NO SENSE IN GESTURING KINNAH PHIRI THE 'MIDDLE' FINGER

It has now become a common practice  that every time the country’s soccer team ‘The Flames’ loses a match, Monday coaches descend to the social media where they gang up against head coach Kinnah Phiri,  throw him insults and call him all sorts of unpleasant names.

The alien behavior has been the order of the day in recent years but it has reached crescendo more especially under the tutelage of Phiri.

And as expected, when news broke out that the national team had lost to a low fancied side Rwanda in the on-going Cecafa tourney; all the sarcastic adjectives one could think of were used just to prove dissatisfaction with Kinnah, his divided coaching panel and the ham-fisted squad.

According to those that watched the match, Malawi’s performance was below-par and left-a-lot-to be desired.

Soccer loving Malawians [or let me say Facebook loving Malawians] had no choice but to lash out at the coach describing him an ‘incompetent’ northerner [have no idea whatever that means].

Honestly, it’s indeed painful for any level headed Malawian to be associated with a national team that is only there to drain the hard earned foreign reserves to travel abroad only to fail to score not even an off-side goal in the entire ninety minutes of play.

Personally, while I’m burning like hell over the team’s lethargic performance, still I do not think that Kinnah Phiri [the northerner] is the villain here.

Yes, we’re blaming the wrong guy because the main problem in this whole hullabaloo is the charges Kinnah has at disposal. Frankly, looking at the foundation of the players he is using, one would quickly rush to conclusion that the country has a long way to go before we could even start smiling again.

I have reached to this harsh conclusion because we have a generation of half-baked footballers not befitting the status of even carrying training boots of a national team material.

Where on earth do you see a player exhumed from Hon. Ezekiel Ching’oma’s football trophy somewhere in typical village down Nkhoma in Lilongwe going straight to play for a big team like Big Bullets or Wanderers then next thing you hear of is that he is putting on national team jersey? Alas!!

That is exactly the situation with today’s Malawi football, our soccer players lack simple soccer basics to make them compete at international level.

This can easily be strengthened by the fact that the kind of players we hold in higher esteem here at home have failed our intelligence every time they are deployed for professional football abroad in one way or the other.

It really embarrasses me to be associated with a team whose captain, his vice, the top two strikers, the best holding midfielder [basing on Malawi standards] were either rejected or plying trade in the Mvela league. This is really embarrassing.

Such is the sorry state we are finding ourselves into. Take for instance, Davie Banda on the local scene, he is so far the best holding midfielder we have around but the only reason he was shown the exit door in Mzansi is because he lacks basic knowledge of football modus operandi, the same applies to Chiukepo Msowoya, Moses Chavula, Joseph Kamwendo etc etc.

If these were real stars in their own right, as others would want to make us believe, then can someone explain to me why we still have them loitering around town in company of Chilomoni queens? Maybe I’m missing something.

But as long as the country continues to neglect the basic principle of football philosophy which is to develop soccer right from the nursery level, then I’m afraid we have not seen anything worse yet and I can challenge you that at the rate we’re moving it will take us some two good decades before we can qualify for a world cup tournament.

As for African Cup of Nations, well I have no idea because qualification for the bi-annual continent showcase sometimes require good omen, ask Cape Verde and Zambia.

Anyway, looking at the Flames’ current state-de-affairs, it is day dreaming to expect contrary results to the ones we are getting.

I will not be doing justice to the country if I start listing down all the contributing factors to the dwindling standards of football but one thing I’m very sure of is that Kinnah Phiri’s role is being comprised as he concentrates much on nurturing the players instead of sharing with them his game philosophy.

Ask any renowned media soccer pundit such as Peter Kanjere, Garry Chirwa, Madalitso Mussa (lol), Gracian Tukula, Duncan Mlanjira not to mention my man Hasselbaink Kachinziri; they would all agree with me [at least] that the job of Kinnah is to come up with the best game plan spiced up with strategy and philosophy not the other way round.

Unfortunately, that is not the case at the present moment as he is moving one step forward and four steps backwards because he is investing much of his time and resources on mentoring the players on ball passing, ball control, ball-juggling (kudoda) even dribbling…koma zoona?

I’m just being reminded that it is only in Malawi where a player is called for national team duties, not because his time has come to play for his country, but because he is competing with some small usipa from Lake Malawi for popularity.

So as long as we do not redefine Kinnah’s role as head coach, then we are spelling doom on our very chances of developing the beautiful game in our country.

For heaven’s sake it is utter garbage for a national team player to undergo ball controlling lessons just three days before facing neck-breaking encounter. Where is the art and ability then? Such techniques were supposed to be instilled in the players during their soccer academy days not now.

Such is the vicious circle we have in our midst and the question still remains; how then do we move forward? Should we continue keeping our faith in the once prolific striker in 70s and 80s as head coach or we should find solace in new mentor?

Well I will leave that for you my dear comrades` to decide but one thing I will not tolerate is the behavior of showing Kinnah the ‘middle’ finger every time the team performs badly, to me it is not just his fault maybe on this one Fam officials can be able to explain to us on where we are standing as regards to the establishment of soccer academies we were promised, I believe that is the clear-cut future.

So once again, spare Kinnah Phiri from your middle finger gibes. Maybe you can use such gestures elsewhere but not the coach; he simply has no feelings for that!!!!!!!