Komphela stresses the long-term plan ...

JOHANNESBURG: Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela yesterday used the example of a Mamelodi Sundowns team that has been together striking a consistent balance for at least three years to drive home his point that Amakhosi could have only been in a position to win trophies this season based on their acquisitions.

Komphela was suggesting that he’d been rebuilding an ageing team when he arrived and also needed some quality additions, like at Sundowns, to end the silverware drought.

A lot of what he said was really left to anyone’s interpretation as he argued that he’d always maintained that it would take three phases for Chiefs to be a complete team, but perhaps there wasn’t enough patience from fans to see the fruits.

“I am sure those who remember when we explained the development stages of any team will tell you that we said in the first year of any team formulation there is a forming stage. We have gone past that. Then after forming phase, there is the storming stage – where there is dynamics in terms of those coming in and those likely to go out,” the coach told journalists in Naturena in the build up to the Nedbank Cup semifinal against Free State Stars on Saturday at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium.

“After the storm, then it’s a norming stage. We have gone past the forming, the storming, and the norming. I think Chiefs is at the performing stage, where getting results or winning trophies will be a positive reinforcement to players than a redemption. After excelling, then the team comes to adjournment, which is where Real Madrid (the Spanish giants) are at the moment. You always have to look for a longterm plan.”

But the Amakhosi have not been able to win anything since May 2015, the reason why Komphela’s contract, which expires at the end of the current season, is unlikely to be renewed. He implied that Chiefs may have had too many changes and disrupted team chemistry during his tenure, although some will argue that the squad overhaul – not necessarily to a point where 23 players are shipped off in two years – was inevitable.

“Let’s look at Mamelodi Sundowns because it is important not just to say things, but have points of reference. How long have they been together? For quite some time, and you can feel that. And sometimes for you as a coach, players end up teaching you because of the level of understanding you see coming through,” said Komphela.