It’s been a terrible six years, but a return to happy days for the once “Happy People” seems to be on the card.
My sincere advice, though, would be to avoid thinking about popping that champagne just yet because we’re dealing with perennial party poopers here, their own worst enemies.
Orlando Pirates may have found the team to end their long hiatus from the winners in the Premier Soccer League, judging by the way they’ve sprinted off the blocks in the 2020/21 campaign.
The tears of some of the Buccaneers diehards may not even wait for the end of season in May to start rolling down their cheeks – tears of either joy or pain – depending on the outcome of the MTN8 final on December 12.
In that final, Josef Zinnbauer’s team will wrestle against Bloemfontein Celtic to win their first piece of silverware since Kermit Erasmus’s brace and Sifiso Myeni’s strike helped Bucs beat the now-defunct Bidvest Wits 3-1 in the Nedbank Cup in May 2014.
Vladimir Vermezovic, a former Serbian footballer, was the Pirates coach at the time. Oupa Manyisa and retired captain Lucky Lekgwathi were the leaders of that Bucs team that collected a treble in the 2011/12 season.
But the happy days for Bucs fans, who had by then dubbed themselves “Happy People”, ended in 2014. It’s been replaced by a number of monumental disappointments, playing second fiddle in both cups and league campaigns.
Thulani Hlatshwayo, Deon Hotto, Terrence Dzvukamanja and Thabang Monare, the four players who were the spine of Gavin Hunt’s team at Wits, are now doing the same at Pirates with Zinnbauer.
Can the class of 2020/21 do something better for their starving fans? They certainly look like they can, and the irony is that Zinnbauer’s team is now built around the players of the team they last won a trophy against, Wits.
In Zulu, when something similar to what we’re witnessing at Bucs occurs, we’ll say: “Inyoni yakhela ngamaqubu enye,” or the bird builds its own nest with other birds’ feathers.
Thulani Hlatshwayo, Deon Hotto, Terrence Dzvukamanja and Thabang Monare, the four players who were the spine of Gavin Hunt’s team at Wits, are now doing the same at Pirates with Zinnbauer, who has wasted no time in installing Hlatshwayo as the Bucs skipper when Happy Jele is on the bench.
That is not the only change that has improved Zinnbauer’s team. In former Maritzburg United goalkeeper and skipper Richard Ofori, they’ve brought quality that complements an already strong-looking side.
Wayde Jooste, a roving right-footed wing back acquired from another defunct team, Highlands Park, is another wise buy by the Bucs, who usually just grab whoever is available on the market and then expect their coaches to perform some miracles akin to Shepherd Bushiri’s recent escape from SA.
It is the support that’s been given to Zinnbauer that will give Pirates something this season.
There are no guarantee they’ll win something, but a discerning Pirates supporter will agree with me that the Bucs’ revolution this season started in the boardroom, where they identified areas that needed strengthening.
Expecting coaches to always make do with whatever unbalanced resources they’re given is rife in the PSL. And I’m not only talking about the so-called small teams.
Big guns such as Pirates always make the mistake of buying quantity instead of quality. Usually the outcome of that is what Pirates has endured in the past six years, during which they punched well below their weight.
Yes, the coaches may have made errors here and there, but at huge clubs such as Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns, there will always be people able to constantly evaluate if they have the right material to win trophies.
It certainly doesn’t start with coaches. Good coaches are needed, yes, but without providing them with the right kind of material, those wise coaches will deliver nothing.
You only have to look at what Chiefs are going through. Hunt, as we all know, is a great coach who is only second to Pitso Mosimane in what he’s achieved in the PSL.
Hunt too will deliver nothing at Naturena if he’s not supported with good players soon after the ban on signing the new players is lifted at the club at the start of next season.
Look at what happened to Eric Tinkler this week. The former Bafana Bafana midfielder was sacked at Maritzburg United for not winning any of the first four league games this season.
But did anyone at Maritzburg bother to recall it was the same Tinkler who saved them from relegation in 2018/19? Is this not the same guy who helped the team finish in the top eight last season?
What do you expect at Maritzburg when you sell a key player like Ofori? Do you immediately discover or get money to find another player of Ofori’s quality? No.
But then the scapegoat will always be the coaches who fail to keep churning out those miracles with whatever squad they’re given.
Pirates’ management has done well this season to look at themselves rather than at the coaches alone. That’s what teams like Maritzburg, limited in resources as they may be, must strive to do as well.
But as I suggested at the very beginning, the wise Pirates fans who have endured some ridicule from their opponents in the unhappy six years would do well to put those champagne bottles deeper in their freezers.
They’ve no reason to think they’ll indeed be singing that famous R Kelly song, Happy People, come December 12.
But then they might as well be steppin’ to the left and to the right, dancing the night away, enjoying that melodic R&B hit again.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.