Coaches I’ve worked with: This is what puzzles me!

While everyone is still enjoying the incredible performances at Afcon, I must say we’ ve seen countries that are deemed as minnow s causing upsets, while some of those regarded as power houses of Africa have been left scratching their heads. On the home front, I would like to remind our readers that as much as we boast about the likes of Pitso Mosimane, Gavin Hunt, Rhulani Mokwena and others, there is this young coach who is very humble and continues to do his thing quietly. I’m talking about someone who seems to have been forgotten by some people in the football fraternity, and that is Thabo Senong. This is the man who has unearthed a lot of talent for our junior national teams as he was the head coach of our n at iona lU20s, workedwi th the national U23s and the senior national team. We have seen him qualifying and taking our boys to big tournaments around the world. There are several current players who came through him and after parting ways with South African Football Association (SAFA), he then decided togo and test the waters outside of our borders. He went to coach the Lesotho national team, where he spent two years. This is what puzzles me! I’m bringing his name up because, as mentioned, he was our junior national team coach and worked within the SAFA structures, only to find himself coaching our neighbours at a senior level. The question is: Why are we developing players that we are not going to utilise in the future? The same goes for the coaches! Why would we develop our ow n coaches only for them to go get jobs out of the country, as if we don’t have job opportunities for them? What kind of vision and plan is that, where other countries are benefitting from our investment more than we do? These coaches know everything there is to know about South African football. They know the culture and background of our players and there is so much that they should be contributing to our football, but we let them slip through our fingers. I would like to believe our foreign counterparts don’t know these things. That’s a fact and not something anyone can argue against. What is the development for if these things continue to happen? Are we developing coaches just for the sake of it or do we have a succession plan and vision for them? The way things are going, it looks like the latter is the case! The reason our football is struggling, and not anywhere near where it should be, is because of things like this.

It doesn’t make sense for local coaches to have to go outside of our borders to show what they are capable of, after we’ ve invested so much in them. Why don’t we have a programme that addresses these issues? Thabo Senong is now a head coach at Singida Fountain Gate, in the Tanzanian Premier League, and they are reaping the rewards of our investment! He is now in the country because of the Afcon break and analysing the tournament for SABC. I had not seen him for such a long time before I bumped into him at the studio recently. It was like we were small boys from primary school, the way we were so excited to see each other, jumping and hugging. The very same coach, when we did the SAFA Level 3 coaching license, he was there with me, Manqoba Mngqithi and Neil Tovey, to mention just three. Yes, it is good to have our coaches flying our flag outside the country, but do we have any plans for them in the future? I’ve asked this question before and I am going to repeat it: Why don’t we organise a session with someone like coach Pitso Mosimane, who has conquered the continent and even went abroad, to come and share his experience with us? Having said that, I see a visionary in the current SAFA Technical Director, Walter Steenbok, and I believe he will make things happen, if the programme she’ s bringing within the SAFA structures are anything to go by. I admire coach Senong’s bravery by doing exactly what coach Pitso has done. Keep up the good work and I hope your performance that side will open doors for other coaches because you are our ambassador, just like Pitso. I wish you everything of the best.