Another coach bites the dust!

On the day that my favourite football coach, Arsene Wenger, celebrated his 63^rd 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

"Yellow Nation" see red!

I decided to take a foreign colleague of mine to the stadium this afternoon to watch a game between Moroka Swallows and Mamelodi Sundowns so that he can experience “real: South African soccer, live. What a bad day to do that…

For some strange reason, tickets for the game were not made available at Computicket.  Thus, we first had to endure a struggle and look for the place or individual who was selling tickets for the game. This delayed us slightly and we missed out on seeing the game’s opening goal.   In all honesty, the game was not the most entertaining game I have ever seen.

As the game wore on I kept poking to my Ugandan friend, Steven, to show him how the tension in the Yellow Nation’s (Sundowns supporters’) stand was increasing as the game wore in. The worst was yet to come.

The game ended 2-0 in favour of the home team.  The coaches’ interviews were being done, while in the background, the traveling band of Mamelodi Sundowns supporters was busy devising a way of breaking down the fence on the east side of the stadium.   

As I was seated in the main grand stand with fellow Moroka Swallows supporters, things didn’t look like they would get out of control.

 Although I am not quite the best photographer in town, I managed to take a few snaps which tell the story better than I can.  There was chaos. Steven was stunned.

Notice how some fans have pieces of what used to be a fence in the hands

Downs fans even tipped over the coaches' dugout

Steven could not believe his eyes

I think the violence lasted for about thirty minutes after the final whistle. Supporters - kids and adults alike - were running wild all over the Dobsonville stadium pitch, while the main group was causing trouble with the police and security officials. They were outnumbered by the unruly supporters and I wondered how badly this would end – we have all seen civilians shot for causing far less trouble without directly attacking the police.

Alex Tshakaone managed to escape unscathed into the tunnel after he decided t make a run for it when it began to seem clear that this time the Yellow Nation was here to make a statement and would not back down no matter which club official Sundowns sent to try calm them down.  The fans have clearly had enough of coach Johan Neeskens.  Few coaches manage to keep their job at the helm one of the Big Three with a record like that.

As I write this, I am pretty sure Neeskens will be relieved of his duties tomorrow morning. The fans have been heard chanting Pitso Mosimane’s name (yes, the very same Pitso that almost every soccer fan in South Africa described as a “clueless coach” after his rather unsuccessful time as national team coach).

This could be Pitso’s chance to return to the big time. However, do not be surprised if Sundowns owner Patrice Motsepe whips out his cheque book and buys out the contract of another Dutch coach – but only this time, a Dutch coach who has actually enjoyed success in the Premier Soccer League.

If it isn’t obvious by now, I am referring to none other than Ruud Krol.

Watch this space.

Thomas Monyepao

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A finish that City Kun't have imagined!

This post originally appeared on the Sport24.co.za site.


At this very moment – for most of you reading this piece – it is a Monday morning and you’ve just about made sense of the crazy events that occurred yesterday in the Barclays English Premier League (EPL). Goals, goalkeeping errors, flying elbows, coaching masterstrokes, and loads of drama. What more can you ask for? What a finish from the man they call Kun, and what an end to the season.

You could not have scripted this better. The commentators repeated this statement often. Every time they said that, the harder it became to believe what was happening on my small TV set. One does not need high definition large screens to experience the breath-taking drama which one was exposed to last night. Most soccer fans and “experts” predicted victories for both Manchester United and Manchester City in their respective games but anybody who predicted that finish before kickoff would have been labeled “insane” or “ambitious” at best. But, what we got from the EPL last night not only reminded us all why we love the league so much, it also reminded us why we love the game of football so much.

A few heart attacks, strokes, tears, screams of jubilation and frustration, and maybe some broken chairs in few people’s homes – all of this within the space of a mere 90 minutes. The cricket and rugby executives must be wondering how and when (if ever) they will match the drama and viewership that only football can generate. Even the shortened cricket version of T20 – great innovation, it must be said – has not managed to come close to matching the drama and various scenarios that can occur within less than 2 hours in football.

Anyway, today is City’s day and I have to congratulate the whole City team for their attitude, for never giving up (even when there was an eight-point deficit), and for the beautiful football they dished out (the Old Trafford special being my favourite pick as Arsenal fan!) and their self-belief and never-say die attitude in that memorable final league match of the season.   Even Roberto Mancini, the City head coach, admitted after the game that he himself had lost belief that they could snatch victory. In the age that we live in, where managers are fired within the blink of an eye, one has to give credit to the suits at the Etihad Stadium who did no pull the trigger as soon as the ship hit stormy waters. They let the captain of the ship handle his business. He did what needed to be done. He “recasted the outcasts” (Tevez and Balotelli), dealt with various egos within the team, and for us neutrals, he unleashed great attacking brilliance from the likes of Sergio “Kun” Aguero, Edin Dzeko, Mario Balotelli, Carlos Tevez, Adam Johnson, David Silva and former Arsenal darling, Samir Nasri on poor Premier League defences. It has been a great season and when the going got tough, the mind games got going. Since City can now be called Champions, can we agree that his there was a certain science behind his sometimes mad quotes and mind games?  Well, that might be a topic for another day.

Jose Mourinho gets a lot of respect, deservedly, for winning trophies wherever he goes, however, Mancini also deserves credit for taking this team to the top despite the various personalities he had to deal with. Let us not forget that he won three Serie A titles on the trot, thereby laying the foundation for Mourinho’s success later on at Inter Milan.

It must have made the victory even sweeter for City fans when you look at how the scene unfolded on this Sunday evening. Manchester United players and supporters alike thought they had the title wrapped up before Kun stole it back dramatically in injury time. Manchester City may be referred to as the noisy neighbours but go to most countries and you will realize how loud and arrogant Manchester United supporters are (and you will find any of them, trust me). City fans have every right to brag and be in your ear all week long. They suffered 44 years of banter and teasing from their neighbours.

I, for one, cannot wait for next season. Let’s hope the PSL, this coming weekend, can also provide more drama. And, guess what? After the PSL finale, we still have Euro 2012 in Polkraine to look forward to next month! It sure is great to be football fun, huh?
That’s all from me. ‘Til next time.


Thomas Monyepao
Follow me on  twitter for more football debates, @Tom_18yards.