Mobara bored to watch
THE sport that helps Abbubaker Mobara provide his livelihood, took him away from the dangerous streets of Mitchells Plain, made him an Olympian who squared off against Neymar and turned him into a household name bores him.
“I don’t watch football at all…it bores me. Thirty minutes of it and I fall asleep. I tried before. Analysing games is different but watching it at home is boring. I would rather switch off the TV and do something else. Football doesn’t excite me,” the Orlando Pirates’ versatile player said.
If football bores him, then why does he play it?
“Good question. I am still searching for the answer to why I am playing it. It could be because I am passionate about football. It’s something that I love… to play. It’s bad for me not to watch it because I want to learn. Watching it could probably change 50% or more of my performance.”
That should be a scary thought for Mobara’s opponents. Despite not watching the beautiful game, he is one of the smartest footballers in the country and any improvement to his game would make him a beast.
He is comfortable playing in central midfield, central defence and at right back. But that versatility comes with its complications, like what exactly is his position.
“It worries me a lot because I am unsure of where I should focus,” Mobara said. “Do I focus on being a midfielder, central defender or rightback? It’s confusing to move back and forth from those three different positions because they ask different things from you. This creates a situation where I have a lot of things in my head.”
There’s only one thing on the heads of those associated with the Buccaneers tonight. Can they rewrite the wrongs of last season – their worst campaign in the PSL-era, and make up for that disappointment by bringing joy to the Ghost? Chippa United at Orlando Stadium stands in the way of that in the club’s opening Absa Premiership match. New coach Milutin “Micho” Sredojevic has been working on toughening up the players mentally.
“It’s difficult to forget what happened in the past and focus on the new season because we still have that disappointment at the back of our heads,” Mobara said.
“For us to fix it, we must work on the training fields to push hard. If you do well at training by nature you will do well on the field because training is preparation for what you will face on the field. If you play around here, you will play around in the match.
“Maybe last season a few of us weren’t hungry enough. We were too playful last season and that’s why the results were like that.
“The reality is that this is our work. This is what brings food on the table so we have to be serious about it.”
Mobara’s debut season with the Buccaneers was bitter-sweet.
He finally joined a big team with a large following but he didn’t have much time to celebrate as Pirates slumped to one disappointment after another . LONDON: Premier League clubs will vote next month on a proposal to ensure the transfer window closes before the season starts, with the plan already winning the backing of several managers.
A vote will take place at the Premier League shareholders meeting on September 7 and clubs from the lower divisions in the English Football League are set to follow suit next month.
Currently, the window closes on the last day of August but the Premier League season began on August 11 with the lower divisions kicking off a week earlier. This means that matches can be underway before teams are properly set.
Burnley manager Sean Dyche said the current system can seriously disrupt the work of a manager and his team.
“You don’t want to start the season and lose three of your players when you’re three games into the season. That could be really hard to take. And that happens,” he said.
“So I think if you could get that done as well, it means that once the football starts, the managers, coaches and teams can just get on with the football. And the fans. They can just get on with what they really want to be looking at, and that is football matches.”
Last week, Burnley sold striker Andre Gray to Watford three days before their opening game.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp, Swansea boss Paul Clement and Stoke’s Mark Hughes are among those who have backed a change. “From a manager’s point of view I’d be in favour of the window closing before the season starts because of the disruption it causes,” Hughes said.
West Ham United’s Croatian manager Slaven Bilic supports the idea but has highlighted one potential pitfall to a change – the risk of a different window deadline from European leagues. “For me it is has to be across the leagues. Otherwise there is no point,” he said.
“Ironically, it would put the clubs in a worse situation that you would still lose players if clubs abroad want them and you can’t replace them. It would only protect us in that no other Premier League clubs can take your players.
“The (Philippe) Coutinho situation, it would not stop Liverpool losing him but would stop them finding a replacement. It’s a great idea, first one I’m definitely like ‘yes’. Some teams are losing like 30 percent of their teams.”
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho also backed the change and added that the risk of English teams losing players to their European counterparts, whose transfer window remains open till August 31, once the domestic window closes was minimal. – Reuters