Last weekend we saw Bafana Bafana crash out of the CHAN tournament ceremoniously, embarrassingly and with absolutely no credit whatsoever, but is it really that surprising?
Personally I think Gordon Igesund has done a decent job since taking over the post as South Africa's national team head coach… Yes, he's made some bad decisions and is not blameless in the early exit, but it surely goes much, much deeper than that.
With the team that Igesund took to CHAN 2014, we certainly shouldn't be complaining at this stage… We should be talking about how Bafana eased through Group A and into the next round of the competition.
Yet instead we're all ranting on about how Gordon needs to go, how Fikile Mbalula stepped way out of line in his barrage on the national team and how changing the name and colours may make a difference…
Yes, it was devastating to lose so early in a second-rate tournament with such an experienced team, especially when playing against young guns, but, for me, that's where the problem lies… Where are our young guns?
I did an article for Soccer Laduma this week where I put together a squad of 23 players who were all aged 23 or under, and granted, not all of them played in the PSL and would have been available for CHAN, but quite a few of them were.
Read: Bafana Of The Future – 23 Under
The thing is… How is Gordon expected to show belief in youngsters if their own clubs don't? If we're being honest, there's only really Ajax Cape Town who consistently show faith in REAL youngsters of 18, 19 or 20. Newsflash… A 24-year-old is NOT a youngster. A 24-year-old should be reaching his peak, not breaking into a club's first team.
By the time a talented player reaches 18 SAFA, South Africa's U20 coach, South Africa's U23 coach and the Bafana coach should know exactly what the player is about… They should know his strengths, his weaknesses and whether he's got the potential to go all the way. However, to do this they need to clubs' help.
South Africa's national teams should be making a LOT more effort in helping the nation's budding footballers. We know there is an incredible amount of talent in this country, yet they only get spotted at 23… It's just not good enough.
So who do we blame for the CHAN defeat? Gordon for picking the wrong team or tactics? The clubs for beating around the bush and not releasing their players? The PSL for organising league games in the middle of the competition? The players for simply not stepping up to the plate when they were called upon?
Or SAFA, for continually failing to deal with the real issues in South Africa and supporting a long-term goal of finally becoming the best team in Africa, a goal that, with the right organisation, is achievable.
Make your own decision.
By Joe Crann?
Follow me on Twitter: @YesWeCrann
