That is a very corrupt culture
On getting knocked out of the CAF Confederation Cup
The entire experience of playing in thistournament wasjust normal, nothing different to what we have experienced. Obviously, we were drawn against three North African teams(USM Alger from Algeria, Modern Future from Egypt and Al Hilal from Libya) and that meant a lot of travelling for the team. But overall, I think it wasa good experience for everyone in the team. When the tournament started, our intentionswere to blood in youngsters. That isalwaysgoing to be our intention because of our (domestic football) programme. I mean, you can’t do what we are doing – we are playing our home matchesin Polokwane. The club wasquite happy for me to field youngsters, that wasthe plan. That iswhat we have to do in order to balance thingsbetween domestic football and African football. We have to use our squad and we also need to see who we are playing, who we’re playing the next game and then plan around the fixturesin terms of how we are going to go about doing it. We played thispast weekend, travelled to Cape Town to play Cape Town City three dayslater, fly back to Joburg on Thursday, travel to Algeria on Friday to play USM Alger and then back on Tuesday. We have to play against Polokwane City on Wednesday and then play AmaZulu FC on Saturday. I mean, how else are you going to do that? You must also consider that when we travel to Algeria, we have to go via Dubai, play a match in Algeria. And when we fly back, we have to fly back via Dubai again and arrive back in Johannesburg on Tuesday and then play on Wednesday. How are you going to do that? You can’t do that!
On last weekend’s match
Thispast weekend, we drew 1-1 at home to Modern Future. We should have won the game. We had plenty of opportunitiesto score. When I look back, I think every game we should have won. When we played Modern Future in Egypt and lost 1-0, we should have beaten them. We lost 2-1 to Al Hilal, we should have beaten them. When we played against USM Alger at home, we lost 2-0, but we should have beaten them aswell. But that’swhat it is, these are very experienced teamswith a lot of experienced players. But it wasgood for us. A learning curve. When we beat Al Hilal in December, it waslike all games against North African teams, it’s not a proper game of football. You have to be there to see it. When we flew to Libya to play Al Hilal, we went to Dubai and then took another connecting flight to Cairo before arriving there. There were collapsed buildings, it’sa warzone. They hadn’t played there for a while, so we went there and played in an astroturf. But we have to learn – you never lose, you learn. So, the playershave learnt a lot.
On youngsters getting valuable experience
There were lotsof playerswho got experience. Thispast weekend against Modern Future, we had seven playersfrom the DStv Diski (Challenge) team – they all learned a valuable lesson. But obviously, our league statusis more important. When I coached Bidvest Witsin CAF cup competitions, it wasa little bit of a different experience because we had a more experienced squad and a lot stronger squad all round, whereas now we have a lot of younger playersand we have to protect them, look after them and build them. It’sa different experience. In saying that, you cannot… unlessyou have a bigger squad, then you can go in all fronts. For now, let’stry and do well in domestic football and then we can concentrate on that (CAF club competitions). With a few monthsto go now before the end of the season, our aim isto try and have a good run in the Nedbank Cup and also try to get into Africa for next season. If we can get back into African cup competitions, it will help ustremendously because it will give usanother chance to play a few more gamesand blood in a few more players. That’sthe big aim. But we really want to have a good run in the Nedbank Cup. I would love to win in Africa, I would love to say, ‘Let’sgo for it.’ I wasthere once in the semifinal of the CAF ChampionsLeague and obviously we know what happened after that. With youngsters who are 18 and 19 yearsold, it’s really difficult to say (how long it will take usto reach that point). North African teamsare very experienced, from throw-ins, to corner kicks, to falling down and delaying the game. That ishow they play, which isin their nature and their culture. And obviously that isa very corrupt culture. We don’t want to play like that, we play properly and we try to do the right things, but when you play North African teams, that’swhat you get. It’ssad, but we learn. But we don’t play like that. We don’t want our goalkeeper to fall down after five minutesand delay the game like thispast weekend. Goalkeeper lying around… we don’t play football like that.
On not being able to sit on the bench earlier in the tournament
It wasridiculous. Absolute ridiculous. I mean, I see some of the opposition coaches, where they come from, and they were allowed to sit on the bench. I would love to know where they got their licence. It’salso happening in our junior football, you’ve got top, top coacheswho are working in the junior set-up and can’t sit on the bench in the local GDL (Gauteng Development League). It’scrazy, man, it’scrazy. Yes, people need to have qualifications, we need to go to coaching courses– but you need to have coursesavailable for people to go on. But we are doing it now and I’m almost done (with the CAF A Licence), I’ve already done half of the course and we have two weeksleft. We are going through it and it’sall part of football. Meeting new people, making new friends– it’sbeen good.
On SuperSport retaining players and not selling them
When you work in thisfinancial market at the moment, the costs have gone up, the wageshave gone up and the standard of living has gone up. So, obviously, clubsneed to work on budgets. Well, certain clubs. You have to work on a budget and at the same time try to be competitive. So, you can go into the market and playerswill end up leaving you all the time. It’sfrustrating of course, but it’s part of the game and we just have to… I know my parametersthat are working for me. How do you get judged asa coach? If you are going to be judged on winning, it’s really difficult, you know. I went through exactly the same thing (of losing playersto other clubs) earlier in my career. It wasexactly the same thing. You look at the national team, which isexcelling, and what ishappening there. But anyway, that isfootball.