“I NOT ONLY WON A TITLE … I BECAME PART OF HISTORY” —KLATE
Gavin Hunt has hasmade made history with Bidvest BidvestWits Wits, joining Gordon Igesund and the late Ted Dumitri as coaches with the most league titles, all with four winners medals to their name.
Bidvest Wits’ change of club philosophy, from being a team that was content with just being part of the top-flight and promoting youngsters, to seriously competing for top silverware, was a stance readymade for Gavin Hunt to succeed. But by the coach’s own admission, things got tense towards the end of last season, before they pulled off the club’s biggest achievement at the end. “Well, if you look at it now, there weren’t too many lowlights, but there were times – as you’d get in every season – when I’d think, ‘we’re not looking too good, we need to work harder,’ and those type of things, but it was a good year for us,” Hunt admits.
“The league was obviously the
focus from the start. In December last year we threw it away a little bit with those four games that we drew and lost, and I thought it would take a lot of work in the second round, but I’m happy we came good. We won a couple of crucial games in the second round and that’s what it takes. There are always those defining moments.” As with any venture in life, it’s impossible to reach success without enduring stumbling blocks along the way, and Wits were no exception this season. From Hunt’s perspective, it was about acquiring the desired players during the pre- and midseason transfer windows, as they once again battled with injuries to key players at decisive times. “The biggest stumbling block was not being able to get the players we want, because we [ Wits] can’t buy players. The prices in the market now are really ridiculous,” Hunt says. “The other one is that we were very unfortunate with losing players at crucial times, like Papy Faty – I thought he was good for us and he would have added huge value this season, but to learn that he can’t play football anymore was a big blow. “Again, long-term injuries to Phakamani Mahlambi and James Keene – they hardly played this season and missed the end of last season, so it was difficult for them.” For a club of Wits’ stature, what Hunt and his charges achieved this season was truly remarkable. But,
as Mamelodi odi Sundowns went to conquer the he continent, many felt the Clever Boys s were merely honouring their continentalnental fixtures without showing much desire to progress to the group stages, as they fell out of the CAF Champions hampions League and Confederationtion Cup by losing out narrowly wly to Egyptian sides Al Ahly hly and Smouha respectively.ly.
“There’s noo doubt
that the Championshampions League helped lped us. It’s helped ped us mentallyy and physically, and we got to use players that weren’tn’t playing because we e ran short. Those players, like e Phumlani [Ntshangase] and Ben [Motshwari], Motshwari], didn’t play in first round of the league, but after a few Championspions League games, look how well they hey did for us in the run-in,” defends Hunt. unt. “So those e games were important to give our r players mileage in the legs and match sharpness. But listen, we were unlucky. We played the biggest, t, most powerful club in Africa [Al Ahly] and lost 1-0 over two legs – for such uch a small club? Do me a
favour … “To be fair, I thought we were the better team over both legs. Okay, maybe for 20-30 minutes out of the two games they were on top of us, but other than that I thought we were good. We then played another team [in the CAF Confederation Cup] and lost 1-0 from a penalty, and we were unfortunate to get knocked out of there. But no doubt our participation helped us. “The focus has always got to be on the next game, it doesn’t matter what the next game is – Champions League, cup or league – we approach it with the same respect. The league is your bread and butter, where you’ve got to earn your stripes and money, and that’s why we play everyday, so that’s the big priority.”
Hunt, who will again take Wits
into Africa next season, defends his history in continental competitions. “Of course it’s an ambition of mine [to do well in the Champions League],” he says. “People have this wrong impression, and I get criticised badly, but of course it’s an ambition. At SuperSport United, I lost to Al Ahly when they had their best side ever [in 2011] – Mohamed Aboutrika, Mohamed Nagy, Emad Moteab – and we had lost all our best players. “People forget we had a depleted squad of 15 or 16 at the time and we lost 2-1 on aggregate – I mean, come on! It’s not as though we’re not trying, it’s absolute madness to say we’re not doing our best.” Apart from the media and public criticism, Sundowns mentor and African Coach of the Year Pitso Mosimane has also had his fair share to say regarding Wits’ shortfalls on the continent, but Hunt argues that if he had the freedom to spend big money on beefing up his squad rather than churning from the club’s youth structures, then it would aid his case too. “Pitso can have a go and say what he likes but we never got kicked out twice and put back in, did we? We lost and we’re out so that’s that for us,” Hunt says.
“But when you’re spending that
kind of money on your team, buying a few extra players here and there, it’s a bit easier. I have to use kids when we’re playing there, or we have to use squad players that aren’t up to that sort of level. “But you have to give them credit, they’ve done fantastically well. But there’s no doubt that we will still compete in Africa, we want to play there and do the best we can.” With just their first top-flight league trophy under their belt, and having claimed it in a season when their main title rivals Sundowns were undone by fixture congestion due to their commitments on the continent as well as at the Fifa Cub World Cup in December, Hunt argues that their progress in recent seasons demonstrate how much they deserved the crown this time around. “I don’t think this one was a fluke because the last three years we’ve ended third, third and second, and we earned more points every year,” he argues. “It’s obviously going to get harder and harder because now we need to earn more points than we did this year, and every year it gets tougher and tighter at the top. The key is whether we invest in the squad – do we invest in more players or spend more money? And that’s money that, possibly, the club doesn’t have.” Having come through his career at clubs such as Hellenic, Black Leopards, Moroka Swallows, SuperSport and now Wits, Hunt has never had the luxury of a big budget to bring in the desired players, but has had to feed off “scraps” and discarded players from the likes of Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Sundowns. “The luxury [of spending] certainly makes your job much easier, and it gives you a little bit more of a guarentee of winning something, but it doesn’t always guarentee success even if you have all the money in the world sometimes,” he argues. “You have to have the right synergy, balance and the right playing style. But there’s no doubt that money does help – you can buy
“I’VE BEEN THROUGH THE NECKLACING AND STONING, WALKING THROUGH ORLANDO STADIUM TUNNEL AND BEING URINATED ON, ALL OF THAT CRAP. ”
players. I’m okay with not having that luxury though, I’ve been in a battle all my life. Do I want to go [to a bigger club with a bigger budget]? Yeah, of course I think about it … but then again, I’m allowed to work here [at Wits]. I’m allowed to coach and I’m allowed to do my own thing here, so that’s also important.
“It’s the greatest sense of
achievement being able to win things with a club like SuperSport United or Bidvest Wits, I don’t care what anybody says – there’s bigger value. For example, you go down to Cape Town with a club like Wits and there’s 100 people [in the stands], whereas you go there with a big club and there’s a couple of thousand and it makes a big difference – it makes you feel like the home team. “They [big teams] go to Durban and it’s even better, but when we go there, there’s no-one in the stands. Those types of things add huge value; they add another couple of points onto your tally at the end of the season and people don’t realise that. I work for good people. They are honest with me and I’m honest with them. That for me is the most important thing.” If not one of the bigger clubs in the country, surely then Bafana Bafana would be the next step for any coach with ambition to grow and challenge himself on a bigger stage? Hunt explains that the constant specualtion surrounding his credibility to take over the national team hot-seat has put him on the backfoot, and he no longer sees himself an option, but he still harbours ambitions of coaching on the world’s biggest football stage.
“It’s a sentimental vote now, and it
[the speculation] has been going on since 2010,” he reveals. “My ambition as a coach, no doubt, is to coach at the World Cup tournament. Who? Where? I don’t know, it will more than likely be in a foreign country. “I don’t think it’s going to happen here, so I’ve given my full support for the national team to Stuart Baxter – I mean, I even supported Phillippe Troussier when he was here. I support all the coaches and when the phone calls come in – ‘What do you think? What do you think about him? Who else?’ I always answer. “I’ve been on the [South African Football Association] technical committee and I’ve been around and seen it all. But, hand on my heart, it doesn’t bother me [not being given the Bafana coaching job]. I’m disappointed that the national team has been so poor, because I think the selections have been poor in my opinion. The prime example was when Daine was at his best, at that Gold Cup in 2005, when Stuart Baxter had all the right players at the right age. He could have built them, but then he bombed out. “Now I’m happy when players get seleted from our side, it’s good for the club and the individuals, but I’m not too phased. Ambitionwise, I want to go to the World Cup, even if I only play three games with Azerbaijan, Iran or Iraq … Kuwait or Qatar, some national team.”
While his lust for the national team
job has died down, Hunt’s passion for giving back to South African football is still burning strong. He hopes to one day give back to coaches, who can truly change the state of development in the country and ultimately contribute to the progress of Bafana. “The game has been good to me,” he says. “I’ve been through a lot during the Apartheid era, where the white players weren’t welcome in the townships. I’ve been through the necklacing and stoning, walking through Orlando Stadium tunnel and being urinated on, all of that crap, but I still feel I owe the game; the game doesn’t owe me.”