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Cape Town - It is not unlike the assessment of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland that matters are becoming "curiouser and curiouser" when long-time coach Gordon Igesund proclaims at this time that the PSL's under siege and confused Absa Premiership is one of the top 10 soccer Leagues in the world.
Briefly casting aside the PSL’s self-orchestrated debacle of Ajax Cape Town’s relegation as a result of what has become the much-publicised and tainted "Tendai Ndoro Affair" and point to the curious nature of Percy Tau's transfer from Mamelodi Sundowns to English Premiership club Brighton & Hove Albion as grossly contradicting the affable Igesund's assumption.
Having been voted the PSL’s ”Player of the Year" and the "Players' Player of the Year" it can be assumed the diminutive ball weaver can rightly be credited as the top player in the country.
But what do we have here concerning Tau's status? The PSL's top player is not considered good enough for the English Premiership by Brighton and needs to be loaned out for a year to another club to gain the know-how and experience to be an asset for the 15th-placed English team.
Can one imagine the leading player from Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Argentina, Mexico, Belgium, Croatia, Russia, Egypt, Nigeria or for that matter almost any other country being heaped with a similar indignity?
And, what is more, Tau is 24 years-old and close to what should be the height of his career and not an up-and-coming 17 or 18-year-old.
Remember too that while his transfer fee of R50 million is a record for a South African-based player, it is no more than 3.2 million converted to the English pound - and almost a mundane amount by world transfer standards right now.
It is not even a huge amount by Brighton's modest standards and laying out £3.2 million for Tau - Sundowns' asking price for the player - is apparently considered in the circumstances a worthwhile gamble by his new club.
Significantly too, with the ink already dry on his transfer deal, the on-loan Tau ironically does not appear to know for whom he will be playing in the coming season.
So how does Igesund come up with his "one of the top 10 Leagues in the world" assessment? Well the canny coach who has guided four clubs to the PSL championship title during his long and varied career is a diplomat if nothing else and undoubtedly has motives of his own to back up his claim.
In the meantime, let's hope the time is not too distant when South African soccer has evolved to the point where the PSL's leading player is not only regarded a future asset by any club investing in his transfer, but one suitably talented and experienced to do the job immediately as well.
