In ancient times, the mighty King Pyrrhus won a great victory against his enemies at the Battle of Asculum, but despite the win, the battle was ruinous to Pyrrhus who claimed that another such victory would be his undoing.
In rather more modern times, the fans on the Victory forums are debating the wisdom of bringing Tando Velaphi into their club at a time when Danny Vukovic was also in the market and the much maligned Michael Petkovic was let go back to his native Perth, just as he was starting to win the fans' confidence.
Could "winning" Velaphi turn out to be a Pyrrhic Victory?
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There are two threads running hot on the Victory forums right now. One is entitled: Tando Velaphi joins Victory. And the other is entitled: Why did we not sign Vukovic?
The titles give it away. The Victory fans would have preferred Danny Vukovic. The prevailing theme in both threads is that most of the fans don't rate Velaphi and are annoyed with the club for letting them down.
"It's easy," says one forumite. "We should just sign the best player in each position."
That would be easy in a league without a salary cap, if you were the richest club. The A-League, of course, is a capped league and clubs juggle their rosters as established players look for the best deals, disappear overseas, retire or are replaced by new blood coming through. It must be a bloody nightmare trying to keep track and plan for the future but one thing is obvious - all coaches are on the lookout for a bargain, all the time.
A bargain comes in several guises - it could be a brilliant young player just grateful for the chance to play. It could be a second tier journeyman from a Third World economy.
Or it could be an established A-League professional whose glory is not blazing quite as brightly as in the past, in whom some enterprising manager sees the possibility of smouldering embers bursting back into flame - at a knock down price.
Ernie Merrick is not the most successful manager in A-League history by accident. If he sees value in Tando, then I'm betting the value is there and Victory will have the benefit.
I am, in fact, a big fan of Tando Velaphi. I regard him as one of the best (if not, the best) shot stoppers in the league. This year, he's conceded a lot of goals but, to be fair, the Glory have not been covering themselves with an eponymous substance. Instead, they've been about as brittle at the back as any A-League team has the right to be, and clearly, Tando's confidence has suffered.
You couldn't say he's been directly responsible for too many of the 60-odd goals they've conceded - but there have been some spectacular exceptions to that rule. In fact, in my last blog, I referred to him as the A-League's pre-eminent Howler Keeper due to a handful of bizarre malfunctions (especially his effort against Wellington a couple of weeks ago when he leapt up and backhanded the ball into his own net).
I believe that Ernie Merrick will take Tando back to brass tacks - break him down and reconstruct him with the shot stopping and reflexes intact - but also restore his ability to communicate and work with his defence, distribute calmly and efficiently, and eliminate the more outrageous errors from his game.
Above all, Merrick will restore his confidence.
Velaphi is a very good keeper with the potential to be a great keeper. Working with a great coach, in an environment accustomed to and expecting success, will be an extremely welcome change for him. By all accounts, he's taken a pay cut for the opportunity, so that gesture alone ought to reassure the Victory fans that Tando is serious about restoring his reputation and improving as a footballer.
(The deal also works well for Glory. Irrespective of whose fault the goals have been, they need a keeper in form. Vukovic is a great buy for them right now.)
Tando will also have the ACL to look forward to - a less robust competition where great shot stoppers get more protection from referees - where better to regain his confidence?
Despite a bit of misgiving among the Howler-fearing fans, I reckon Tando will do well at Victory, and the fans need to get behind him. As one forumite said:
"He might be shit a lot of the time but he's ours now and he gets my 100% support."
This is the only attitude to have and I'm betting Tando will become a Victory legend.
Adrian Deans is the author of Mr Cleansheets - published by Vulgar Press, distributed by Dennis Jones and Associates and available in all good book stores.
