Rise and fall of a PSL coach

Two years ago Manqoba Mngqithi was hailed as one of the best new coaches in the Premier Soccer League.

In 2007, when he was 36 years old, he became the youngest coach in the PSL when he was appointed by Golden Arrows.

Two years into the job, he took the club to their first major trophy - a 6-0 drubbing of Ajax Cape Town in the final of the MTN8.

It's now two years since that triumph at Orlando stadium and he has already been fired twice.

The latest dismissal came at the weekend when Amazulu gave him his marching orders. He was sent packing by Arrows last year when the club finished 12th on the log in March, their second-worst finish since winning promotion to the Premier League.

Mngqithi was dismissed by Arrows boss Mato Madlala, who opted for an "experienced" Serbian coach in Zoran Filipovic.

Now, after four years in top-flight football and just a few months after his 40th birthday, Mngqithi's coaching career is in the doldrums.

He had three good years at Arrows, a club that launched him into South African football. That spell was followed by a torrid 12 months at Amazulu. He might be without a club for the moment, but Mngqithi has got soccer people talking.

When Mngqithi took over at Arrows, he was youngest coach in the PSL at the time. Now the youngest coach is Ajax Cape Town's Maarten Stekelenburg, who turns 39 in December.

Arrows were promoted to the PSL in 2000 and, despite their giant-killing acts, they have always been a mid-table team.

When Mngqithi took them to that single triumph in 2009, the coach became a cult hero in Lamontville, the small town near Durban where the club was founded in 1943. That cup victory and guiding Arrows to a top-five finish the season before saw the rise of Mngqithi, whose name came up when the South African Football Association announced that it would be naming a local Bafana coach after the 2010 World Cup.

However, during the World Cup year, the coach's CV was blemished by some failures.

Mngqithi sensed that he would lose his job at Amazulu after a narrow 1-0 defeat to Moroka Swallows on Saturday night.

The Usuthu board of directors, who have now fired two coaches in 15 months, pressed the panic button after the team collected only two points from five games.

Mngqithi said at the weekend: "Maybe I have to take the blame. We have been able to collect points [from two away matches], but have lost all three home matches."

He was not available for comment after parting ways with Amazulu.

But the club's board of directors made it clear why Mngqithi was no longer their man.

"Manqoba has added value to the team, but unfortunately [positive] results were not forthcoming.

"We had to release him from his contract," Usuthu director Graham O'Connor said on the club's website, adding that finishing 14th last season was a contributing factor.

The man who recommended Mngqithi to Arrows, Roger Palmgren, has taken over as coach.

With so many club bosses ready to fire coaches at the drop of a hat in the Premier League, it would not be a surprise if Mngqithi surfaced at another PSL team soon.