Pitso's temper will be tested

So which Pitso Mosimane will call the shots at Mamelodi Sundowns? The feisty, inspiring Pitso of his Supersport United days and the first half of his tenure as Bafana head coach? Or the grumpy, disillusioned, confused figure who got the sack in June?

That depends on how much reflecting he has done during his five-month sabbatical.

After five years' absence from the trenches of PSL football, now is the time for Mosimane to remind us what he can do when he is at his best. If he is to drag Sundowns from their dysfunctional state and forge a winning culture, he might need to put a lid on his temper.

Mosimane was diplomatic as assistant to Carlos Alberto Parreira. But as head coach his flair for drama kicks in. He has a talent for telling the wrong truth at the wrong time when he gets a bit fired up. The clearest example of this was when he committed the cardinal error of blaming poor results on Bafana's inability to hit a kudu's backside with a vuvuzela.

"We don't have strikers in this country," he noted.

To quote one of Moses' forgotten football commandments: "Thou shalt not reproach thine own forwards, crap though they might be". And a bad workman blames his tools. When the players promptly lost belief in him, the show was all but over.

And the Downs job is full of opportunities for PR disasters. You get little credit for winning, and even less sympathy for losing. Fans and media alike have no patience, and Johan Neeskens soon ran out of the extremely small supply of charm he arrived with. Towards the end, the Dutchman was firing sarcastic barbs at his pesky retinue of reporters because he got so tired of growling the same unconvincing spin after every defeat or stalemate.

It's a helluva difficult gig, but Mosimane is up to it. There are many factors in his favour: his energy and progressive ideas about the game, his affinity with the club and his old rapport with key players he has worked with at international level, notably Katlego Mphela and Teko Modise. Because Downs owner Patrice Motsepe has always wanted to hire him, he can count on at least as much time as was given to Neeskens.

His immediate priority is to climb to league safety, which shouldn't be too difficult with Mphela back in the saddle. Then comes the Nedbank Cup, and the business of renovating the squad for a fresh assault on the league title next season. There might already be enough talent at Chloorkop for that task, but Motsepe will hand him a chequebook nonetheless.

Mosimane said recently that he dreams of restoring the reputation of PSL clubs in African competitions, and his strong record of away results on the continent suggests he has the capacity to compete in the business end of the African Champions League.

That's a long way off. Right now, Mosimane should simply savour being back in the game and enjoy his dealings with the media. The more fun he has, the better Downs will be.