Why Santana will fail in South Africa

As Bafana Bafana approach what might turn out to be the most defining game of the progress made (or lack thereof), more doubts have been cast about the man at the helm, Joel Natalino Santana.

He will face the biggest game of his coaching career when Bafana take on the Super Eagles of Nigeria in a win-at-all-cost game.

South Africa — hosts of the 2010 Soccer World Cup — are on the verge of missing out on the train to Angola, but what is more worrying is that the person who has been entrusted with the responsibility of moulding the country’s most prized asset going into 2010 seems uninspiring, uninventive and, to be blunt, clueless.

When Safa hastily appointed this unknown Brazilian coach, it claimed it was for continuity reasons, but Santana quickly asked to be given time to acquaint himself with South African conditions.

We were told that this was the guy to drive the vision of Carlos Alberto Parreira; we were told that this was the second messiah of South African football — the man to right the wrongs in our soccer and bring about much-need revolution.

Mysteriously, at a time when he was supposed to be studying our game, our culture and looking at our players, the charismatic Brazilian went on holiday to his native Rio.

Santana is a likeable lad. He has a great smile and I’m convinced that if he were fluent in English, he would have fantastic quotes for journalists. But since coaching the national side is not a popularity contest, I will be frank in my assessment of him.

The fact is, this man should not have been given the Bafana Bafana job in the first place. We all knew, maybe with the exception of Raymond Hack and Safa, that he had zero experience at international level. We all knew that he was coming to South Africa to be an experiment and be schooled in international football, but we didn’t protest with contempt when Safa brought this guy to our shores.

Maybe it is because we, as South Africans, suffer from such an inferiority complex that we would rather take a less-than-average Brazilian to look after Bafana Bafana than appoint a local.

I’m not a prophet of doom, but the chances of Bafana giving Nigeria a drubbing are as equally remote as those of Americans finding Osama bin Laden tomorrow.

With his recent selection, Santana has once again proved that he is confused and doesn’t know what he is doing. By selecting an ageing Mathew Booth and Old John Mabizela — two players who should have been part of this set-up a long time ago — Santana is admitting to the obvious: that there is no plan.

My sources tell me that even the players are confused and don’t know where they stand with him.

I have been asked whether I like Santana, but I find that question irrelevant.

Also, I don’t have to like him; after all, it is not unconstitutional to dislike him. I might like the guy, but the truth is, I love my country more.

And for those reasons, I say, it’s time for him to go.