On the day that my favourite football coach, Arsene Wenger,
celebrated his 63rd birthday, having been in charge of my favourite
team Arsenal for 589 games (including an impressive 335 wins), the clubs on the
local scene have continued their long-held tradition of chopping and changing
coaches.
The current Premier Soccer League season is seven games old.
Kaizer Chiefs are the official winners of Q1
(the first quarter in the PSL’s latest innovation, aptly named “Q-Innovation”)
but generally it looks too early to tell who will end up finishing where and
most people would agree with that view - most people.
The men in charge at Chippa United, Ajax Cape Town, and last
but not least, Lamontville Golden Arrows are not part of that group of people, or
so it seems.
PSL rookies (whom I predicted would be quick to pull the
trigger) didn’t waste any time getting to grips with the PSL tradition of
hiring and firing coaches, regardless of how old (or young) the season may be. Chippa United managed to - using some serious
euphemism here – “let go’ of the coach who got the team promoted to the Premier
Soccer League (Roger Sikhakhane), then they fired his replacement, Manqoba
Mngqithi, after a whole TWO games, then proceed to re-hire the very same Roger
Sikhakhane.
Ajax Cape Town who, in the words of the relatively
successful former coach, Foppe de Haan, “have
become a selling club” decided to fire Maarten Stekelenburg after only games. Having sold so many of their key players, one
would think that the club, which has a focus on patiently developing
youngsters, would be a wee bit more patient with the coach. That was not to be
the case. He too was fired and the door was ruthlessly slammed in his face.
Then we have the case of Muhsin Ertugral at Golden Arrows
and Augusto Palacios at Orlando Pirates.
With Arrows lying in 13th position with only one win, Ertugral apparently
“stepped
down” last night “based on the needs of the club”, while title-winning
coach Palacios recently left the hot seat at Pirates for “health reasons”.
The standard – as far as firing coaches is concerned – is so
low that I am tempted to take my hat off to Mamelodi Sundowns owner Patrice
Motsepe for keeping Johan Neeskens as head coach and not pulling the trigger
despite the admittedly mediocre start to the season.
 |
| Is coach Neeskens going to last the whole season? |
I am of the opinion that when it comes the marathon that is
a league season, it is not how you start that matters, but instead how you
finish.
I do hope that there will be more stability in the Premier
Soccer League and a bit more patience shown by those in charge. It would be
nice to not see any more coaches getting the boot this season but the chances of that
happening or equal to the chances of Julius Malema wearing an “I Love Jacob
Zuma” t-shirt.
It just aint gonna happen!
Thomas MOnyepao
Follow me on twitter @Tom_18Yards
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