MARC STRYDOM | Could Mosimane fix Chiefs? Hell yeah he could

Could Pitso Mosimane rescue Kaizer Chiefs? The question has been posed as his exit at Al-Ahli Saudi apparently becomes more likely — and in asking it, two meanings can be taken.

One is if there could be some crossing, though unlikely, of cosmic paths of South Africa’s finest coaching export, who has become a giant in his field in Africa, and South African football’s fallen giants, does Mosimane have what it takes to fix Chiefs?

The second meaning to the question stems more from the seeming implausibility of such a meeting. As in: could Mosimane even stand a chance of ending up at Chiefs to fix them?

Mosimane’s international success saw him coach the biggest club in Africa, Cairo’s Al Ahly, to five trophies including back-to-back Caf Champions League and Caf Super Cup titles. In his first foray outside Africa, he has ensured Al-Ahli Saudi's promotion from the Yelo League back to the Saudi Pro League (SPL).

Chiefs have gone eight years without a trophy. Making such a pairing seem more unlikely is Amakhosi have increasingly skimped on spending — on the cost of coaches appointed and the squads they’ve given to the men in charge.

Surely their relative stars — one continuing to shoot, and with options available internationally as his reputation grows; the other waning as they appear to fumble in the dark for solutions to the decline — are not bound for a meeting.

Yet an answer to the second question could also be that it might not be so unlikely as to be off the astrological charts.

Mosimane has made a habit of picking jobs where can work on a project. Restoring Chiefs, the club he supported growing up — uncle Abraham “Mainline” Khoza played for Amakhosi — would be some project.

And Chiefs, desperate to avoid the ignominy of going a decade without a trophy, where their previous longest was a single season, are surely at the point of recognising the need to dig deep — into their pockets and otherwise — to avoid that fate.

So perhaps their fates, whether written in the stars, or simply through timing, are just ripe for a meeting.

That brings us back to the first meaning of the question. If Chiefs opted to demote Arthur Zwane, perhaps keeping him in the senior structure to learn from Mosimane, and bring in “Jingles”, could he rescue them?

It seems a rhetorical question.

Mosimane found Mamelodi Sundowns having gone six seasons without a trophy, owner Patrice Motsepe seemingly at wits' end, after the failures of a string of big-name Europeans, as to how the hundreds of millions of rand he was ploughing in could be turned into trophies.

Mosimane won 11 trophies in eight years at the Brazilians, including five league titles and the 2016 Caf Champions League, and left the legacy of a restructured, winning club format that persisted after his departure.

At Al Ahly he found the most successful African football club that had been unable to win the trophy it covets most, the Champions League, in seven years. Though he could not win the Egyptian league, Mosimane steered them to back-to-back Champions League titles and added successive third-placed finishes (matching their best placing) at the Club World Cup.

At Ahli he found a team relegated for the first time — having been a “big three” Saudi club that won three league titles and was ever-present in the SPL from its founding in 1976 — and battling in seventh place after five games in the Yelo League. Flying blind into a completely unfamiliar league, on a new continent, in a country he’d never worked in that has a particularly exotic culture, he won the title and sent them back up.

Making that feat more remarkable was that the extent of Ahli’s financial troubles was revealed when it emerged only last week Mosimane and his fellow South African technical staff members went unpaid from January.

So could he fix Chiefs? Hell yeah he could. Permitting, of course:

• he had free rein on signings;
• Amakhosi made an effort to increase spending in the market;
• Mosimane was given authority to fix structural deficiencies; and
• he could bring the technical staff he’s plotted alongside at Ahly and Ahli.

Apart from the financial barrier, Mosimane would not join if those requirements were not met.

In the state of malaise years of misdirection has taken Amakhosi to, he might not quite be the only thing that could fix Chiefs right now — but there don't seem to be many more out there.

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