Tam Nsaliwa - Not Finished Yet

[Ian Kennett]

According to Frank Yallop with whom I spoke, he is very disappointed that Tam Nsaliwa declined another invitation to play for Canada. Tam wishes to stay with his club and further establish his career.

Yallop said that Nsaliwa will get another shot in the future, but is not sure about Nsaliwa's committment or desire to play for Canada.

Nsaliwa is, according to Yallop, a very good player who could help the team, but he needs, hopefully, to show more desire to play for his country. This is similar to Radzinski under Osieck when he refused to show on several occasions, but came in later on.

We'll see, I guess, but the Nsaliwa book is not yet closed.

Cheers!

[beachesl]

Thanks Ian, your inside contributions as always are welcome.

Obviously Frank is aware of the criticism of his leaving Tam off of important rosters from various quarters (perhaps he even reads our crazy site ). We hope that all, including Frank, realize that true fans of whatever stripe have no choose but to speculate and debate on matters important to them when they are not presented with both sides of the story clearly (and we also know their are privacy concerns involved as well). We are all human, and we all have frustrations.

[Cheeta]

I don't think you'll ever get both sides of any story. Truthfully at least.

It's good politic for Frankie to admit disappointment and leave the door open. It's also good politic for Nsaliwa to state the need to establish a career as an excuse for non-participation.

But Conspiracy Cheeta thinks differently. What a cynic...

[canso]

Well then, out with it man. What's really going on here?

[Gordon]

quote:Originally posted by canso

Well then, out with it man. What's really going on here?

Yeah, whats that little fly friend of yours saying!?

Thanks for the info Ian. On the surface at least, it appears that Frank is not buring any (more?)bridges with Nsaliwa. He (TN) is a guy I very much believe we need back in the fold.

[Cheeta]

No. Sorry. No inside scoop. Litterbox is off southern Ontario way (Toronto? Vaughn?) last I heard. He’s about due for another appearance any time now.

No I’m just speculating from the bits and pieces I’ve seen and heard and read. Throw in a little human nature and there’s nothing new here as far as I can tell.

Virgin NT coach Frankie came into this whole mess as the anti-Holger. He was going to be different this and different that. We’d play entertaining ball. He understood the travel strains. Had to be fun playing for Canada, blah, blah, blah.

And while some loyal footballing soilders of Canada were put to the curb (you know, Holger’s Boys) the maiden voyage of the good ship HMCS “Why Not?” with Cpt. Frank at the helm crashed and burned without survivors. During the prime time news. In full colour. On every channel.

So now with Plan B in full swing and things looking more and more Holgeresque Frankie’s having trouble getting back the confidence of certain players who he’d previously felt disposable. Oh, yeah. Big surprise. Didn’t see that coming.

We’ll never know if those players were disposable or not. But given the evidence available, Frankie’s choices in this area seem all wrong.

And I don’t write this as any sort of disrespect to anyone. If Tam dosen’t have the patience for Frankie to learn his craft then fair enough. Tam’s paid his dues long before Frankie came along. I don’t want him sacrificing anything for what he views as a “lost cause” under our current manager.

And Frankie has bosses the same as anyone else. When they feel he hasn’t done his job, or is incapable of doing his job, they’ll have his head. In the mean time it’s full steam ahead and try to find the way.

Yallop’s suffering from an anti-Holger hangover of his own making. And a lack of player confidence in some quarters is one of the symptoms. Another symptom is looking in the mirror and realizing you aren’t half as clever as you thought you were and Holger isn’t half as stupid as he was made out to be.