OPINION: The call for fresh blood is justified The cry to retire veterans after they have run their race in a national team is not new, people always express different views but the truth is everything in life has got time, it is important for people to accept that life is a cycle. You cannot be in the same position forever, in football today you can be an upcoming star, tomorrow you will be a senior player and thereafter you retire to become a coach or take up another field and continue with life. Once one decides to over stay in one place with a mentality of thinking that he or she is indispensable in that particular place, the cycle gets disturbed and the continuity chain gets affected. The best way to understand our situation, is to look back and analyze how the transition in our national team has been. To start with a recent example, when Kalusha Bwalya was appointed national team coach, a number of promising youngsters like Jacob Mulenga, Rainford Kalaba and Clifford Mulenga who had not even featured for any top team in the Zambian Premier League and the likes of Isaac Chansa,Christopher Katongo, Felix Katongo, Billy Mwanza,James Chamanga,Kalililo Kakonje,Songwe Chalwe among others were introduced in the national team. Kalusha’s squad even at the 2006 AFCON was relatively young and I remember Great Kalu emphasizing a number of times that he was making a team for the future and true to his words the core of the team that won the AFCON in 2012 was from the national team which was assembled from the Peter Kaumba under 23 side, Simata Simata’s under 17 side and George Lwandamina’s under 20 side. If we look at other examples,when Godfrey Chitalu and Alex Chola were appointed national team coaches with Moses Simwala, a class of young players among them Kelvin Mutale, Numba Mwila, Moses Chikwalakwala,Kenan Simambe, Martin Mwamba, Winter Mumba, Godfrey Kangwa,Patrick Banda, Tenant Chilumba and others were fused in the senior national team. Zambia that time had a pool of experienced professionals in Europe and other places like Lucky Msiska (Belgium), Stone Nyirenda (Belgium),Ashios Melu (Greece),Charles Musonda (Belgium),Kalusha Bwalya (Holland),Webby Chikabala (Portugal),Johnson Bwalya (Switzerland), Gibby Mbasela (Germany), Pearson Mwanza (Egypt), Albert Bwalya (South Africa), Beston Chambeshi (Tunisia),Maybin Mgaiwa (Morocco),Joe Bwalya (Belgium),Shadrick Biemba (South Africa) among others but Godfrey and Alex still had to discover and develop new talent for continuity. It was actually during this time when Robert Watiakeni won a permanent position to partner Eston Mulenga in the heart of the national team defence. Sad that promising project ended abruptly after that plane crush off the coast of Libreville, Gabon. Any person who followed that project closely will agree with me, that great team was headed for greatness. Despite Godfrey and Alex not having resources to prepare the team with high profile friendlies compared to some highly paid expatriates who have coached the national team in the recent past, they still worked hard within the available local resources to prepare the team and they formed a strong team of experienced players and exciting young talent. After the 1993 plane crash, a new national team was assembled by Fred Mwila and within nine months the new Zambia national team was in the finals at the 1994 Cup of Nations in Tunisia. A similar situation happened when Ben Bamfuchile got the Chipolopolo job in 1999, we again saw a new look Chipolopolo side of promising stars .Ben brought in the likes of Mark Sinyangwe,Benard Makufi, Laughter Chilembi,Andrew Sinkala,Francis Kasonde,Numba Mumamba,Manasseh Mwanza and introduced the Nchanga Rangers partnership of Elijah Litana and Moses Sichone in the heart of Chipolopolo defence. Bamfuchile had to be brave to retire some veterans and he had a 100% winning record in the qualifiers. The squad which Ben made for the 2000 AFCON was formidable and had it not been for administrative issues which caused confusion during preparations (the Miami USA fiasco) and the controversial match appearance fee, Bamfuchile’s squad could have made history and someone could not have insulted Zambians by claiming to be the best coach ever. Sad Bamfuchile paid the price after the AFCON, we forgot that he coached the team without getting his salary on time, his pay was always in arrears and we never gave him any support during preparations yet we expected him to perform wonders. Ben never camped his team abroad before a crucial qualifier but he holds the best qualifying record for Zambia in the last 15 years. In my opinion, the call to introduce fresh blood in our team is justified and I do not know why today people want to believe that we cannot retire some senior players and still succeed with new talent. For our national team to be consistent and competitive we need to continuously be fusing in fresh blood. This is the reason why we also need to constantly be developing future stars through our youth developmental national teams. Currently the situation is not promising for the future, we have very few young players being introduced in the senior team and apart from maybe the under 20 who have been active in the qualifiers, the other national youth teams are not active. The last time I saw the under 23 in action was when Lucky Msiska was coach and it’s difficult to tell which players form our current under 23 squad. The fact is that our level of competiveness has been dropping from the time we won the AFCON in 2012, we struggled to qualify to the 2013 AFCON and we failed to win a single game as defending Champions in South Africa. We had an advantage to qualify for the world cup in Brazil after getting free points despite losing in Sudan but we failed to get vital maximum points even at home for us to qualify. In my view, Honour Janza need to be brave, retire some tired legs and introduce fresh legs in the team for our national team to regain its lost level of competitiveness. We still have a number of talented young players who can do wonders if merged with some players who have now gained experience at senior international level. Our focus now should be winning the 2019 AFCON if we will win the bid to host the tournament and preparations starts with forming a squad which will be ready for the challenge in 2019.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 08:15:36 +0000
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