On the face of it, Kaizer Chiefs’ decision to appoint Molefi Ntseki as their head coach is a step in the wrong direction and many of the club’s fans and even legends have said that much after Wednesday’s announcement.
What with the new man in charge never having coached a club at the highest professional level – let alone won anything. The word “mismatch” was used by Amakhosi legend Lucas Radebe to describe the new marriage between the club looking to end an uncharacteristically long barren spell and a coach out on his maiden leading role in the elite league.
But is it really? Is Ntseki truly not the man to help bring back the glory days to Taung Village in Naturena? Should Chiefs have appointed a coach with a winning pedigree to ensure they finally capture a trophy having gone eight years without doing so?
Logic would seem to suggest so, although a highly-decorated coach such as Gavin Hunt previously failed at the club.
Yet the reaction to Ntseki’s appointment seems to overlook a number of factors which – if considered – would leave the doubters perhaps understanding just why the club’s head honchos have placed their trust in the former school teacher from the Free State.
For starters, Ntseki is more experienced and pedigreed than the man he replaces – Arthur Zwane was a greenhorn when he took over. Armed with a Safa Pro Licence, he previously held the biggest coaching job in the land – that of Bafana Bafana (the South African senior national team) boss.
Granted he failed to earn qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations, Bafana missing out following defeat to Sudan when a draw would have sufficed. But surely the experience he garnered from that spell should count for a lot and thus make Radebe’s view that Ntseki is not “good enough to be the quality coach for a big club like Kaizer Chiefs” misplaced?
Those who feel Ntseki is the wrong choice for Chiefs seem to forget that the man was in charge of the national under-17 team which reached the continental final in 2015 and thus qualified for the Fifa Junior World Cup. They conveniently disregard the fact he was Serame Letsoaka’s assistant in 2009 when the national under-20s reached the Africa Youth Championships final and reached the knockout phase of the World Youth Championships.
Surely such experience was considered by Chiefs when they decided to task Ntseki with reviving their fortunes.
Letsoaka knows Ntseki well and is confident his former colleague will do well with Amakhosi.
“I believe he will make it at Chiefs. In terms of qualifications, he is as good as the likes of Steve Komphela, Manqoba Mngqithi, myself, other coaches in the league and even Pitso Mosimane because he has a Safa Pro Licence. And he has even done the DFB Licence and is part of the Safa instructors. His coaching experience has been at the highest level with Bafana and though he has never been a head coach in the Premiership, he has worked there as an assistant.
“Most importantly he has been at Chiefs for a number of years now and he is very familiar with the set-up and what it is that the club needs. Having worked closely with him, I know he is a good tactician, and he is a very thorough coach who looks at the finer details of the game to get the results. He looks at things that some coaches often overlook. I believe and trust that given support – which I have no doubt he will get at Chiefs – Molefi will do well. I think we should judge Molefi by the results and not ridicule him even before he has started.”
Given Chiefs’ stature as arguably the most successful (historically) and best supported club in South African football, it is understandable that many expected the club to hire some pedigreed coach. And the reports Amakhosi were speaking to Moroccan Nasreddine Nabi who had a great two seasons with Tanzania’s Yanga, no doubt had most of the club’s fans thinking the Motaungs will appoint a foreigner.
But weren’t they the very ones who used to lament Chiefs’ obsession with European coaches in the past? And now that the club has embraced the ‘local is lekeer’ mantra so loved in the domestic game, they are complaining.
You just can’t win with the fans, can you?
Ntseki, however, has the opportunity to get Amakhosi winning again and silence the likes o f Radebe who ‘thought we would get somebody better’.
After all, Chiefs have had it so bad lately that it can only get better, right?
@Tshiliboy
IOL Sport