The
sacking of coach Raoul Savoy as Gambia’s Scorpions coach by the Gambia Football
Federation (GFF) has revealed two weaknesses from both parties.
There is, no doubt, that the majority of football fans in The Gambia welcome the move by the GFF to terminate the contract of coach Raoul Savoy.
Since his appointment in May 2015 to be in charge of The Gambia’s national team, Savoy led the team only to draws and defeats. These included a 1-1 draw against Uganda and a 3-1 loss to Morocco in friendly encounters.
In international competitions, The Gambia drew goalless with South Africa away, before losing at home to Cameroon 1-nil in the first-leg of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
For the World Cup qualifiers, The Gambia drew with Namibia 1-1 in Banjul, but went on to be eliminated in the return leg after being beaten 2-1 in Windhoek.
In all these encounters, good performance and victory has not been the outright portion of the national team.
The Gambia never won a single match, hence the poor results caused the termination of Savoy’s contract, which was initially a two-year contract (15 May 2015 to May 2017).
It also became clear that Coach Savoy could not select or put together a good first-eleven team, which was why the footballers could not play their role well. And this also contributed to his failure, football analysts said.
On the part of GFF, they were supposed to investigate more about coach Savoy to properly determine his experience, achievements and shortfalls before giving him the appointment to serve as head coach of the Scorpions.
Savoy was initially in-charge of Ethiopia and Central Africa Republic, two countries not really well-known as footballing nations.
It has come to be known also that his records were not attractive, and his case is a big lesson for GFF to learn from, before appointing a foreign coach next time.
Even when a foreign coach is recruited, he should be assisted by a Gambian coach who is more current or au fait with Gambian football.
However, it will be appropriate now to appoint an interim local coach to handle the affairs of the team.
We have two matches against Mauritania in March 2016 and return legs against Cameroon and South Africa.
So we must be serious and work hard to get a better coach that will aid the team to give the Gambian nation the desired results.
More friendly matches should be put in place by authorities, with the GFF encouraging footballers by giving them lucrative incentives.
Fans should not be discouraged, and all should continue to pray and support the national team for it to always succeed, because its successes are our successes and will do us proud.
“It will be appropriate now to appoint an interim local coach to handle the affairs of the team.”
The Point