As he dropped hints that he'll replace Joel Santana as Bafana Bafana coach more than a week ago, Carlos Alberto Parreira told the Brazilian media with some confidence: "They like me there."
By "they", he was referring to South Africans who bemoaned his hurried departure in April 2008 and spent the early part of the disastrous 17 months of Santana's tenure hankering for the Parreira regime.
But Parreira will return to the country next week to find he's horribly wrong. He's far from "liked", perhaps except by the new Safa leadership who travelled all the way to Rio to secure the signature of a coach who until last week was unemployed.
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The general sentiment among South Africans is that Parreira has done a lot of damage - directly - to the national team, and opinion polls reflect that he'll not be received as warmly as he was when he reported for his first spell in January 2007.
Then, the Brazilian looked like a real saviour, a World Cup-winning coach who said the right things as he laid the foundation to next year's finals. He had bodyguards following him around as if he were some senior state official, and photographers staking him out as he viewed plush houses around Joburg.
The fascination around him, of course, was triggered mainly by the thought of one man banking R1,8-million every month. What kind of a home would he buy, we wondered?
But few would now care whether Parreira stays in a villa in Sandton or a seaside home in Cape Town. Bafana are staring down a precipice eight months before the World Cup, and the fans are evidently furiously opposed to Parreira's second coming.
Had he watched an SABC talkshow on Sunday, Parreira would have changed his statement about being "liked" here. Asked to SMS "yes" or "no" on whether rehiring the Brazilian was a good thing, 99 percent of the respondents replied "no".
It was an emphatic rejection of Parreira, but it doesn't end there. Callers to radio phone-ins have deplored Parreira's return, and even show hosts who unashamedly tried to convince their listeners he's the right man have found it tough to continue doing his bidding.
Two local football websites also ran polls that would have had the new Safa leadership thinking they may have erred in their first major decision. One asked if Parreira's return was "good or bad". About 70 percent of respondents chose the latter. On another, only 18 percent of over 5200 voters thought his comeback would lead to remarkable improvement.
The anger from South Africans is understandable. They blame Parreira for bequeathing to them Santana, the most clueless national coach possible. Parreira cannot solely be blamed for the muddled hiring of Santana, but putting such an empty head on the list of possible successors upon his departure was inexcusable.
For all the emergence of new information that Molefi Oliphant was responsible for employing Santana, Parreira's influence on this senseless transaction cannot be understated. He sold us a dud.
Also standing against Parreira is his record during his first spell. Confronted by Angola, Tunisia and Senegal at the 2008 African Nations Cup, his side could only manage two points and bombed out in the first round.
Fired by Brazilian local side Fluminense in July, how would he really redress the mess left behind by his out-of-depth compatriot? Was Parreira's wife really sick when he abandoned ship last year, or did he leave just to bring in one of his friends to make a quick buck? Is he now coming back because he's unemployed? And why did he so publicly campaign for the position even before Santana was fired?
These are the kind of questions that will dog Parreira when he lands at OR Tambo International next week and the only way to evade them is for him to deliver.
He has to make an immediate impact. A major shift from the Santana madness has to be seen for him to reclaim the respect that South Africans once had for him.
Clearly, most of it has now been eroded and excuses such as "where's your reserve league?" would destroy it - and his credibility - completely. He is certainly not as liked as he believes.
- This article was originally published on page 20 of The Star on October 31, 2009
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