I like to be on my toes
It’s easy to sit in a comfortable job and not explore different challenges out there. Thabo September had a pretty secure job at SuperSport United, working with the club’s DStv Diski Challenge side. He was the type of person the club would probably have held onto until he decided to retire, but the former defender made the big call to accept a job at Chippa United, where coaches sometimes don’t get an opportunity to unpack their bags before the axe is wielded by trigger-happy chairman Chippa Mpengesi. It’s a big risk, but it’s the type that can also build his character. In this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Tshepang Mailwane, September talks about his decision to take up the co-coaching role with Kwanele Kopo.
Tshepang Mailwane: Thabo, you’ve taken the big step from being a development coach at SuperSport United to working at senior level with Chippa United, which is a job many would describe as dangerous. Why did you take it?
Thabo September:
I like growth. I don’t like to stay in comfort. Even when I was playing, I would be challenged and when a coach asked me if I could play at left back or right back or as a central midfielder, I liked to give it my all. When the call came through that there was an opportunity for me to go coach at Chippa’s first team, I took it as God giving me a sign to say, ‘Now you need to step up.’ That was not my plan to go. I had a fiveyear plan with SuperSport in terms of the DDC (DStv Diski Challenge), but sometimes these things change. I saw it as an opportunity to go back to where it all started for me. It started in the Eastern Cape, playing for Bush Bucks, so my career in terms of coaching in the PSL (topflight) will start there as well. I took the opportunity.
TM: How long did it take for you to decide, considering what type of environment the club can be for coaches? There is a lot of uncertainty…
TS:
The first call was at the beginning of December. It was the first week of December. I had to contemplate, but I only started telling my boss (at SuperSport) towards the end of December, when I really had had my time to think about it. It was a holistic decision where I had to think about the family and think about my career and to think about the time I spent at SuperSport. I needed to be sure about the decision I was making. I was convinced that I was making the right decision.
TM: Looking at how long you had been at Matsatsantsa, what was their response when you told them of your decision to leave?
TS: I was there for 18 years, so it was not easy in the beginning. They were reluctant. Stan (Matthews, SuperSport CEO) did not want me to go, but of course it’s because of the attachment and the time we’ve spent together, winning and losing. There are things we have achieved together as a team. When I tried to explain the story of my coaching career, and also starting my coaching career in the PSL, he understood. I had to leave. The send-off is still going to happen, I think, at SuperSport. I needed to go to PE (Gqeberha) to start because the mid-season pre-season was about to start. I had to leave. They wanted to do something nice because the players were only coming back on January 18, so I did not get that opportunity. When I am back in Jo’burg, I will have coffee with the bosses and see the team at some point. I did not leave on bad blood, but it was like a child leaving home for university to go improve himself. That’s how I see it.
TM: Talk to us about your relationship with Kwanele Kopo since you’ll be working as cocoaches.
TS:
When I arrived at SuperSport, he was there. He was assistant to coach Pitso (Mosimane), with the late (Thomas) Madigage. At some point when I was playing, he was the coach of the first team. I enjoyed that time with him and when I started my coaching career in the DDC, I was his assistant and he took me under his wing. He taught me some things. So, starting this adventure with him is a blessing. We have a great working relationship and a great partnership. I am looking forward to a great time together.
TM: What are your thoughts on co-coaching?
TS:
As long as the roles are clear, which is what our chairman (Chippa Mpengesi) did… Our chairman put out our roles nicely for us. As much as we are head coaches, Kopo has more experience. I’ve got a great influence and I’ve got better experience on the field, having played the game for so long in the PSL. When you combine that, it’s a great remedy. Hopefully it shows when we resume the second round of the season. I am happy with the squad that we have and the attitude as well. Had the team won the last two games they lost (in December), they would be on 24 points and in a good position in the Top Eight, but of course, they missed out in those games. It was not their best performance. They’ve had some performances where they lose but play well, but in these ones, they did not play well and they lost.
TM: Who makes the final decision in your situation?
TS:
I have to respect the knowledge that Kopo has got, and he has to also respect the knowledge that I have in football. Once we bounce it off each other, the final say will come from that. It’s not that one person decides and there is no conversation between us. Sometimes we will have disagreements, but with mutual respect, we will get to a point where we make a decision together. Whatever happens in that decision is not Kopo’s decision or Thabo’s decision, it’s our decision. That’s the mutual respect I am talking about.
TM: What are your plans as cocoaches going forward?
TS:
The team has been doing well. They did not do badly in the first round. It’s just to finetune it. The team had seven clean sheets at some point. Stanley (Nwabili) has been good. I feel we have a good structure, so I just feel that we need to add value to the club in scoring more goals and keeping more clean sheets and collecting three points (regularly) and introducing some of the young players who are in the Eastern Cape that are very good. We can integrate them into the first team. That is our goal right now, to keep the status of the team and do all of those things.
TM: How important was that midseason pre-season for you two to get to know the team better?
TS:
It was important to understand the players and for them to understand us as well. It was important for us to give information that we want to give them and see where we can improve without the pressure of having a game coming up. Then when the games start, we can hit the ground running. So, it gave us some time to prepare because once we start on February 13, there is no time to prepare the team. It’s just game after game. So, the break was important. We tried to use it to the best of our ability.
TM: When you take a job at the Chilli Boys, do you prepare yourself for what often seems to be the inevitable axe? TS:
When I was a player, I knew that there was a possibility of losing my job when the club does not renew your contract. I am in that space as a coach. If you don’t get the results, then they affect your job. I like to be on my toes, it brings out the best in me. If you are having an easy day at work, you could have a lapse in concentration and all of that. But with that pressure, I will have to be on my toes the whole time. I am enjoying that, and it keeps us alive.
TM: As a family man, does your wife not worry that you are taking a big risk?*
TS: That will always happen. The family will always worry, but my wife understands and fully supports me, with a bit of caution, of course. There are a lot of people who care about me that are worried about why I decided to go to Chippa. I see something that maybe they don’t see. I see a lot of potential in the club and a lot of growth for me. The good outweighs the bad. The bad thing is that I get fired.
TM: Now that you are coaching in the elite division, do you see yourself ever going back to working in development structures like you did with your previous job?
TS:
I don’t know. As long as I am coaching. Sometimes you say you will never go back and then all of a sudden you get a good opportunity to go to Europe to coach a development side. Then I am back to where I was, but on another level in terms of being in Europe. If I say I will never go back, you might come back to me and say I lied. I can’t say if I won’t go back.
“I HAVE HEARD A LOT ABOUT HIM THAT HE FIRES PEOPLE AND SO ON, BUT I THINK THAT’S LIFE. WHEN THINGS ARE NOT GOING WELL FOR YOUR TEAM, THERE’S A LOT AT STAKE.”
TM: Before we let you go, what was your first impression of the chairman, Mr Mpengesi?
TS:
What a man, with a big heart. He’s got a generous heart. He is a man who loves the game, and he loves to help people. He loves to give opportunities. He is a very generous chairman. That’s who he is. I have heard a lot about him that he fires people and so on, but I think that’s life. When things are not going well for your team, there’s a lot at stake, so you have to make those changes. He does not want to make those changes, but he is forced by circumstances. That’s why I say he is a generous man with a big heart.
TM: Thabo, good luck as you begin a new chapter in the Friendly City.
TS: