Zwane ‘deserves another chance’ if he cannot win trophy at Chiefs in 2022-23: Nyirenda

Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane deserves to keep his job if he does not win a trophy in 2022-23, club legend Wedson Nyirenda says.

However, the former Zambia and Baroka FC coach said time might not be on Zwane's side, given supporters' impatience for silverware after an unheard of seven-season drought.

Chiefs only have one chance left to prevent this campaign becoming their eighth without silverware — in the Nedbank Cup, in which they were drawn to meet Motsepe Foundation Championship leaders Casric Stars in Wednesday night's draw.

In the DStv Premiership, fifth-placed Chiefs, who meet Lamontville Golden Arrows at Polokwane's Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday, are 27 points behind Sundowns.

“The Kaizer Chiefs coach is one of those high-pressure positions, but with a very noble and sane board of directors and executive. It’s the club that gives people time to work,” Nyirenda told TimesLIVE from Zambia.

“I saw it with my brother, Steve Komphela — they gave him three years and he built a team that was coming up and was good. It was just that it didn’t get a trophy and people became impatient.

“Arthur is a baby of Kaizer Chiefs, we saw him grow in the club, he came through the ranks. I’m seeing him picking up the young players from the development, who are graduating into the ranks and getting there.

“And I think if we cannot get a trophy [this season], for me, if you give him another chance, it’s OK.

“To build a team takes three years and with many teams it takes four years. So why not give him a chance?

“But the problem is Chiefs do not have the luxury of time because of the period that has passed without a trophy.

“It’s not easy now for the supporters to be at ease. People will start calling for his job.

“Chiefs need to get something. The league is not possible — Mamelodi Sundowns have run away with it. Chiefs just have to try to console themselves with the Nedbank Cup.”

Nyirenda played for Chiefs from 1993 to 1995.

The coach is out of contract, having ended a one-year stint in charge of Mozambique's Ferroviário de Maputo in December.