‘Next season Chiefs should be able to win everything’: ‘Itu’ Khune

Kaizer Chiefs captain Itumeleng Khune says it won’t be long before the team wins every trophy on offer, but supporters need to be patient during the rebuilding phase.

Khune said Amakhosi might achieve such a feat next season.

Many Chiefs supporters appear to have lost faith in the reconstruction process led by coach Arthur Zwane as the club faces another barren season unless they win the Nedbank Cup.

Chiefs have blown hot and cold and failed to challenge Mamelodi Sundowns in the DStv Premiership title race. Zwane, who was the supporters’ favourites to replace coach Stuart Baxter at the end of the previous campaign, was booed by Amakhosi fans after their 3-2 defeat to Golden Arrows at Peter Mokaba Stadium on Sunday.

Speaking at a Soweto derby press conference at the Vodacom head office in Midrand on Monday, Khune said he understood things had not gone according to plan but insisted there are signs better days are coming.

Chiefs host Orlando Pirates in the league at FNB Stadium on Saturday (3.30pm). 

Former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Khune said it’s normal that a team that has made wholesale changes, from the technical team to playing personnel, will struggle while trying to find the right combinations.  

“All I can say to our supporters is, yes, we have been asking for patience, but again they need to understand there have been different coaches in the past seasons because most of the time it is what they [the fans] recommended to management,” Khune said.

“The club has delivered certain coaches the supporters recommended and some of the players they wanted to come in. So everyone who has come in needs time to settle.

“We understand Kaizer Chiefs is not the club to wait [for a long time to win titles] — you have to play every match to win and challenge for the silverware.

“But when you have players who are new in the set-up it becomes our responsibility as leaders and players who have been there to guide them.

“It’s never easy and it won’t take just one game to turn things around. It will take quite some time.

“If you look at European clubs, they are patient with coaches and players because they know the team is building.

“Yes, we haven’t been winning silverware but the squad we have now, compared to the previous squad, I think is ready to compete. If we can be given more time, come next season, we should be able to win everything on offer.”

Khune believes the squad Chiefs assembled at the beginning of the season, bolstered by the January signing of Christian Saile, has what it takes to emulate the side that won the league and Nedbank Cup in the 2012-2013 season and another league and cup double in 2014-2015.

“In the 2012-2013 season we were sweeping everything because we had a new coach [Baxter] and most Bafana Bafana players who were playing at Chiefs, such as Tsepo Masilela, Bernard Parker, Siboniso 'Pa' Gaxa, Siphiwe Tshabalala, Reneilwe 'Yeye' Letsholonyane and myself.

“Now we have strong, young and aspiring players who want to win silverware. That is what we talk about every day at work — that we want to win trophies. We promise our supporters things will turn around at some point.”

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