The coach was sabotaged

Masebe Qina: Guily, your exit from AmaZulu FC was unexpected after you had joined the club only in January. What happened?

Guily Manziba: I am back home in the DRC. I c ame back home because I didn’t have any club in South Africa. I cancelled my contract with AmaZulu before the league (season) started becau se there were too many problems. Certain people at the club favoured each other and there was fighting amongst each other. I am currently looking for a club because I don’t like to just sit and not play. I had hoped that I would be playing regularly by now and that I would have maybe got a national team call-up, but that is unlikely to happen when I don’t have a club. I go to the gym regularly, and, in the mornings, I go and run on my own on the road. I try to avoid playing football in fear of getting injured as football is a contact sport and one should be careful in my situation as I’m looking for a club. I’m cautious about getting injured as that could give me problems.

MQ: Terminating because of “too What do you mean?

GM: It all started after coach (Romain) Folz joined AmaZulu and he brought us – me, Junior (Sede Dion) and coach Chyna (Mokaila), the one for warm-ups (fitness conditioning coach). From the moment we got there, I noticed that some players didn’t respect the coach and it was an ongoing thing. Some players would arrive any time they wanted to arrive and didn’t want to be asked about it. There was no discipline and that’s why the coach wanted to move some players (to train with the development). The coach felt that he wasn’t being respected and there were many things that were being said. “The coach is too young”, and all those things. Sometimes people would call the chairman (AmaZulu president Sandile Zungu) and tell him nonsense. Some players were calling the media to say things about the coach and that’s why the coach decided to leave. A lot was going on behind the scenes and the coach was sabotaged. Most of the time, it was three guys who played for one of the big clubs in the league who were involved. In total, it was six players or so, and the coach decided that he didn’t want them to come for training. The players were being told not to put in effort for the coach and I have no doubt that the plan was to get the coach fired. I remember that after a few losses there was an incident where the supporters threw objects into the field, I think it was against (Moroka) Swallows.

your contract many problems”… MQ: We’re listening… GM:

The chairman was still confident in the coach as he had already given him a new contract. He spoke to him and told him that he didn’t want to lose him. I think at the time the chairman was trying to convince the coach that he should play the players that were there and would bring his own players at the end of the season to start afresh. After that, Ayanda (Dlamini, after he replaced Folz as interim coach) started calling the players that the coach had chased away back to the team. Ayanda is one of them and I know that he is doing that and I suspect that he doesn’t like foreigners. I don’t think he is a good guy. The very same players started making the team. At that time, I was not making the team irrespective of how well I did in training. I heard complaints that “Guily is not doing well, Guily is not fit”. A lot of nonsense was said to the chairman about

me. The chairman is not someone who comes to watch our training sessions, but he knew everything that happened at training. A lot of things were being said about us – I’m talking about myself, Junior and coach Chyna. Ayanda didn’t want to play me although the team was not doing well. In the last game against (Orlando) Pirates, the team lost 4-0 and the chairman fired Ayanda. The guy who worked with Ayanda (as his assistant, Siboniso Vilakazi) was told to stay to assist the new coach (Pablo Franco Martin) when he arrived because he didn’t know the players. That guy (Vilakazi) is the same as Ayanda to me in their way of doing things. They worked together after all. That’s why I suspect that Ayanda told him that he didn’t want me at the club.

MQ: Why do you say so? GM:

Because even when he was the coach, he used to talk bad about me. He used to tell the chairman that I was not serious and things like that. When I played under coach Folz earlier in the season, I was doing well and in seven games I had scored a goal. I had been with the club for a few weeks, and I felt it was harsh to be judged after those few games. When the coach from Spain arrived, I was still with the team, and I was involved in some of the training sessions under him. I even played in one of the friendly games and I remember I featured for Team 3. Team 1 played and Team 2 followed and I was included in Team 3 on the day and that was the team which included young boys from the MDC (MultiChoice, now DStv Diski Challenge) team because they wanted us not to do well. But God was there for us because we ended up doing well and scored something, like, four goals while playing with those young boys. I scored one of those goals and gave one assist for the other. After that game, the coach called a meeting and said he saw only two players from that team and one of those players was me for one of the midfield positions, but the GM (Tshepiso Mofokeng) was against it, to say not me. The coach was convinced that I am a good player and he wanted to keep me, but he was told otherwise.

MQ: What do you mean players were making the team?

GM:

After coach Folz had left his position, Ayanda was put in charge, but he wasn’t making the team. Players were making the team, and I am talking about some of the senior players from the big teams. The players know what I am talking about. It was too bad and the (other) players were crying and complaining.

MQ: Why was your contract terminated?

GM:

People were talking to the chairman and putting him under pressure. The new

coach liked me, and he suggested playing me as a number nine instead of being a winger, but that wasn’t agreed to by some people. There was a lot of going up and down and I felt it was too much and decided that I be given my money to leave the club. The coach from Spain fought for me. I played three friendly games under him and scored two goals and gave one assist. When some people don’t like you, it can be hectic. SuperSport (United) is better, and it is a nice club.

MQ: Overall, how was your stay with Usuthu? rom what Congolese midfielder Guily Manziba has to say in this interview, it seems like his was not a very nice spell with AmaZulu FC, brief as it was. The 27-year-old had been with the side since January, having arrived from SuperSport United. Mind you, it looked like he would be in the plans under Pablo Franco Martin after he started pre-season under the mentor. In this explosive interview with Soccer Laduma’s Masebe Qina, the winger holds nothing back as he opens up on allegations of players coming to training under the influence of alcohol, coach Romain Folz losing the dressing room in spectacular fashion, and why he thinks he didn’t play much towards the end of the season. It all makes for edge-of-your-seat reading, enjoy!

GM: It was fine, I was getting paid, and everything was fine. It’s just that there were too much politics.

MQ: Did you raise your concerns with the club?

GM:

I spoke to the chairman for maybe 10 to 15 times, but nothing changed. There was this one day he came to watch us at training, and he sent me a message afterwards to say, “Guily, you are doing well, and I have seen you are playing well.” From there, he didn’t say much.

MQ: Why do you think the team struggled to get results?

GM:

It was because of the players. There was too much drinking of alcohol, and the players didn’t understand the coach. The players came to training smelling of alcohol, and they did anything they wanted to do.

MQ: These are serious allegations, Guily. Did you see this happening? GM:

I know that the players were drinking and came to training drunk. The team would be playing well today and tomorrow it would be going down. People were doing anything they wanted to do. Coach Folz wanted to get rid of 12 players and it was for the very same problem that I am telling you about. The thing is the coach is not always there with the players. After training, the coach would go home and players would do whatever they wanted to do. It’s only when you go for a game that it can be seen that the team is not doing well. It was clear that the people who worked with the coach didn’t like him. The players didn’t want to play for him. “The coach is too young”, “the coach this and that”, “the coach doesn’t know anything.” Those are the things that were said.

MQ: Phew! GM:

I felt bad, and it was my first time spending just a few months with a club after signing. You know, sometimes you see a club from far and you don’t know what happens inside.

Maybe if I knew how it was inside, I wouldn’t have gone to AmaZulu. It is not my dream to play for AmaZulu ever again. Never. That team is better for certain people. Maybe I needed to speak a certain language to play for the team.

MQ: On a sad note, the fraternity is mourning the passing of Bonginkosi Ntuli, who is your former teammate and may his soul rest in peace.

GM:

Yes, someone sent me a picture of Bongi confirming the sad news and I am feeling the pain. I liked that guy so much and he was a quality player. I don’t know what happened. When I left, Bongi was fine and was not feeling sick and last season he played a lot of games. May his soul rest in peace.

MQ: What did it feel like to play for SuperSport?

GM:

Ja, they are a good team and I love SuperSport so much. The problem for me there started when I got injured, and when Gavin (Hunt) arrived, he decided that he needed to open a space for another foreigner in the squad. But the club helped me with everything and there were no problems. Even though I have left SuperSport, I will not say anything bad about the club because there isn’t anything bad to say. It is a quality team and Stan (Matthews, CEO) is a good boss. Dominic (Busschau, head of operations manager) is a good person and there are a lot of other good people who work for the club. Maybe if I didn’t have an injury, I wouldn’t have left SuperSport.

TO MY DREAM “IT IS NOT EVER AMAZULU PLAY FOR THAT TEAM AGAIN. NEVER. CERTAIN FOR BETTER IS NEEDED MAYBE I PEOPLE. CERTAIN A TO SPEAK LANGUAGE…”

MQ: This was a hectic interview, Guily. Good luck in the search for a new club.

GM:

Thank you and God bless you. Maybe I will come back to South African again one day and I will make sure that we meet and chat.