The unacceptable downscaling of success in Sunshine Stars

By Steve Alabi
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The scales of football success in Ondo State have been lowered in recent times to such a ridiculous level that critical stakeholders now celebrate Sunshine Stars’ escape from relegation like a cup triumph. Instead of asking fundamental questions from our football superintendents why our club is going down under their watch, stakeholders resort to issuing befuddling congratulatory messages that give the impression that all is well. How can all be well when the end result every season in three seasons is escape from relegation? We must never allow ourselves to be cowed into accepting failure as success no matter the good nature of those saddled with management of our football fortunes.

Any attempt to downscale success in Sunshine Stars is unacceptable and must be resisted. While the celebration of the escape from relegation at the end of the first season under the current administration could be justified on account of inherited problems and difficulties, the last two seasons cannot. The performances of our Sunshine Stars in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 seasons are simply unpardonable. But for a fortuitous decision that cancelled relegation in the 2017/18 season, the club would have played in the lower cadre NNL this just concluded season. The management apparently learnt no lesson from that escape. If they did, why would they cede the responsibility of reorganising the squad to a newly hired coach as they did at the beginning of the 2018/19 season?

This much was attested to by the Chairman of the club’s management, Otunba Tajudeen Akinyemi in an interview with The Hope. “The management, because of the confidence they had in the team’s Technical Adviser, Kabir Dogo and his pedigree, we gave him the role to do all the recruitment last season. To our knowledge, those players he brought in are not the best legs or they disappointed him. This season we are going to get involved, we must be involved because we don’t want another mistake to repeat itself,” he said. If this is not abdication of responsibility, I do not know what it is.

Let us situate the scenario very well. The club had just been miraculously saved from going down. The management diagnosed coaching as one of the factors responsible for failure. It engaged a new coach, one who had never worked with Sunshine Stars, and so, could not be reasonably expected to know the challenges facing the club. The helmsmen amazingly saddled this new coach with the responsibility of retooling the underperforming squad! They incredulously “gave him the role to do all the recruitment last season,” as Akinyemi put it. Is it any wonder then that the club was stumbling from one poor delivery to another?

If the club’s performance in the league was lamentable, its outing in the Aiteo Cup was a disaster. The signs of failure were clearly visible right from the Round of 32 where the club narrowly defeated unknown Layin Zomo 2-1! Granted that the old Challenge Cup is usually filled with upsets, it is inconceivable that a club of Sunshine Stars’ calibre would find itself struggling against oppositions largely unknown in the Nigerian football firmament. Again, the management did not learn the required lesson from the narrow victory over Layin Zomo. Their cookie simply crumbled against EFCC in the Round of 16! This unheralded team sent our team packing one-nil!

The delivery of Sunshine Queens is not less traumatic under the watch of the same management. They have just been eliminated from the Aiteo Cup, again at the quarter finals stage like last season. They lost to Rivers Angels 2-0 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Stadium, Enugu over the weekend, the same team that eliminated them last season. The thunder from Port Harcourt was allowed to strike at our Queens twice in quick succession!

It is tragic that the current management of Sunshine Stars have not learnt the dynamics of running a winning club despite the huge support they have been receiving from the Akeredolu administration. To whom much is given, much is expected. We must remind them of the rich history of our club. We are not a team that escapes relegation. We are not a team that is easily bundled out of competitions. We are not also-rans. We are a team that fights for top honours every season. We are one of the biggest clubs, not only in Nigeria, but also in the Black Continent. Anyone who thinks otherwise has no business running our club. We have gone beyond dreaming successes. Peep into the past and see where we are coming from.

It is annoying that every time changes are made in the technical crew of Sunshine Stars, little or no consideration is given to local talent, though this sickening low self esteem preceded the current management. Year in year out, our team is handed over to external coaches whose pedigrees are not distinctly better than local talent’s. Unfortunately, the current management is carrying on with this condescending attitude. Under their watch, we’ve had Austin Eguavoen, Duke Udi and Kabir Dogo. None of the trio has given us joy we deserve. None of them has delivered. Are our local talent so bad that they cannot be trusted to deliver? Certainly, not. The problem is not with the quality of our local coaches, the problem is with the various managements that have refused to believe in them and expose them. How well do they even know the so-called good coaches they hire from outside? How well have they performed?

If the current management does not improve, we must assume that they have run out of ideas. If what they have delivered in two seasons they have been in charge is their best, we are in trouble. They had better put their act together or they should get out. Our club is not one for underachievers.