King for a day

Skangele Mateza shares some of his views on the Eastern Province Kings:

Let’s face facts, whatever team the EP Kings decides to field in Super Rugby next year they will get beaten more often than not. Sometimes it will be very badly. With only one year guaranteed to them they seem to be going the route of recruiting well established players passed their peak. What was the mandate of the franchise when they were assured Super Rugby participation initially? Was it not to strengthen development rugby within a stronghold of black talent in this country? 

Make no mistake its politics that has given the kings this opportunity to begin with. I would rather spend my money to watch Siyanda Grey, Wes Dunlop, Banda Coyi, Ntando Kebe, Roy Bursey and the like, than support a team of Steven Sykes, Andries Strauss and whomever else they are interested in.

The Kings have become a retirement village of sorts for European players who were in wilderness and seemingly this is going to continue. Of course some good buys have been made, some talent retained but on the whole the Kings have failed or are failing their initial mandate in my opinion. With one year of Super Rugby to play, I would have played a mainly young homegrown team, playing talented youngsters who are IN the Eastern Cape province not people who claim roots to it. Either way we will get beat, but it will have political leverage in an attempt to make further gains in rugby development. 

Skangele is an Eastern Cape local and rugby god in the eyes of his younger brother,

Man City? Pedigree? Dynasty? Oh please. You're joking.

Mawande writes.

Sure they may have won last season's league title and one of the most expensively assembled squads in the history of the game, but I am not easily impressed, and Manchester City does not impress me at all.

Champions. Vincent Kompany holds the Premiership trophy aloft. Quality side or the best of a bad bunch?

I believe that any team that wins a contest, be it the league, a match or tournament, does so because they deserve to. Take nothing away from Manchester City, they fully deserved to win the Premiership because they were at the top of the standings when the last game was done and dusted. But really, they were the best of an average lot. And somehow Manchester United managed to blow an 8 point lead with 5 games to go that handed City the title. Does that make City's victory a fluke or was it good fortune? Good fortune I’d say, but a better Man United squad would not have let such a hug lead slip so close to the end.

Silva and Toure. The two world class players at City.

While they sneaked past the finish line in first place over in England, they were shown up to be short of the quality that so characterises sides with championship pedigree when competing with elite clubs. They looked horribly out of place in their debut Champions League season, failing to proceed past the group stages, where they featured in a group including Bayern Munich, who were runners up in the Champions League and the German Bundesliga; Napoli, who claimed 5th place in Serie A; and Villareal who were relegated from La Liga. Quite baffling that a side that would go on to win the English championship would struggle to make it out of a group that did not have a single other title winner, if not for the explanation that the league season in England did not have an outstanding team.

Mancini.

Like I say, I don't think that Man City have outstanding quality as a team, I see the club simply as an expensively assembled group. And at that, I think only Yaya Toure, David Silva and maybe Carlos Tevez were worth the money paid for their services and perhaps Vincent Kompany was a bargain at six million pounds, considering that Chelsea’s David Luiz cost the London club 4 times that amount. Roberto Mancini is a reactive as opposed to a proactive manager. Many will say that he is the typical conservative Italian manager but really, with the money and the players he had at his disposal, it is quite poor of him that he often employs defensive, read as negative, tactics where you'll often find against the bigger teams in Premiership, his starting XI comprises 2 defensive midfielders.

Sinclair: Who wants to play for England when you can sit on the City bench?

Looking at the signings that were made in the European summer, one cannot believe that Manchester City serious about building a dynasty as many of their players have claimed. Their business was done mainly on the last of the window and while they may be decent players, Maicon is past his prime and Scott Sinclair well, is not world class and can barely get a look in for the England national team.

It is possible that this may read as a rant, but far from it, it’s just that the City side is not as good as it has been claimed. They are nowhere near the great sides that the English Premiership has seen over the years. I know sports and competition make the biggest and worst tasting humble pies, and should City retain the Premiership or win the Champions League, I will be the first to admit it and serve myself a huge slice of said pies. Until then, I will continue to believe that they are an overrated club.

What do you think?