By Wilson Mburu
The title for this blog changed a couple of times before I came up with the final one “Hey! Come Back Here!!” The thing is, it reminds me of my days as a child when I’d do something and just when I know that hell is about to break loose, I start walking away whistling filled with a lot of guilt…
That’s when the four dreaded words came, “WILSON!!! COME BACK HERE!!!!” Your world suddenly becomes very small and you know from then on that your backside will be sore for a couple of days. Of course now when I look back and think about it, it looks and is indeed quite funny.
But what if I did that on my job? You know, I start doing my show and provoke people to hatred and just when my listeners get fed up and reprimanding me, I fade the music up and go home? most probably, I’d come back on Monday and have a very long talk with the MD whose fruits, well, the lesser said the better.
Anyway, what am trying to say is that you cannot sleep on your job (I had stronger words to use there but then again, I enjoy having a pay check at the end of the month) and then just walk away and pretend that everything is okay. Worse still, you walk away complaining and throwing tantrums that you’re the offended one!
I am also trying to say that a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves, starting with Mr. Antoine Hey for throwing our world cup campaign to the dogs. HOW DARE THEY?? What Hey did was disgraceful malicious and utterly disrespectful. But then again, he’s not the only one to blame. The Prime Minister, Right Honourable Raila Odinga is also responsible.
I really admire his (Raila) passion for soccer and the vision to see it grow, but this move, calling it a flop would be a massive understatement. Am not only angry at Mr. Odinga for removing competent, homegrown, affordable(read cheap) talent, but also for burying his head in the sand when evidently everything was falling apart. I also lay the blame on him for disregarding this Hey fellow’s previous record, which , really, is far from impressive-they’re not even the same area code as impressive-and giving him a task that he has, in the past, failed miserably!
I won’t even start talking about FKL because, clearly, they won’t have put their house in order by the time JC comes back. However, I will talk about Hey.
First of all,I think he’s very arrogant and his interests were not even close to getting our beloved Harambee Stars to the World Cup or the Africa Cup of Nations; or how do you explain someone who decides to fly to Germany to wish his ol’ man a happy birthday while his team has just lost a crucial international fixture? That is downright arrogance. The fact that he was receiving a sum of money that would comfortably feed an average Kenyan family for a year, every month, makes it even more painful!
If I didn’t know better, I’d say the Government should come in and arrest this guy and charge him for fraud because, that is what it clearly is. He came in, took the money, did a shoddy job and then when things got bad, ran off! I still don’t understand. If he doesn’t know it, he should realize that he owes everyone an explanation; the government-he was being paid by the ministry of sports, FKL-they manage Harambee Stars, I think and most importantly, The Fans-we paid tax to pay him!!
The only positive thing about the whole second round campaign was how the Stars played against Nigeria. That was, one word for it, BRILLIANT!! For once, I was proud in defeat. The lads played their hearts out, everything they had was in the game putting the events of the previous week behind them to show that even without a coach, or even with one who cared less, they still had the passion to win.
But speaking of disgrace, has anyone heard what’s happening in Europe? The two major things are; one, that FIFA has announced that that World Cup qualifier playoff game between Ireland and France will not be replayed, even after the theatrics of on Thierry Henry and the second thing is that a bunch of people have been arrested in connection to match fixing. The saddest thing about this is that 3 of the 200 matches under investigation are Champions League games!
Now, let’s start with Henry. I have never been an Arsenal fan. Never in my life and I don’t plan to be. But, even when Titi (Henry) was Gunner, I still admired him. To me, he represented class, maturity, honour and most of all, talent. When it comes to honourable, mature soccer players, I put him in the same category as Zidane and Beckham. That’s why the stunt he pulled during the game with Ireland really disappoints me! If you didn’t see the game, let me put all of us on the same page.
