‘In SA you are declared useless before you are born’: Chiefs coach Ntseki

Molefi Ntseki says Kaizer Chiefs appointed him head coach because they felt they needed continuity in their coaching staff and for the new man to be “somebody from within” the club.

Ntseki had an indifferent start to the season with a 0-0 DStv Premiership draw at home to Chippa United and 2-1 defeat away against Mamelodi Sundowns.

But Amakhosi gave a first signal that they have noticeably better depth and muscle in their squad with an impressive, hard-fought 2-1 MTN8 quarterfinal win against Cape Town City at Athlone Stadium on Sunday.

Ntseki has been handed the tough task, moved from Chiefs’ head of technical to replace Arthur Zwane in Amakhosi’s hot seat, of reversing eight painful seasons without silverware, and will need all the player quality and balance in his squad he can get.

The coach will know that a semifinal draw against trophy machines Sundowns in the MTN8 semis will not make the mission of achieving an early trophy in 2023-24 any easier. However, he could at least savour some relief as Chiefs ended a run of six official matches without a victory against City.

He was again asked about the disappointment expressed by some Chiefs' fans upon his appointment. 

“I think first I need to thank the management and board of the club because the appointment was made because of the need to have continuity in terms of the tactical plan of the club and also the projections,” the former Bafana Bafana coach said.

“I was the head of technical of the club and reports were presented and we realised there were certain areas we needed to work on.

“There was a lot of noise about other coaches coming to Chiefs and the club never said anything about anybody coming to the club.

“I think it was a plan from the club to have somebody from within to continue with the technical team.

“As for the public and anybody who had questions about me, I have said it that in South Africa you are declared useless before you are even born.

“And I think it’s a process all of us need to understand. When you are carried for nine months there is respect and belief that whoever is going to be born on this earth will have a big contribution to make.

“And I think the most important thing for me is to say thank you to the supporters, the club and chair for giving me this opportunity to coach the club and the support I’m getting from everybody, including the technical team.”

Chiefs’ need for continuity would make sense given the club will no doubt have identified an unusually high turnover of coaches in recent years as an area of instability that has added to their silverware woes.

After Steve Komphela’s three-year tenure ended in 2018 the club has had five full-time coaches in Giovanni Solinas, Ernst Middendorp, Gavin Hunt, Stuart Baxter and Zwane; plus two caretakers, in Zwane and Mabedi, in charge in the past five seasons.