Erasmus’s take two to excel in Europe
COACH Eric Tinkler has sounded like a muppet and appeared like a puppet on a string as he holds on to being mentioned in the same sentence as Orlando Pirates Football Club.
During the week Tinkler, aka Toddler or Tinkies to those who deem him no longer fit to steer the Sea Robbers ship, spoke about a meeting he had with his boss Irvin Khoza.
The beleaguered Bucs coach explained to the reporters gathered at a joint Soweto derby press conference that his chairman expressed a vote of confidence in him during the duo’s tête-à-tête.
“I had a meeting with the chairman and he told me to remain positive,” Tinkler told reporters.
“He supported me and the technical team. He advised me to remain focused and work hard to get the results for the team.”
At this stage it sounds like coach and chairman had a candid conversation.
However, the cordial mood that prevailed must have been so intoxicating it made one teeny-weeny bit of information appear mundane.
Except that an imminent departure of the club’s main striker cannot be dismissed as a minor matter.
Read it whichever way it tickles your fancy. But to learn from the media that Ker- mit Erasmus, the spearhead of his attack, had been sold to French club Stade Reinnas, speaks volumes about the chairman’s credence in his coach, no?
If you’ve engaged with Khoza long enough, you will be au fait with the fact that he delights in scooping the media. In this case, the chairman of chairmen scooped his own coach. Confidence? Hehehe!
Perhaps Khoza deduced that Kermit’s departure was none of Tinkler’s business.
After all, the coach has bigger fish to fry, like getting a three-match winning streak under his belt that will get the club out of the rut.
As for Erasmus, what are we to expect of his return to Europe this time?
The French Ligue 1 should resurrect a career which saw him listed at No 18 in the top 50 most exciting teen footballers in 2007 by World Soccer magazine.
That rating was higher than Toni Kroos, who clocked in at number (27), Mesut Ozil (37), Alexis Sanchez (42) and Theo Walcott, who came in at 48.
The magazine described their pick as “the ultimate manager’s buying guide featuring 50 of football’s brightest teenage stars. To make the ranking, a player must be under the age of 20.”
You don’t need me to tell you that Kroos and Ozil have gone on to inspire Germany to their fourth World Cup when the Die Mannschaft claimed their fourth holy grail at Brazil 2014. Sanchez’s penalty in the 2015 Copa America final against Argentina saw Chile become South American champions, their first major title ever.
For whatever reason, things didn’t work out with Feyenoord, the Dutch club with whom Erasmus spent two seasons from 2008 to 2010.
His situation improved when he went out on loan to Excelsior.
There, 30 appearances in 36 games reaped a reward of 11 goals.
It was not enough to con-
In this case, the chairman of chairmen scooped his own coach. Confidence? Hehehe! It was the ultimate manager’s buying guide featuring 50 brightest teenage stars.
vince Feyenoord to keep him. He returned to SuperSport United, the club that promoted him to the professional ranks aged 18.
Call me a hallucinator if you want, but I see a lot of similarities between Aguero and Erasmus. Their stocky stature aside, their game is defined by a burst of pace, ability to shoot with both feet as well as overall game intelligence.
The main difference is that Aguero, the son-in-law of Diego Maradona and best friend of Lionel Messi, has progressed immensely with Argentina and Manchester City, while Erasmus has made much headway since that 2007 rating.
This is Erasmus’s take two to excel in Europe.