SAZI HADEBE | Sometimes club bosses’ treatment of coaches is hard to swallow

The shenanigans have started. Yes, it doesn’t take 10 league games to rear its ugly head. 

That’s what you get with our top-flight clubs in the Premier Soccer League (PSL). And it gets worse as the season progresses, with club bosses competing with each other in the firing of coaches. 

We have now got used to Chippa United owner Siviwe Mpengesi’s tendency of disposing of his coaches almost as often as he changes his socks. Season in, season out you’re guaranteed he will pull the trigger on his head coach whenever he feels he’s not getting the desired results. It doesn’t matter whether he’s given that coach the right material to deliver, he’s certain to be jobless as soon as Mpengesi feels the heat.

I expect Mpengesi to make a move soon on the future of his current coach, Gavin Hunt, whose side lost a second match in a row in the fourth round with a 3-1 home defeat to Orlando Pirates at the weekend.

The question remains: why suspend or send a coach on forced leave when it seems you’ve already decided his fate? Is this not a recipe for more chaos at the club, as many questions will be raised?

Another loss against Stellenbosch FC on Saturday may well signal the end of Hunt’s stay with the Gqeberha club he joined before the start of the 2021-22 campaign.

But while we wait in anticipation for Mpengesi’s axe to fall on Hunt, there’s been no shortage of other club bosses treating their coaches in unpalatable ways. 

As I said, this is just for starters, the dessert is normally served towards the end of the season, with big-name coaches in big clubs biting the dust when it is clear they’re bringing nothing but misery in that season.

Hunt will relate to this, as he was shown the door at Kaizer Chiefs with just two league games before the end of the last campaign. 

Marumo Gallants, a team known as TTM last season, has already lost assistant coach Francois Luscuito. The Belgian, who was head coach at Black Leopards in 2016, left the Limpopo club complaining of poor working conditions. 

Luscuito’s departure pales into insignificance when you hear what’s happening at Swallows FC regarding the future of their head coach, Brandon Truter. There were many stories on Tuesday of clubless coaches already applying for Truter’s job at the Dube Birds.

Swallows bosses, led by David Mogashoa, have been cagey on the matter. I mean really, where have you heard of a head coach given leave in the middle of a season without reasons.

What makes Swallows’ move suspicious is that Truter’s leave comes after a 3-0 home defeat to SuperSport United and a few months after the bosses hired Simo Dladla, former head coach of a GladAfrica Championship side Richards Bay United, as Truter’s assistant.

I know Dladla’s appointment was never recommended by Truter, but it was a way to manage the exit of the incumbent, who I’m told they no longer think suits the club’s ambitions.

The question remains: why suspend or send a coach on forced leave when it seems you’ve already decided his fate? Is this not a recipe for more chaos at the club, as many questions will be raised?

Even Mpengesi would do better, because with him, at least you know where you stand when results go awry. Not that it helps Mpengesi’s club, but at least he doesn’t leave any doubt about his intentions.

Given what Truter has done at Swallows, winning them promotion from the National First Division and finishing sixth in his debut campaign in the DStv Premiership, I feel his fate deserves better management.

Swallows supporters deserve better respect from the club bosses. Certainly having a coach on leave ahead of two crucial matches, a league encounter against Cape Town City on Friday and a return leg in the MTN8 semifinal against the same club, doesn’t make sense.

We know club bosses tie themselves into big-money contracts with head coaches when everything is hunky-dory between all parties. But the moment the relationship turns sour, it becomes difficult for the same bosses to untie themselves from those deals.

Behind the scenes there may be discussions about how Swallows should part ways with Truter, but the way they’ve handled their displeasure with how things are going on the field or perhaps elsewhere doesn’t help the Soweto Club’s image.

I wrote last season of how happy I was to see the Dube Birds flying in the top-flight again. I was hoping for big progress this season and I thought that the way they started this campaign - with one victory, a draw and two successive losses - was no reason for alarm. 

The Swallows bosses clearly have other reasons to place Truter on leave and the sooner they come clean the better.

The truth regarding Truter’s sudden leave is what everyone deserves. For now, there’s nothing special about it.