Can this be the season that Chiefs finally win a trophy under your tenure?
It has to be. It has to be. People have waited far too long. We're anxious [to succeed]. But your anxiety must not break you. It must strengthen you and give you more energy to want it. We can't falter. Three seasons in a row [without a trophy]? No, it can't be. That would be completely uncharacteristic of Kaizer Chiefs.
What will change?
[We will come with] more desire and rectify the mistakes we made last season. Last season, when you look at it from an objective point of view, some of our defeats were down to small things.
Look at the Telkom [Knockout] - we lost in the quarterfinals in Durban against Free State Stars. [Goalkeeper] Thela Ngobeni had a blinder. Had it not been for him, we could have been speaking something different.
Then you come to the Nedbank Cup here at FNB Stadium. We missed a penalty towards the end of extra-time. If we had scored that, we would be talking something different. Even the MTN8 in Cape Town - we were eliminated by a solitary goal from a counterattack against Cape Town City.
In the Absa Premiership, in eight games we gave away 18 points by dropping our guard in the last minutes and missing a penalty with five minutes to go against Orlando Pirates. Those are things we need to rectify. We also need to bring the energy. Forget the past. We can't change it. But we can learn from it and start moving forward.
How has your time at Chiefs shaped you as a person and as a coach?
I've grown immensely. I used to think that I am calm. But I've even gone beyond the state of calmness. I am almost dead in terms of emotions. The only time you get inner strength, find peace and understanding is when you go through hell.Hell exposes you to reflection. As you reflect, you tend to be stable. That's why people who have great faith are people who had been tested immensely.
People who have never been tested are a little bit wild and are a little bit ragged. Those who have been through hell, who work where there is fire and have been through turmoil, they grow because in the midst of a storm you need to stay calm.
When soldiers get into the bush, the silence in their steps, the silence in the trigger and the silence in exchanging information, are a sign of the danger that they're facing. If you're facing danger, you become silent, composed, focused and you move silently.
But if you're not facing any danger, then you can just act anyhow.There are certain things that tell you that as a black man have no expectations and you'll have no disappointments. If you're a black man with expectations, you're going to be consistently disappointed because you won't get what you deserve too often.
How have you handled these two seasons, especially being reminded that you've never won a trophy as a coach and you're in a club famous for winning trophies?
You don't have to remind people about your accolades. People will forget that in 2004 we [Manning Rangers] went to the final of the Absa Cup and we narrowly lost to Moroka Swallows.
You don't have to remind people that I spent a lot of time working with the national teams and it's not easy to win trophies there. But at the under-20, we won a trophy. We beat a Zambian side that had Rainford Kalaba 5-4 in the Cosafa Cup final in Pretoria [in 2004].
You don't have to remind people about the positives in your life. You only have to allow them to say all that they think because what people think about you is a reflection of what they think about themselves.
Why do you constantly shield the players and take the blame when things aren't going well?
It's about leadership. As a leader, you must own up. You don't shift responsibility or put blame on others. In fact, you protect those who work with you even if you know or think that it's not your fault. Leadership calls for ownership. Leadership of that nature will offer direction. People understand that, to be honest, 'I think that was my fault. But if this man stands up and says that it is his fault, then I will raise my game to make up for my mistake'.
If you know it and they know that they committed an error, and you point at them, I find that to be a weak way of leading. Strong leaders are the ones who look beyond the small mistakes they go through. They take those as learning experiences. You must defend everybody. To lead means that you are in front. If you're in front, leading properly, the ones behind you are in your protection. But if you're not a good leader and move to expose the ones behind you, you're misleading and not leading...