‘We will fight hard in every game,’ says Nasreddine Nabi as he charms media in first press conference

In his first official press conference, a composed Nasreddine Nabi steered clear of making wild promises but said it is unacceptable for a club of Kaizer Chiefs’ magnitude to have gone nine years without silverware. 

Nabi, who has been recruited by Naturena to bring back the glory days, looked assured as he revealed he agreed to join Amakhosi to test himself at one of the biggest clubs on the continent. 

Chiefs are not involved in the MTN8 competition starting next weekend and Nabi will take his players to Botswana to put finishing touches on their preparations that started in Türkiye. 

“Looking at the name Kaizer Chiefs and how big the club is in South Africa and in Africa, it is definitely unacceptable not to have won a trophy in nine years,” he said as they prepared for the Toyota Cup against Young Africans of Tanzania at a sold-out Free State Stadium on Sunday (3pm). 

“The picture of where the club is at the moment and not having a title in such a long time is what made me to come here. I want to challenge myself to put the club back where it belongs. 

“We need a strategy to put the club back on top, we need to be honest with ourselves and the supporters and we need to look at the quality of our players without being emotional. 

“If we accordingly analyse what we have and we put a strategy together of how we want to drive the club forward, then we will be able to get where we want to.” 

Nabi said he doesn’t want to make promises that were made to fans in the past. 

“I don’t want to make promises or be a populist to give the fans what they want to hear. Let’s not be at that level. We need to start by preparing and analysing and we will take it from there. 

“We understand fans are tired of promises and we don’t want to make more promises. We are here to build a strong team that will fight throughout the game. I am not making excuses, but we will fight to win every game.” 

Pressure at Chiefs is unbearable and coaches are usually faced with the situation of hitting the ground running but Nabi pleaded with fans to exercise patience. 

“We have good players at Chiefs but we need to be given a chance. We would like to give these players the opportunity, the right space and right atmosphere to be able to perform to the best of their ability.”