Mandla Masango says Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane deserves same support as overseas coaches

As media reports continue to strongly suggest Arthur Zwane’s time may be over at Kaizer Chiefs, former player Mandla Masango feels he deserves another chance and should be afforded the same support as overseas coaches.

Zwane led Chiefs to another trophyless season in the recently finished Premier Soccer League (PSL) season.

In his first season as the head coach of Amakhosi, Zwane could only manage a fifth position finish on the DStv Premiership final log table.

Chiefs have now gone for eight consecutive seasons without trophy success.   

According to numerous reports, Chiefs are in search for a new coach as they are desperate to bring back the so-called glory days.

The Soweto giants are heavily linked to Tunisian coach Nasreddine Nabi, who recently left Tanzanian club Young Africans.   

However, Masango feels Zwane has not performed badly bearing in mind Chiefs are currently going through some rebuilding phase.

“Chiefs are in a building phase, and when you are building you can’t expect to have immediate success,” Masango said.

“I think he is a local coach, he has done well, and he deserves a chance. Also, you guys, journalists, need to support him and not bash him.

“Because sometimes you guys have the power to make a person and to break a person.

“We had previous coaches who are from overseas, when are we going to have a local coach who gets the support that the international coaches get from the media,” he said.

Masango said Zwane had a new team that has a few youngsters such as Mduduzi Shabalala, Samkelo Zwane and Wandile Duba, so it was going to be tough for the coach to deliver immediate success.    

“We are in the building phase and there’s a lot of youngsters (in the team). I was a youngster myself (at Chiefs), so it takes time,” Masango said.

“You can’t just go into a team like Chiefs and expect instant results. It’s a process.

“I’m glad that there’s mostly local players (at Chiefs) and we want to promote local players, right? So, we need to be patient with local players.” 

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