COUNTDOWN

Local coach should replace Santana - readers

October 20 2009 at 03:58PM

By Ainsley Daniels

Bafana coach Joel Santana has parted company with South African soccer, leaving the national team without a leader only months from the 2010 World Cup.



Bafana Bafana has gone through fifteen coaches in fifteen years, and the most successful coach in all that time was South Africa's very own Clive 'The Dog'Barker

IOL asked its readers: Who should replace Joel Santana?

Of the 823 people who participated in the 83 percent (687 votes) said "Local coach" and 17 percent (136 votes) said "Foreign Coach"
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Here are some of the comments posted online:

Themba: Gavin Hunt should replace Santana if we are looking at performance in the past couple of years. If sentiment, then either of Barker, Jomo or Ingesund, but I fear that sentiment will not do now. Find someone who has proven to be a good coach and has converted that into titles for Supersport United

James: Heaven help whoever does get the job. I don't envy him one bit. Coaching Bafana is the most criticised job in the country except perhaps for the presidency. What we do need though is stability and no "political" interference by the big soccer teams leadership.

Tebogo: The problem with south African soccer is that the blame is emphasised on the coach. How do you blame the coach if he has undisciplined players to work with? Not only does that make his work more difficult, it increases the chances of unrest within the team unit.

JP: SA players are lazy and not committed. It is easy to blame the coach but he is not on the field. He is not the one faking injuries, missing easy goals and questioning every decision the refs make. Wake up!! Until we get rid of the prima donnas in the team and put players there that desperately want to be there we will always be a useless soccer country.


Mattimus: 1. Bad players plus good coach equals mediocre team, or worse. 2. Bad players cannot be turned into good players within a couple of months. 3. Foreign coaches can be blamed for not understanding the dynamics of local "talent". 4. SAFA won't be wanting to face the humiliation of a local black coach for a mostly black team sure to fail.

Fortunate: how many times are they going to change the coaches? The problem is with players not the coach. I think SAFA made a huge mistake. They should have looked at both sides, coach and the players. Pointing fingers at the coach won't help the country. The world cup is just around the corner but national team has no coach. That's the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard. What is the job of the Technical team and the assistant? Those are the things they need to look at. Let Santana go and see if they will win. It's my country but hey...the boys are very disappointing.


Don: COME ON BAFANA!!! They showed what they can do in the Confed Cup against the Worlds best, we just need a local coach, who understands the mentality of the players - Gavin Hunt would be my choice and why not have Lucas Radebe in the fold.......and please, please bring back Benni, if we'd can get some quality up front they'll do the country proud come June next year!!!


Kim:it doesn't really matter who the next coach is cos it all depends on the players n their attitudes. the moment BB wins a game, they start to think that they are too good n get swollen headed n forget about training and worry more about money.

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