‘Are you firing me for winning?’ — Pitso on what went wrong at Al Wahda

Pitso Mosimane says he and Al Wahda had the same vision of winning trophies and challenging for the league but differed in the execution needed to achieve that goal, leading to their abrupt and surprising parting of ways last month.

Mosimane’s first assignment after joining Al Wahda was in the Arab Club Champions Cup final tournament in Saudi Arabia in July and August. He steered Wahda though the group stage, beating Kuwait SC and Algeria's CR Belouizdad and losing against Morocco's Raja Casablanca. Wahda lost on penalties in the quarterfinals against Saudi side Al-Shabab.

Mosimane started the 2023-2024 domestic season winning two and losing one in the League Cup, while in the UAE Pro League he lost a game, won two, lost two and then won two before being replaced.

Given the results were decent, Mosimane's departure came as a surprise, especially as it was by far his shortest stay in a job and he had never previously not completed a season at a club.

The coach was asked, given he and his fellow technical staff and agency MT Sports screen their next “projects” meticulously, what went wrong at Wahda.

“The vision in the project was good,” Mosimane told a press conference of the South African Football Journalists’ Association.

“It was a big team that hadn’t won the league for 13 years. That presented a challenge and that’s what drew me to that place.

“So we [Mosimane and his fellow decisionmakers] were aligned in that vision. It’s a big team in Abu Dhabi.

“Inside the vision of saying we needed to win a trophy, win the league maybe, there are principles and alignment — there must be short-term, mid-term and long-term plans. And we [the club and technical staff] have to be aligned in knowing those plans.

“There’s no plan you make and it doesn’t have hurdles — you will always have hurdles. But ... there was a lack of alignment from what I think and what the team wanted, and what the team had been doing over the past 13 years when they hadn’t won the league.

“I realised we were not going in the right direction. We sat down and I asked them, ‘Are you firing me for winning? Am I leaving you for winning?’

“We did not have a good answer, both of us, that we could say to the people. But, to be honest, it was not about the results because we had won the past two games.”

Mosimane said it was not the vision, but the execution of it on which he differed with Al Wahda.

“When we are not aligned on how we execute within the vision, [even] as early as six [or seven league] games, I think it’s better we don’t waste each other’s time.

“We were saying, ‘You [Wahda] want to drive the vision doing one, two, three; we as a [technical] team wanted one, two, three’. So I said, ‘Look, I have to stay within what I know; always stay with my principles that have won trophies’.

“Because we have been successful for the past seven, eight years in winning trophies and they had not won [the league] for 13 years.

“So I thought we should be going ‘this way’. We liked each other. We had no problem with each other or our working.

“But when we differ in how one should do the work, the best thing for both sides is to part ways. It was good for the team. It was also good for me to come out of this as early as possible.”

Former Mamelodi Sundowns and Al Ahly (Egypt) coach Mosimane joined Wahda having steered Saudi big three team Al-Ahli to the second tier Yelo League title and promotion back to the Saudi Pro League despite pay issues at the Jeddah club.