Friday, 26th January 2007 at 12:49 pm

Here at last

It took a while, but the R18-million-a-month man has finally arrived. Carlos Alberto Parreira touched down in Johannesburg this morning, and will begin looking for things to spend his vast salary on this weekend. With Khabo Zondo and Pitso Mosimane having been offered the assistant coaching positions, and a squad for March’s friendly against Chad to be named next week, everything looks in place for Bafana Bafana…

…which means the countdown is on to the first hiccup for the national coach. What will it be, though? Benni McCarthy’s retirement from international football (he’s had 11 so far, by my calcuulation)? SAFA interfering with the job/forgetting to get clearance for international players/causing general chaos? The Sowetan leading a media tirade against the new man? Ask Stuart Baxter just how much fun he had in the job, and you’ll know why it took R18-million to persuade Parreira to take up the Bafana post. In an ideal world, a bright new era starts today, with 2010 the target; the reality, though, is a genuine feeling that Parreira’s chances of being the man in charge come the World Cup are by no means guaranteed. Here’s hoping I’m wrong.