‘We’re not the worst team in the country’ — Bobby Motaung on Chiefs’ struggles

Kaizer Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung says they are not the worst club in the country after Amakhosi’s failure to win a trophy in seven seasons.

He admitted there are challenges that might have been inspired by chopping and changing coaches over the years.

The club is going through a tough period in their history, and management and fans hope recent changes will bring about success.

Chiefs have hired Arthur Zwane as their new head coach and Dillon Sheppard as his assistant, and started player recruitment by signing the Stellenbosch FC duo of Zitha Kwinika and Ashley du Preez.

Previously in their 51-year history, the longest Amakhosi went without silverware was a season.

However, Motaung feels the situation is not as bad as has been depicted and pointed out that Chiefs reached a few finals in the period of their unprecedented drought.

“It’s been seven years, but look at how many cup finals we have played in those seven years. We lost the league title in 30 minutes at some point in the seven years,” Motaung said.

“There’s just something we have been missing, but we are not dire in terms of being the worst club in the country.

“We’ve reached the Champions League final, which was for the first time in the history of the club. We’ve lost trophies in the final even under former coach Steve Komphela.”

Chiefs might have not have been the worst team in the country, but according to their own standards they have been very poor.

Before the drought began, it was unheard of for Chiefs to go for a season without silverware success.

Motaung suggested the constant coaching changes during the period might also have been their undoing.

After parting ways with coach Stuart Baxter in 2015, Chiefs had five coaching changes with Komphela, Giovanni Solinas, Ernst Middendorp, Gavin Hunt and Stuart Baxter, who came in for a second bite.

“What I’m saying is maybe there’s something that chopping and changing and not having continuity might be affecting us. It might be the reason for our failure,” Motaung said.

“Let’s have the people who have been there, let’s continue with them because they understand the pain, the misfortunes we have had.

“The drought, yes, we are a club that has been winning trophies historically but there’s a challenge there.

“That’s why there are the rebuilding phases, a new project to bring in a young coach and young technical staff with a vision and passion of winning. There’s hunger in them to try to achieve something, and there's a fresh team coming up and trying to win something. I think that’s where we might find a solution.”