SAZI HADEBE | Chiefs should hire Pitso, then leave him alone to do his job

There was a huge football match played in Soweto over the weekend. It’s called the Soweto derby involving Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates — the two most supported football clubs in South Africa. 

But for me what remains of the derby is just a name, a name because these clubs still exist and still command magnificent support. 

What remains a hollow shell, is the kind of football these two Soweto giants are dishing out these days. But tell anyone associated with these clubs about their flaws and the need to improve their not so captivating standards, you’re likely to be met with scorn. 

If you compare Chiefs and Pirates with Mamelodi Sundowns, who have won the last six DStv Premiership campaigns on the trot, you get more exasperation from those in denial of Sundowns’ progression.  

And so, these Soweto teams huffed and puffed at the FNB Stadium on Saturday where Pirates managed to curtail their winless streak in the league against their rivals. The Buccaneers came into the latest sparring having lost the last five league encounters between these sides, but Evidence Makgopa’s solitary strike delivered the bragging rights for the Bucs faithful.

For me it was just that, the three points that Pirates earned on the day. In any case Pirates coach Jose Riveiro had recently asked his players to start winning matches even “if we play ugly football”. If you didn’t know Riveiro you wouldn’t believe he’s from the land of tiki-taka football in Spain. But don’t blame Riveiro because that’s the level of frustration you get when you coach a team like Pirates that miss many chances, despite dominating a match in every area of the pitch.

The same happened on Saturday where Pirates midfielders Thembinkosi Lorch and Patrick Maswanganyi dominated possession but lacked the class to do anything tangible with it. It is when you are critical of the shenanigans, the ineffective jingles of the likes of Lorch and Maswanganyi, that all those associated with Pirates, including their technical team, start to view you as their enemy number one.

Part of the ways to resolve some of the challenges a club like Chiefs has, must involve being pragmatic and doing some of the uncomfortable things they’ve never tried before.

The less said about Chiefs the better. This is a team that has an interim coach in Cavin Johnson, a man who’s spreading the word to all and sundry that his players need to play “the Chiefs way” if they’re to return the club to its glory days. 

As to what “the Chiefs way” is exactly, only Johnson knows. What we know is that Chiefs were far from playing in whatever way Johnson wants them to play way in the two league losses out of three that Chiefs have suffered since he was asked to take the reins from Molefi Ntseki — who admitted this week he was as surprised as everybody when the Chiefs hierarchy asked him to step in as a head coach at the start of the 2023-24 season. 

When you write anything about Chiefs and Pirates, there’s no way you can escape comparing their level to the one set by Sundowns in recent years and how they’ve been struggling to come close to Patrice Motsepe’s club. 

But if it were left to Chiefs and Pirates, and I include the coaches of these clubs who roll their eyes when we ask them real questions about the level of their team, Sundowns would not be part of the discussion when one talks about their struggles.

If we write a match report, for instance, they don’t take kindly when we compare their points with those of Sundowns, who’ve won all their eight league ties this season and remain on top of the DStv Premiership log. As to where we should place the Brazilians, I really wonder. 

I get a sense that if it were up to these Soweto clubs every PSL club would be like them, drop to a standard that has seen these clubs lose nine matches (combined) in 22 league matches (combined) this season. Six losses in 12 for Chiefs and three in 10 for Pirates — and no-one would dare remind them how far they are from Sundowns.

What these two clubs should learn is that their past glory doesn’t exempt them from being scrutinised when they’re struggling these days. Some of us are not going to join their band of praise singers, masquerading as journalists, people who continue to sugarcoat their obvious struggles. Our job is to tell a story, any kind of story, as we see it. 

Part of the ways to resolve some of the challenges a club like Chiefs has must involve being pragmatic and doing some of the uncomfortable things they’ve never tried before. 

That brings me to the vacant coaching position at Chiefs, something they have an opportunity not to mess up like they did before the start of the current season when they ended up dumping the job on the unsuspecting Ntseki, who was obviously overwhelmed. 

There is a very successful Pitso Mosimane available in the market, but Chiefs won’t touch him if they still want to continue having every family member whispering in the coach’s ear what he needs to do. That people at Chiefs can do that to a coach like Ntseki or Johnson doesn’t mean it will happen with Mosimane, who is his own man and always comes with his own technical team wherever he coaches.

So why not leave the coaching job to the coach the way Sundowns did when Mosimane arrived in December 2012. In any case, the only person who qualifies to talk to Mosimane about anything football, if he were to coach Chiefs, is the club owner and chair, Kaizer Motaung. That’s the only person Mosimane or any Chiefs coach for that matter should be answerable to.

These are the kinds of tough decisions that a club like Pirates or Chiefs will have to make if they are to embark on those baby steps to try to catch up with Sundowns. But if these clubs continue to live in denial, they’ll continue having their precious derby referred to as a “Durban July” as former Chiefs goalkeeper Brian Baloyi called it ahead of last weekend’s instalment. What a pity.