Santana Question Bothers S/African Football

It seems the phrase that pays in South African football at the moment is ‘Fire Joel Santana’.

The media, fans, ex-players and even some managers have jumped on the bandwagon and called on Safa to replace the Brazilian before the World Cup to give the national team some chance at the finals. I see even the Dutchman Leo Beenhakker has now been mentioned as a possible replacement.

 Well, that may not be the way to go. Why should we fire Santana now?

 We are all in agreement that he did an outstanding job during the FIFA Confederations Cup. Bafana came within three minutes of holding Brazil and Spain and generally we played some attractive football.

 Yes, the loss against the second-string Republic of Ireland side was not great, and neither was the performance against a very young Madagascar side. But I believe the question we have to ask is where do we want Santana to succeed?

 Do we want him to do well in friendlies? No, we wanted him to do well in the Confederations Cup and we want him to do well at the World Cup.

 He achieved the first objective, to reach the semifinals at the Confederations Cup. So let’s give him a chance and see what he can do at the World Cup.

 It’s important to understand what Santana’s brief is. He must succeed at the big tournaments, not the other matches along the way. Do you think Alex Ferguson is upset when they lose pre-season matches? No, he has his eye on the bigger prizes and that, I believe, is the case with Santana as well.

 The other big talking point also regards the national team, what should we do with Benni McCarthy?

 Look, we need someone who can put the ball in the back of the net on a regular basis and Benni certainly knows how to do that.

 Benni must have realised that, after missing the Confederations Cup, he would not want to miss the World Cup as well. Every player dreams of playing at such a tournament and, with his career slowly winding down, it is something he would want to have to look back on. He must now say ‘whatever has annoyed me, I have made my point’, and move on.

 Similarly, Safa must realise that Benni is our best striker and the most likely source of goals, so do we swallow our pride and invite him back? Both parties need to come to the table and find a solution, and quickly too.

 Looking at the World Cup itself, quite a few of the favourites have already made it through. Obviously Brazil will always be up there for the title contenders, while the Dutch are master-class with their ‘Total Football’, always a joy to watch.

 But this time England have as good a chance as ever. They have a good squad, they are great going forward and solid at the back, although they must still decide on a goalkeeper.

They have star players like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney, who is in top form right now. A look at the Castrol Index shows he is the top player in the World Cup qualifiers at the moment with a rating of 9.61 out of 10, and he has taken 28 shots at goal with 14 on target, the highest in the competition. He will be key to their chances.

 Above all, they have a very good manager in Fabio Capello. He is low profile compared to someone like Diego Maradona, but he is the ultimate professional and someone that can help England to World Cup glory.

 On that note, I have always said that great players do not necessarily make great players, and Maradona has certainly proven that. They have an incredibly talented squad, but just can’t translate that into results. I really hope they can pull it together and qualify for the World Cup – it will be a shame for South Africans to be deprived of seeing Leo Messi in action.