose allegiance can be swayed by whoever gives him a contract and dollars, the midfielder is Zimbabwean and his identity cannot be traded.

I will always argue that if Munetsi had played a part at the AFCON finals, something he insists he was able to do, and Tawanda Maswanhise was unleashed from the word go, we would have made the knockout stages of that tournament.

In fact, I am so bullish that I believe we would have, at least, made the quarter-finals of that tourney.

It was the easiest AFCON, in history, to make it out of the group stages because, with two points, you could be handed a ticket into the knockout phase.

That’s what happened to Tanzania.

Instead, we had a coach who somehow felt that a young man, who would end up as the Golden Boot winner in the Scottish Premiership, was not good enough to play against Egypt.

He also felt that the young man was also only good enough to play just a few minutes, in the closing stages, against Angola.

When, under pressure from the public, he was forced to throw him into battle from the start, the same young man was unplayable and, in just 90 minutes of action, made such a big impression he was named among the three most promising African footballers.

We have a decent team and a look at the recent results, especially against the top sides, shows that.

In our last two appearances at the AFCONs, Senegal needed a 97th minute penalty from Sadio Mane to edge us 1-0, on their way to winning the tournament.

Egypt needed a 91st minute goal from Salah to beat us 2-1, Bafana Bafana needed an 82nd minute penalty, and our own madness, to beat us 3-2, we beat Guinea 2-1 and Nigeria failed to beat us both ‘home’ and away.

This tells me that we have the right team and where we still come short is in key areas like how to manage a tight game to ensure that we don’t lose and how to handle pressure, especially in the closing stages.

It’s a pity Bill Antonio is not available because this was a stage where he was likely to catch the eyes of some English sides with his searing pace. The sun is out in large parts of England, winter has drifted into the distance, summer is on the way and they are playing cricket again at Edgbaston.

It’s a good time for the Warriors to make a case for themselves.

To God Be The Glory

Peace to the GEPA Chief, the Big Fish, George Norton, Daily Service, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and all the Chakariboys still in the struggle.

Come on Warriors!!!!!!!!!!!!

Antoniooooooooooooo!

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