Wanyama is a fluke

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PHOTO | FILE Victor Wanyama at home in Glasgow last season.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By PHARIS KIMARU
Posted  Saturday, July 20  2013 at  17:58

I know we are all in the midst of a patriotic tidal wave at producing the first Kenyan to play in the Premier League. Make no mistake, it is a brilliant thing for Victor and for football in this country, those young ones who dream of playing football one day at the highest level can certainly draw encouragement from Wanyama’s transfer but let us not lie to ourselves or each other, Wanyama’s rise was a fluke given how we run football in this country.

Sam Nyamweya was one of the first people to congratulate Wanyama’s move even before it was officially confirmed and I don’t know about you but there is something terribly wrong with that scenario.

If he was doing his job right Wanyama would have arrived in England a lot sooner or another Kenyan or few might have preceded him. Mariga, Wanyama and even Oliech are successes despite the state of football in Kenya not because of it.

Let’s forget lofty ambitions such as playing in the Premier League, what are the conditions for players plying their trade here at home? Is playing for a team in the Kenyan Premier League today a full time, stable income generating engagement? For a select few superstars in top teams possibly who earn six figures yes, but for most it’s doubtful yet that is the highest level of the game in Kenya.

It’s great that Wanyama made it to one of the biggest stages of football but we cannot lose perspective of the talent we have at home that we are wasting or not treating well.

We need to make professional football a reality in this country, and then we can celebrate those who go higher and further. We have a premier league that is not growing as fast as we want and a national team that is not particularly bulging with talent. These are the direct effects of the lack of professionalism.

With regard to Victor Wanyama, I once wrote that he was the next Yaya Toure and this move to Southampton is the perfect pad for him to earn that distinction. I have to applaud the sense Wanyama and his advisors have shown in starting at a small club, he needs to play week in and week out to become the superstar that almost everyone who has seen him play imagines he can transform into but he is not going to do that sitting on the bench.

Anyone who kept tabs on him at Celtic know how good Wanyama is and how deserving he is of playing in a bigger pond with bigger fish. The Premier League is full of world class stars but Wanyama is capable of going toe-to-toe with them and taking his game to the next level.

I personally doubt he will spend more than two seasons at Southampton unless his performance levels dip drastically. Wanyama will move up possibly to a “top four” team in England or a Champions League team.

Hopefully in that time our local league will have grown up and we will have young people making a good living from the beautiful game.

From Southampton to Manchester where Wayne Rooney is reportedly ‘angry and confused’ after David Moyes confirmed Robin Van Persie will be the main striker at Old Trafford this season. I think if he looks back to his performance last season the confusion might fade away. Rooney needs to win back Man United fans not sulk.