Of this silly sports season

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WHAT’S UP!

With the real politics silly season in high gear, unfortunately, sports has also caught the bug, and we are being dealt with silly things no one ever imagined could happen.

Like Manchester United finishing 15th in the English Premier League (EPL) last season, that is sacrilege! And after almost $300m (about sh1.1 trillion) spent on new players, it is more or less back to the same malaise.

The team cannot win games, and cannot score goals (of the four scored so far, two have been own goals from opponents, and one a penalty. Oh, and we also have a missed penalty, to boot), and a stubborn manager willing to sacrifice talented players to a system that has failed to work. Remember Van Gaal and his Silly ‘football philosophy’? very silly.

Ruben Amorim’s much vaunted 3-4-3 system was shown up by Fulham, and doubtless other managers were watching. That system only worked in Portugal, where the opposition is much weaker, and the pressure is nowhere near the EPL. Management should have known that before signing him mid-season, right? The blighters! Same blokes who extended Erik ten Hag’s contract, and then sacked him four months later to make way for Amorim.

Anyways, he has to come up with something different, or he will become the 10th manager to be sacked by the club since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, which is also when the club won any major trophies. Other clubs get new managers and embark on a winning spree, but somehow, Manchester United just cannot get it right. I hate clichés, but whoever is smoking the club’s pipe has some really potent stuff in there. Darn this silly season.

Come to basketball, and I cannot recognise my much-loved Los Angeles Lakers. That journeyman named Lebron James may have broken records all over the place (play for 20 years or more, and you could probably be able to do just that), but he has turned the team into just another cabbage head on a market stall. After they traded Anthony Davis (AD) for that Slovenian import, the team (famed for showtime basketball) is unrecognisable.

And to really rub it in, the new owners would not give two figs about ‘showtime’. So, sadly, I will not be watching them this coming season. Basketball is a sport you can watch just for the skills portrayed, so I will be rooting for AD, Giannis, Ja Morant and Anthony Edwards, and hope that Steph Curry can still hit those triples at 37. It just won’t be the Lakers, but I will keep my AD T-shirt and Lakers cap.

I was in New York when Serena Williams won her first Grand Slam, the US Open. Although I rooted for Venus more, the Williams sisters sustained my sports fix for the next two decades. Venus had health issues and so never quite fulfilled her potential, while her younger sister went on to set records.

When they stopped (though Venus is still putting in cameo appearances), I turned to tennis prodigy Coco Gauff and a plethora of black girls. But at 21 years of age, Coco is still figuring out her game, and one cannot be sure if she will lose in the first round or go on to win yet another slam. 

Venus Williams.

Naomi Osaka won four Grand Slams, then got pregnant and is now trying to rediscover her game. Sloane Stephens won the US Open once and has never got anywhere close. Madison Keys seemed to be on the periphery forever, then won the Australian Open early this year, but has also not got anywhere close.

Taylor Townsend has made waves this US Open, but she is a double specialist. Victoria Mboko, all of 18 years, might yet live up to her name. Alycia Parks, Hailey Baptiste, Clervie Ngounoue and others are lurking, but darn, white girls are still ruling the roost. So yeah, nothing to really get excited about there.

I do not even want to talk about Formula 1, where Ferrari’s management seems to be taking tips from Old Trafford on how to mismanage great talent. Even seven-time champion (should really be eight) Lewis Hamilton, appearing in the red suit, has not changed things much. What’s a guy to do? I now get whatever excitement I can from watching highlights. Yeah, darn silly season.

You can follow Kabuye on X @KalungiKabuye