COMMENT: Why some of the Chiefs players don’t even deserve an invite to the club's awards ceremony

“I’m even embarrassed to say that I did well‚” an honest Siphiwe Tshabalala said after winning his second Absa Premiership Goal of the Month award this week.

Imagine then how the Kaizer Chiefs captain will feel should he win the club’s Player of the Year award in what has been a forgetful season for Amakhosi.

There’s a strong possibility that could happen in the club’s awards ceremony on Thursday.

The Chiefs’ captain has been one of a handful of standout players for the club‚ along with Ramahlwe Mphahlele‚ Lorenzo Gordinho‚ Itumeleng Khune and Willard Katsande.

The rest don’t even deserve an invitation to the ceremony.

• 'I’m even embarrassed to say that I did well,' says Kaizer Chiefs' Siphiwe TshabalalaSiphiwe Tshabalala is embarrassed when people talk about his good season‚ his overriding sentiment for 2016-17 being disappointment at Kaizer Chiefs ending without a trophy again. 

There is little that happened on the field for Amakhosi that warrants rewards after a second successive barren season.

But the brand consciousness that has made the side the most recognisable and biggest brand in the country is the drive for the club to do this – to keep their name in the news.

Amakhosi should use this time to do some self-introspection which would help them turn things around.

Chiefs’ legend Tinashe Nengomasha argued that a lot of the current crop don’t know the club’s values and he even went as far as to say that most of the foreign contingent are too comfortable – not doing enough to prove why they were brought from their countries to a team with a trophy haul that’s unmatched in the country.

• Fiery Josephs fires scathing salvo at Pirates players and labels them 'Instagram stars'Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza should go and chase the signature of Steve Pienaar this off-season to bring someone to the club who can show the current “Instagram players what a real star is”‚ says ex-Bucs goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs. 

That’s an indictment on the club’s recruitment policy.

Kaizer Motaung‚ the chiefs’ chairman‚ admitted that they have made some bad decisions in their recruitment which has led to most of their signings spending more time on the bench than on the field.

Amakhosi have failed to work the market like SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits who thrived on luring quality players for free.

Chiefs’ best recruit this season‚ Mphahlele‚ was driven to Amakhosi by unhappiness at Mamelodi Sundowns where he felt he should have been paid more than he was getting.

• Familiar foes Esperance of Tunisia stand in Sundowns' wayEsperance of Tunisia are no strangers to taking on South African opposition but a measure of the stature of the club is the fact all past clashes have come in the African Champions League. 

That move had little to do with Amakhosi being a desirable option.

That was an afterthought‚ that at least they would pay him better than the Brazilians and would be in a team with a bigger support base.

Chiefs have lost the appeal that saw Mulomowandau Mathoho tell his agent who had agreed terms with Sundowns to fly a kite because he was set on joining Amakhosi.

Now that name isn’t worth the weight it carries.

Thapelo Morena did the opposite of what Mathoho did‚ forcing his way to the African champions instead of going to Naturena where everything looked done and dusted for his move.

• Today’s Kaizer Chiefs players are clueless on the club’s values, says legendary Nengomasha Kaizer Chiefs legend Tinashe Nengomasha believes that the reason why the club has gone two seasons without a trophy‚ something unheard of in his playing days‚ is because the current crop of players have forgotten Amakhosi’s values. 

Morena was attracted by the drive to play on the continent and on the world stage‚ which he did at the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan last year.

The whole idea of hosting an awards ceremony after a terrible season might be bizarre and comical but it should be the catalyst for the club to turn things around.

Bidvest Wits’ awards ceremony after they finished second‚ 14 points behind Sundowns‚ was a bitter sweet occasion.

It was to celebrate a good showing by a team that used to be happy with finishing in the middle of the table and was relegated in 2005.

• Komphela dribbles his way past questions about Kaizer Chiefs' plans for next seasonKaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela is cautious in his prognosis as to whether the team will be fierce in the transfer market in the off-season‚ though he admitted Amakhosi “are thin in certain areas”. 

But that second place wasn’t good enough based on the financial investment the club made in the players on their roaster.

Management didn’t shy away from telling them that second place wasn’t good enough.

The response was swift.

Wits won the first trophy on offer and broke an almost decade-long barren run by winning the league for the first time in their 96 year history.

Chiefs should use these awards ceremony for something similar.

• Cup-less Komphela's frank assessmentSteve Komphela clearly feels he deserves a chance to prove himself in a third season at Kaizer Chiefs after two without a trophy, even if he has admitted "I would fire myself". 

Reward the few standout players and have stern words with the entire team that has dragged the club’s name through the mud.

But those words need to be backed with action to pick up the team and ensure that they compete.

Teams like Cape Town City have shown that they mean business by tying up their players early and bolstering their squad with Ayanda Patosi before this season has even been officially wrapped.

- TMG Digital/TMG Sport