There is always a difference between a delayed gratification and an instant gain. In almost all cases, delayed gratification always brings the good... the good that lasts and endures. On the flip side, instant gain brings enormous joy, especially when rivalry, like the stakes, is high. Watching Manchester United played Aston Villa today, I reflected on the very nature of football, over the last twenty years and i was encouraged to quit the recent thought and examination of the potentials of David Moyes as a right choice for a club like the Manchester United FC, especially given the clubs recent fortune. I came to see two clear conclusions. One, Sir Alex Ferguson started on a poor note but ended on the highest note attainable in the games. His history shown the belief in the long haul. He demonstrated what delayed gratification brings to a club... history of everlasting joy, large fortune, and a huge customer base, including fans. All indications point to his success as a class-act, which will certainly be difficult to repeat. How did the club and Sir Alex able to achieve this? One, both the club and the manager invested in the team - one player at a time. When the team was almost 70% completed, Uniteds fortune changed and it became a household name and epitome of success across the world. By the time it was 100% completed, no team was able to stand on its path. It was, simply put, the most feared, the most successful, and the team to beat in all competition. This was the same Old Trafford where Newcastle FC and other clubs have recorded tremendous successes, painting the sky red. Old Trafford has since become and remains the theater of dreams. Two, who can debate that Old Trafford and Manchester United are the capital and foremost in trophy collection centers and collectors all over the world? Certainly, no one. Simply put, Manchester United is the measure of all clubs. Its managers and players are measures of players and managers all over the world. The key to this unparalleled and historic achievements is the belief in building, over a long period, a corps of players that are the best in their different positions. This, undoubtedly, does many things to football. It creates a core of believers - customers, fans, detractors, etc. as well as core of fair weather friends. While the above is also important, I am not known to bother on side-talks, but on core issues. Hence, enough on side-talks. Life is like football. The core things that bring successful life are planned, endured, and executed. To plan a thing require more than just scouting and buying finished products; but essentially building. As house-building demonstrates, the task of building goes beyond buying lands and drawing architectural designs, it include knowing soil texture, topography, determining types of materials, purchasing these materials and the over all task of getting qualified personnel to put all these into use. More often than not, you have the best of materials, but the worst of personnel. At other times, you have the best of personnel, but bad materials. Where the materials are good and personnel are bad, the result is usually detestable. This is the equivalent of good players, training facilities, etc. but bad manager. Is this the scenario with the current manager at Manchester United FC? Where a manager is good and the players are horrible, the journey through the EPL becomes one terrible loss over another. Is this the current case at the Manchester United FC? Football, is like business. You are in competition with experts and the stakes are very high. To win, you have to learn to be the master of the game. Sir Alex demonstrated to us what being a master of the game is about - the ability to grind out positive results from the combination of bad personnel and bad material or the bad personnel with good material. Contrary to what the Bible says, with due apologies, the race is usually to the swiftest. Usian Bolt has demonstrated that on many occasions. The fight is usually to the strongest. WWE is a classic example. The truth is that baring solicited and unsolicited interventions, either from umpire or umpires who ought to be neutral - God included - the race, like the battle, is usually and must be to the strongest, the toughest, the swiftest, etc. Benteke failed awfully today and Manchester United came out victorious. Had Benteke scored those three guilt-edge opportunities, would Manchester United, Moyes, and myself consider the game a success for Manchester United FC? For me, I will stick to a YES in much the same way that i have argued that Moyes made an initial mistake of replacing the entire coaching crew immediately he was chosen for the job and that the current failure is due to this initial error. Arsenal FC clearly illustrate this: After the unbeating run, Arsenal has become a ghost that no one wants to relate with. Its men, including Thiery Henry, moved to another clime. The building was completed. It is only this season that Arsenal FC came so close to any good reckoning and Arsene Wenger is regarded as a good coach. A close look at his current team, one could see that the team is not necessarily a good one. It benefited from finished products from different places - starting with Mikel Arteta to whoever is the last to be brought in. Similar story could be said of other clubs except Manchester United. Lasting successes are built, not bought. Those new players in clubs that are doing well today have connections to the club to the extent that they win day in and day out. None could compare with the examples of Ryan Gig, Waynee Rooney, Steve Gerrad, Frank Lampard, and John Terry. The more of these men a club has, the more its chances of coming back from behind to win a game, the more the chances that a club will grind out good result even from bad games. So far, men like that - the very salt of Manchester Uniteds successes - are few and in short supply. The training grounds, for whatever reasons, are not throwing up such men as it used to, even for Manchester United FC. However, Manchester United FC has more of these in the making and only time will tell when - not how - these men will mature and do exploit. The likes of Adnan Januzaj, Alex Buttner, Mensah Welbeck, etc. are good examples. The point is that from the various academy, the men that will lift the clubs are drying out and in some clubs, emphasis is on instant result; hence, attention is on bringing the good players at whatever the cost. Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc. have been going that lane over the last ten years without any laudable record to prove them right. As much money is pumped into this success-at-all-cost clubs, Chelsea won the EPL once. Same goes for Manchester City. Only building, over the long term, can bring lasting and record-making successes. The above analysis also applies to human lives. See the industrious pupil, who diligently read his books, she will perform exploits. She will make good grades. Most African nations have stopped rewarding these category of students. As the case of Nigeria has shown, the nation that refuse to reward merit, we certainly embrace Boko Haram, OPC, God-Will-Do-It churches, etc. On the flip side, China demonstrates what hard work and long term planning does to nations. The problem with contemporary world society is the lure of capitalism. We all want to use Samsung galaxy S5, Blackberry Z10, etc. without as much as being ready to lift a finger to get them. In the case of Africa, Nigeria especially, we are told by our religious experts that God could and will do everything. Most fans calling for the sack of David Moyes have failed to see the fact that although Manchester United FC was the current title holder, it achieved this remarkable feat with aging players. Scholes, Carrick, Evra, Ferdinand, Ryan Gig, etc. Should Sir Alex still be holding forth, the result may be different from what we are currently having, but the building of a new team - world beating team - will be delayed even further. Manchester United FC is long due for overhauling. This is a fact that old dogs who have been following Manchester United these last twenty years know. As at today, a number of players are coming to light at Manchester United FC - Januzaj, Welbeck, Buthner, and De Gea, for instance. United however needs more years further down the road ahead to become the darling team again. This is what makes the club the Theater of Dreams. How many more years? Perhaps five years more. How many United fans are ready for this, especially in this age of win-at-all-cost? Cry, if you will, but it will not change the DNA of the Manchester United FC. The few matches to come are important, but i tell you that if Moyes lose all of them, he will have a salary increase than a sack. United is about building and growing. It has never been a quick-fix team. I do not see any other road to lasting success than this. If anything, no coach existed elsewhere for Manchester United than David Moyes. Morinho, Van Gal, Pep Guardiola are good coaches, but do they share the ethos of Manchester United? There is a sharp difference between how a pensioner will spend his money compare to how a lottery winner will spend his. Manchester United FC is a pensioner in the game of football, not a lottery winner like Jose Morinho, Van Gal, and Pep Guardiola. Glory, Glory David Moyes. Glory, Glory Manchester United.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:38:40 +0000
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