After Leicester City’s fairytale march to their first-ever Barclays English Premier League championship, every league on Planet Football is now looking for its own version of the Foxes.
The TNM Super League is no exception, with Blue Eagles bursting clear from the usual championship-chasing pack, while the so-called giants, Nyasa Big Bullets, Be Forward Wanderers and Silver Strikers are churning out indifferent displays.
Somehow, the Eagles’ march has been treated with contempt. Every passing week, the feeling is that record 13-time league winners, Bullets, eight-time and five-time champions, Silver and Wanderers respectively, will sooner than later, hit the ground running.
This is happening while the cops, who share similarities with the Foxes in blue and white club colours, modest football history, deceiving pace-setting antics, have opened a yawning six-point gap on 15 points.
There is no doubt that Leicester’s fairytale has inspired the Eagles. Captain Steve Chagoma admitted that they want to write their own script of a triumph of an underdog.
Starting strongly and being top has not been something new for the Eagles in the last two seasons, but Chagoma warned Doubting Thomases that the cops should not be ruled out.
At this stage last year, Eagles had won thrice and drawn twice while being placed third with 11 points. In fact, the cops had gone eight games unbeaten in 2015, only for the wheels to come off.
The four-point improvement for Eagles is remarkable considering that Eagles coach Derkerk Msakakuona has lost key players to foreign clubs– Micium Mhone (Jomo Cosmos, South Africa), John Banda and Schumacher Kuwali (Ferroviaro de Nampula, Mozambique).
Chagoma is refusing to view the team’s run as a flash in the pan, saying the team has now come of age and it is ready to write its own beautiful piece of a Leicester.
“We were struggling in the recent past seasons due to inexperience, but the squad is now mature. The coming in of experienced players, such as Victor Nyirenda, has strengthened the team,” Chigoma said.
Caution cannot be thrown to the wind as Eagles have in the last few seasons proved to be good sprinters and not marathoners.
The league is, to quote Be Forward Wanderers coach, Jack Chamangwana, who is under pressure at the Lali Lubani Road, a marathon and not a sprint.
Wanderers, like Bullets, are winless at home in two games, and the pressure is mounting also on Franco Ndawa—even more with Chamangwana.
At this stage last season, Wanderers were topping the league with 13 points from five opening games, including a 1-0 win over Civo United. The civil servants held Wanderers two weeks ago at Kamuzu Stadium.
“Of course, we need to start winning games regularly for us to be considered as serious title chasers. Otherwise, at the rate we are going it is not good,” Chamangwana said.
“The strikers hardly got service upfront and I think we need to help the midfielders to produce more movements and create chances. We can rate the strikers basing on their chances they are getting.”
Wanderers’ General Secretary, Mike Butao, said there was no need to press the panic button yet as the team started the season with tough encounters against Silver, Bullets, Dwangwa and Civo United.
“The teams we have played are all title contenders and we have not lost a game yet. I do not think there is need to panic yet. We have picked half the required points,” Butao said.
For Bullets, reports suggest that coach Ndawa has been given two games to win and save his job, but Technical Director, Billy Tewesa, insists the coach cannot be singled out for the team’s three draws and one win.
Last year at this stage, Bullets were third on 11 points whereas the People’s Team is now fifth with six points.
However, going into this weekend’s games, the complexion of the log table could change dramatically. A football league is not only about how you start, but finishing matters. It is a marathon.
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