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THE FALL OF AN EMPIRE

04/12/2018 00:56:00 BY Lwazi's Pandora's Boxs

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My dearest readers ... Empires, by their very nature, do not fall. They crumble – brick by brick.
The heart-rending story of the decline as a football force for the country’s arguably most supported side, Manzini Wanderers is tragic if not downright mortifying.

On Sunday I trekked down to Nhlangano to watch the first ever Y’ello Sunday at the iconic venue named after the Great King Sobhuza II and I was miffed at the performance of my family team which my dearly departed father swore he would not pay for any of his soccer team of children (I guess he was trying to show the makers of choice assorted he could make it better) school fees if you did not support it.
He must be turning and twisting in his grave on what it has snowballed into.

You see great events shape the lives of institutions and those who are part of them. The Chinese are still affected by the Tiananmen Square massacre; The Scots are still disturbed by the Culloden.

Liverpool by the Hillsborough; Italy’s Juventus by the Heysel and Bradford City by the fire. To bring things closer to the issue at hand, Wanderers by the demise of the then all-too-powerful Henry ‘Shushu’ Mthethwa who passed away in 2006. As Manzini Wanderers players trudged off the pitch following the sixth loss of a nightmarish season to Manzini Sea Birds 4-1, which saw the hub giants plummet to the drop zone – third from the bottom – I could not help but remember that it’s been 13 years since Archie ‘Juluka’ Radebe led the maroon and white outfit to the SwaziTelecom Charity Cup glory on August 5, 2005.

In both official languages of this country – including tsotsitaal – this is too long a time for a big team like Wanderers not to win anything shiny in the form of silverware. Here we are not talking about just a big team but an institution in the truest sense of the word.

This is a club that holds a special place in the hearts of thousands of football fans countrywide and beyond; a club with a rich and proud history having been founded in 1957. The sad reality is that Wanderers’ celestial decline began from the moment the dearly departed chairman, Henry ‘Shushu’ Mthethwa passed on

There is no doubt, since the demise of ‘Shushu’ Mthethwa, Wanderers’ have ceased to be a serious football club. ‘Shushu’ may have been branded arrogant but it’s been proven by what many of us said a long time ago in this State-of-the-Nation-Sports-Address (SONSA) that he was the heart-string that kept the team together because he simply brook no nonsense.

But the decline of Wanderers is something that stirs the heart. In fact it melts the coldest of hearts.
One appreciates that the club has gone through a traumatic period in the past decade, literally swimming in debts but after inexplicably reaching the SwaziBank Cup final thrice, falling on the gates of glory to Mbabane Highlanders in 2009, Moneni Pirates in 2015 and Young Buffaloes in 2018. One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to deduce that at this present moment, the ‘Weslians’ would struggle to beat a team of amputees playing on crutches somewhere on a beach in Sierra Leone.

Incumbent coach, Nyanga ‘Crooks’ Hlophe described Sunday’s performance as ‘HORRIBLE’ but that is an understatement on itself. CATASTROPHIC is more like it!
The truth is that the maroon and white outfit has lowered its standards to residual lows. Watching them being dissected by Manzini Sea Birds as if there were a rabbit in a science laboratory tutorial session confirmed my worst fears that even coach Hlophe now doesn’t know what else to do together with his technical bench.

In fact, the reality is that Wanderers are an extraordinary team with ordinary players playing ordinary football under the tutelage of an ordinary coach thus failing to meet the expectations of their extraordinary supporters!
Wanderers’ fans, the emotional owners of the club, are monumentally sentimental but they know their history and understand the club problems but as the club records one bad result after another, they might just snap up.

Discipline has sunk to the depths of despair as defeat and failure has become synonymous with Wanderers. There was once a time when only the cream of the crop signed for Wanderers, these days pedestrian performers cut out for a job on the circus circuit are recruited.
How the mighty have fallen!

Even though he may be a born and bred supporter of a top Mbabane side, perhaps the eager-to-take-over Mehluli Nhlengetfwa must be given the chance to take over, put his own structures in place and then buy quality players for the hub giants to revive their fledging fortunes.
I can picture my dearly departed father nodding in agreement from the pearly gates of heaven ...
Enough is enough Maweseli!