Top five football coaches in 2017

The PSL campaign has reached the half way mark with Mamelodi Sundowns sitting pretty at the top of the pile.

TIMESLive picks top five coaches in South Africa for the period of January to December.

ERIC TINKLER

Cape Town City were in the hunt for the title until the final weeks of their debut season but finished third to earn themselves a place in the 2018 African Confederation Cup.

He jumped ship to join SuperSport United in mid-year and led them to success in the MTN8 against his old club and then to the final of Confederation Cup where they narrowly lost to TP Mazembe.

Tinkler’s meticulous preparation and serious approach to the game mark him out as a future Bafana Bafana.

GAVIN HUNT

Two titles in the calendar year for Hunt would ordinarily have made him the best performing coach of 2017 but the fact that his club sit bottom of the standings at the end of the year tarnishes the achievement of the last 12 month.

In May‚ Hunt secured a first ever league title for Wits and his fourth Premier Soccer League championship.

This month Wits added the Telkom Knockout to their list of trophy success‚ albeit in a boring game against Bloemfontein Celtic‚ to complete for Hunt a clean sweep of all the domestic silverware.

THABO SENONG

Participation in the U20 World Cup came after South Africa finished fourth at the African Youth Championships in Zambia in March.

This was followed towards the end of the year by success in the Cosafa Championship in Zambia again for Amajita under Senong.

He also doubled up as assistant coach for the national team but has had a falling out with Stuart Baxter and might not be there much longer.

PITSO MOSIMANE

There was just one piece of silverware in 2017 for Mosimane in the African Super Cup but he did take his club comfortably through the rigours of the group phase of the African Champions League only to see his side fail to defend their crown as they lost on post-match penalties in Morocco in their quarter-final tie.

Going into 2018‚ Sundowns are placed at the top of the league standings and looking set on go on and win the title in May.

KGOLOKO THOBEJANE

At the start of the year‚ Thobejane had been removed from his job at Baroka only to bounce back and see the club hold onto their top flight status in the end of season promotion-relegation play-offs.

In the new campaign‚ Baroka were leaders for several weeks as Thobejane confounded the doubters with positive results.

He does not come across as a football intellectual‚ makes silly statements about the game and generally gives the impression of being something of a ‘classroom clown’.

But he does win games and continues to prove that there is no science to the wonderful game of football where anything is possible.