Let coach Ntseki be!
Coach Molefi Ntseki must have, now more than ever, realised the huge responsibility on his shoulders to lead Bafana Bafana as each and every move he makes is put under a microscope.
If the reaction to his recent squad announcement is anything to go by, you will under- stand where I am coming from. Bafana will face Ghana and Sudan in back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers later this month and, as usual, his team selection didn’t escape criticism and scrutiny from the general public. As football supporters, I don’t think we give coaches enough respect and freedom for their job and this is not coming from a bad place at all. I know we all mean well because we are so passionate about this Beautiful Game. We love this game and we understand that football is a game of emotions. We all invest a lot of emotions into it and it is even more so when it comes to the national team. Everyone who supports the national team has club affiliation. In an ideal world, everyone would love to see their favourite players representing the country and nothing beats watching your team players dominating your national team.
There are players we all want to see in the national team, regardless of their form, but what I would like for us to think about is the difference between coaching at national team level versus club level. Coach Ntseki has received a lot of backlash for, among others, including Itumeleng Khune in his latest squad despite his well-documented club football struggles. I’m not, in any way, suggesting that everyone who is against this move is wrong but merely trying to bring another side to the argument. Coach Ntseki left a couple of players out of his squad, players that many would have expected to see in the team based on their current club form. The fact that only Craig Martin made the cut from Cape Town City is one of the talking points, considering how dominant coach Jan Olde Riekerink’s midfielders have been in the league so far. It comes as no surprise that a lot of people expected to see the likes of Thabo Nodada, Mduduzi Mdantsane, Surprise Ralani and Thato Mokeke being recognised for their outstanding performances, but that didn’t happen.
All these arguments are valid, but let’s put ourselves in coach Ntseki’s shoes for once. The man is playing two crucial qualifiers, not international friendlies. There’s a lot at stake and club form doesn’t count much at this stage. In fact, it is experience that will see you through and qualifiers are not a platform to experiment. We can’t not go to the next Afcon, so the coach has to select a team that he trusts and believes will get the job done. Now is a case of horses for courses. Khune’s mere presence makes a difference. The coach is looking for players who will make an immediate impact in the team, on or off the field, and he doesn’t have time to hold hands of new players. Going into these two games, even the senior players will not have time to guide new faces because they are under tremendous pressure to ensure that we win both games. As a head coach, Ntseki has a responsibility to protect the players and that means he can’t make everyone happy. If he brings in more than enough new faces and they crumble, he will have to pick up the pieces and that could easily destroy the player’s confidence. I’m pretty sure that coach Ntseki has been keeping an eye on a number of players who are doing well and has made them aware of it either directly or through their coaches, so that they know they are on his radar. Should we win the next two games, that would ease the pressure and that’s when the coach can have the luxury of calling up new and deserving players into the team. For now, let’s give the man and his charges all the support they need and understand that being on form at club level doesn’t necessarily mean you’re ready for the national team. Recruiting players can’t be done at the expense of results.
There are countless examples of players who were household names who were on top of their game at club level, only to be completely different at national team level. That’s because the two levels are different and, as much as it is important to freshen up the team, it is very important to note that you don’t change too much too soon. There’s a reason coach Clive Barker remains the most successful Bafana coach to this day, a quarter of a century since he last coached the national team. There’s also a reason why his starting line-up and team selection were so predictable. There’s a reason so many good players didn’t make his team. If he was out to please everyone, he wouldn’t have tasted the success that he enjoyed with Bafana. There were squad members who would never start regardless of how well they were doing at club level and that’s because the coach knew the importance of consistency and not meddling with his team. His team selection was so predictable that we all knew what to expect and there were hardly any surprises, yet he still managed to introduce new faces from time to time, only when it was right to do so. That’s the kind of situation coach Ntseki would surely like to see himself in. So,as much as we all have a right to criticise and air our views, let’s please do so constructively and fairly. I hope this will make us think and help us to let coach Ntseki be!
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“I was not solely to blame for everything that happened.”
“He never showed up in the bus stop where I was waiting for him.”
Masebe Qina: ‘Cautious excitement’ are the words you used to describe the feeling of being the head coach of Golden Arrows when Soccer Laduma spoke to you after you got the job. Your synopsis so far, coach?
Mandla Ncikazi:
As a coach, there’s no time to celebrate. While you are satisfied, you are still ambitious, and you want to get more. You still want to improve, and you know that you can still be better as a group. You always want to improve. But so far, we can see that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We have done as Golden Arrows what has never happened at this club before, but there’s still more room for improvement.
MQ: From when you finished last season without winning a match in the bio-bubble to how you have been doing well this campaign, what have you done that has made the difference?
MN:
I don’t think there’s something that I have done, and I think that the bulk of our job gets done by the players. The bulk of my job is not with me; maybe 80% of what is happening is because of the players. The players make the declaration and own up to it. They took the responsibility upon themselves and vowed that they could do better than they did in the bubble. You must remember that when we started the season, we did fairly well, and we were not the same team that went into the bubble. We also know what really happened in the bubble and that is there were a lot of mistakes that we made as a team. Without going back there, I think we were letting in a lot of goals and we were not scoring a lot. So, we looked at that to see how we can be a team that scores more goals and concedes less. So, tactically, we worked on that. We said let’s try and maximise the goalscoring opportunities that we create and minimise the opportunities of opponents in front of our goals. Maybe the approach from our side (as coaches) was to try and assist them and choose the approach that they were more comfortable with and the approach that would also talk to what we wanted to do as part of our objectives as a club.
MQ: When you were handed the role to lead Arrows, some people might have thought ‘here we go again’ and expected you to fail based on what happened at Maritzburg United in 2015 when you were relieved of your duties after only five matches. What gave you the courage to accept the job especially as it was at such short notice?
MN:
You know, Masebe, you are very correct, my brother. I can imagine the doubts that my boss must have had about giving somebody like me the job. I also don’t think she was as confident, but having worked with her for a very long time, I’m just grateful that she took the risk of giving me the job. I am a confident person, but I have always been cautious about rushing to opportunities, because sometimes when you rush, the timing is not right. I knew that my opportunity would come. I know the errors that happened at Maritzburg, but I can’t go publicly and tell the whole world what really happened at Maritzburg. But while I’m aware as the coach that I’m responsible for the failure at Maritzburg, I know that some people there or the set-up should have owned up about some of the misfortunes that happened at the club. I did not take the whole blame of what happened in the club to myself as a failure, which is what gave me the courage to believe that in a different environment, I can do better. I was just confident, and also the relationship that I have with the boss and the players, and having been in the set-up for a long time, gave me a bit of an advantage.
MQ: Can you give more details to make us understand why you believe you were not solely responsible for what happened at Maritzburg with regards to the disappointing results?
MN: Masebe, I’ll give you an example to tell you that players left Maritzburg that season before I started. While preparing for the season, we won two pre-season tournaments, which had never happened at Maritzburg. Because we were not using (official playing) cards, I was using all the players that were available to me, but when the league (season) started, the work permits were not ready. John Paintsil’s work permit was not there. Brian Onyango’s work permit was not there. Kwanda Mngonyama, whom we were getting from (Mamelodi) Sundowns on loan, had not yet been made available to us. We got Thamsanqa Teyise on loan from SuperSport United and he arrived two days before we played the MTN8 match against Kaizer Chiefs. He arrived on a Thursday and we played him in that match because I had one centre-back in David Booysen at the time. For the duration of my stay, until I was fired, the work permits of those players were not ready. I signed Evans Rusike, but he never played for me because his work permit was not there. I’m just giving you the examples, but as a coach, the fault is mine because I did not get the results. But the people who were there know the truth. Honestly speaking, I was not solely to blame for everything that happened.
MQ: Moving on, and back to Abafana Bes’thende, coach Steve Komphela would sometimes speak about ‘invisible success’, and under your guidance it seems the management and supporters of the club can be hopeful of ‘visible success’ as seen when you led the team to their first ever Q-Innovation win this season. How long do you think it can take for the club to win another trophy again, as happened in 2009 with the MTN8 under coach Manqoba Mngqithi? MN: Masebe, I’m ambitious. I’m an ambitious person, but I’m very humble at the same time. I don’t want to be seen as lacking some respect in my approach and my utterances. It will be nice for Golden Arrows to win something, but a combination of things will have to contribute to it for the team to arrive at that level. There are so many factors and it’s not only the coaching side. But I’d love for the team to win some silverware and I’d love for the players to grow in my presence… go to the national team and go overseas. I’d love for the club to sell players if they have to sell some players and make money, because this is a business that they are involved in. For me, these are all the successes, invisible, combined with what you said – visible success. I’d love us to have trophies in the cabinet, but it will be nice for the club to combine both: players must grow, and their families well looked-after. Players who have never got opportunities must get opportunities. Sifiso Mlungwana into the national team… why not, if it’s possible? Those are the things that should be achieved to make the brand of Golden Arrows to be better than it was before I arrived.
MQ: Under your guidance, people believe that the team has finally managed to go back to its roots and identity by playing like the Arrows sides of back in the day. How do you feel about such comparisons? MN:
It’s humbling that people can liken the way we play now to the great Arrows teams of the previous years, which were coached by the great Khabo Zondo and Manqoba Mngqithi. And I must tell you, my brother, I had the opportunity to communicate with the late club boss (Rocky Madlala) and he liked the good brand of football. I know the supporters in Lamontville would whistle in the stands when they wanted the team to start their backheels and stuff. I’m very happy that we are close, we are not there yet, to make them really happy by bringing back what really identified Arrows and made them different to any other team. We still have to fight more, but the players have agreed, and we must give them the credit. They have agreed that they will work like slaves for the badge and to make the brand better. It’s always nice for a coach like me to be the one who stands in front of them in that period.
MQ: As we remain hopeful that football fans will finally be allowed back in the stadiums now that the lockdown restrictions have been eased, do you assure them that you will allow the players to play the backheels and express themselves the way they want as long as they do those things in the right moments?
MN: I love it, my brother. I love good football. At some point, I chased (Masibusane) Zongo and I wanted to sign him. I wanted to sign Zongo with all the history that he has. I thought that I would be able to change him (regarding his off-field antics), because I love that brand of football. I waited for him and he never showed up in the bus stop where I was waiting for him. Another player I wanted to sign is “Skhwama Sama Tariyana” (Tshepo Matete) because I love that brand of football. (Ntsako) Makhubela in our club uthi uyalibhemisa (says he’s making the ball smoke) when he does that (the coach speaks louder). As long as he doesn’t lose the ball, it’s fine with me. South African football fans love that kind of game and that’s what they want to see when they go to the stadiums. As long as those things are done to progress into a goal. Other players and the team as a whole must benefit from that when it’s being done. When we lose the ball after doing a trick, we all have the responsibility to go back to win it. Then I’m fine with it.
MQ: We can’t wait to see Arrows doing those tricks more. Talking about Zongo and Skhwama, do they know that you wanted to sign them?
MN: Zongo knows. Skhwama doesn’t know, because he went elsewhere before I could sign him. But Zongo knows and I communicated with him over the phone, I’ve got his number. I was waiting for him in the bus stop and I’m still waiting for him now. He never turned up.
MQ: Coach, your final words on what more can be expected from your team this season?
MN: I am grateful to our supporters and football fans in general for the humble messages that they have been sending me regarding the team. I really appreciate the messages of support regarding our team and the brand of football that we are playing. We will always do our best to try and improve the team to make them happy. We would like to make every football supporter want to watch Arrows even if they don’t support Arrows. I have a special message for the chairman of the League (Dr Irvin Khoza), that I’m very humbled by his leadership. In the bio-bubble, I never thought that a black-led brand could make the bubble what it was. How that thing was planned was wonderful. We were on the verge of losing everything, because if football didn’t continue, livelihoods would have been lost. They were able to protect our lives and livelihoods, which is our jobs. For how the situation was handled and managed, one has to give credit where it is due, and for that, I salute the chairman and the entire PSL executive. One is humbled to be part of such a brand. ❐