12 SATURDAY VISION, November 29, 2014

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United glory days

will surely return
I

recently had the

glorious opportuSTAR
nity of undertaking
LETTER
a study visit to Old
Trafford; the biggest
stadium in the Premier
League and the second-largest football stadium in the United Kingdom
after Wembley Stadium.
After an hour or so
of touring this 105
year football arena;
we settled down
for a lecture which
was facilitated by
Manchester United
staff. At the end
of the presentation, then came the BY MOSES EKUNU
question and answer
session and God; there could not have
been a better opportunity for me to share
my sentiments on the management of this
glorious club by Sir Alex Ferguson. In my
submission, I re-echoed what I had earlier
scribbled on this very page and I actually
made it clear to them that the views I was
about to share had earlier ran in Ugandas
leading daily newspaper.
I pointed out that ManU need to
squarely put the entire blame on the
face of SAF for their current troubles. My
justification was that, for the last years of
his reign at United, Ferguson continued to
rely on old players who would later retire
or be sold off (as was later the case) and
hence making continuity in the club very
difficult especially for the next manager.
His failure to sign a world class midfielder
from the time Roy Keane left the club and
his appointment of David Moyes; a mid
table manager as his successor yet there
were a lot of options at the time including
Jose Mourinho, were some of the other
arguments I presented.
Finally, I sought the opinion of management on the book released by SAF especially since it was not pleasing to some
Old Trafford legends like Roy Keane and
David Beckham. Amazingly, management
completely agreed with all my views but
indicated that achievements the 72-yearold Scot had brought to the club were so
massive and were just good enough to
water down any mistakes he had made.
This even explains why he has 25,000
seats in Old Trafford named after him! This

Write SPORTS leave a space

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to 8338.

QUOTE OF THE
WEEK

I like Arsene for his principles,

but principles are a sort of restriction. And restrictions are
always lost possibilities. Thats
why sometimes coaches even
without principles became the
coaches of great teams and
some coaches with principles
lose because some positions in
team are vacant because of ethical, moral or personal views.
ARSENAL SHAREHOLDER ALISHER USMANOV ON
MANAGER ARSENE WENGER AFTER LACKLUSTRE
PERFORMANCES THAT HAVE LED PEOPLE TO CALL
FOR THE MANAGERS RESIGNATION

Ekunus Old Trafford experience in pictures (top and bottom)

DALUMBA IS BACK
By Swalley Kenyi
Pepsi National Beach Soccer League
Today
Monsoon Group
YMCA
v MUBS
Real Galacticals
v Zaba SM
Talented
v Stormers
Buwanika Bulls
v Sand Pirates
Hurriken Group
Mutesa I Royal
v Nkumba Select
KIU v IUEA
Dalumba-Richmonds v St Lawrence
Braza-Braza
v Kayunga Town Council

then ushered us to the discussion on the

post SAF error at United.
In our discussion, I realised that the other
reason why ManU is struggling since the
departure of SAF is because of pressure
to succeed and the very strict rules in
the club. Some of the strict measures at
United require players to deposit their
mobile phones on Fridays to the club and
only sign for them back on Sunday after
playing, players being made to train 2-3
times a day and yet they have only one
game a week as it is the case with ManU
right now, in the dining hall, players being
made to wait for everyone else to assemble
before they can get served, movements of
players being monitored almost 24/7 and
many other strict schedules which have
to be followed. These kinds of strict high

school procedures can easily get into the

head of any player and players will in most
cases try to rebel especially by delivering
poor results and to prove to the manager
that his tactics are not working.
The good news for ManU, however, is
that their current manager (who has a
good track record of developing young talent) is dealing with a fairly young squad.
The sooner the squad comes to terms with
his style of doing things and realise that
these strict procedures are only for their
good, then surely, the glory days for 3.3
billion Red Devils fraternity will surely
be on their way back to Old Trafford.
Hopefully, that 2-1 victory over Arsenal
is one step in the right direction for Luis
Van Gaal; moreover he has about 60m
pounds to spend in January.

Uganda Beach Soccer Association (UBSA) has

explained their decision to reinstate Dalumba
Richmond into beach soccer competitions after
the club had been dismissed from all events last
month.
UBSA chairman Deo Mutabazi said that after second
thought following a plea by the owners of the club, they
revisited the decision and instead punishe the club coach
Kenneth Kiguli for breaking the law by fielding unlicensed
players.
We found arguments by the club owners to be relevant.
Indeed this game (beach soccer) is still budding and so
punishing the entire team of over 20 individuals only retards
its development. We chose to go for the coach, Mutabazi
said on Wednesday.
UBSA legal affairs chairman Denis Sembuya also said that
Richmond had been forgiven and will be allowed to honour
their league fixture at Lido Beach, Entebbe this weekend.