Quick One-Two’s

After what Stellies did to Milford on Friday, one could be forgiven to think the Kaizer Chiefs players are not taking their jobs, careers, management and supporters of the team seriously. We were discussing what could be the problem on our Soccer Laduma readers’ WhatsApp group over the weekend and one member (BK) was adamant that it’s the work environment, but I totally disagree with that. A player’s responsibility is to perform and get good results for the team. Our boys lack passion for the team and unfortunately not even a good coach can give that to them. There was a video of Patrick Maswanganyi encouraging his teammates at half-time during the Soweto Derby and that’s the kind of passion I’m talking about. He was on the field and could see that the Chiefs players were not pressurising them and could not wait for the coach to highlight that. I’ll go back to what Mr “Panyaza” Ndlovu (MYP contributor) once said, that perhaps Chiefs should look at giving their players performance-based contracts. Let me conclude by congratulating all the quarterfinalists and wish them well in the next round. Malesela “Dance” Boya, Kanana, Hammanskraal

I’m not questioning Hugo Broos’ team selection anymore since he won bronze (at the 2023 AFCON). He can do as he pleases with the squad. Besides, I’m afraid of that man in case he sees my letter and calls me out in public since he always seems to have all the time in the world to answer for everything. But I’m growing to like him, not that I never liked him before. I just stood on the fence. My criticism is for him to qualify us for the next World Cup. We are still getting parts of player development horribly wrong. Players and clubs are doing it all by themselves without the help of international exposure at an early age. Europe has European Youth Champions League that exposes players to international football. The lack of U23s’ and other age group action put pressure on Broos and the senior national team to consider and maybe rush the likes of Baartman, Campbell, Rele Mofokeng, Titus, Mdu Shabalala, Duba, S Zwane, Mabena, etc. Maybe that’s what happened with Ethan Brooks. Broos himself was very strict with dropping average squad age down when he arrived, but the truth is the national team is for all South African players who are on form and who the coach sees fit for his philosophy, not for development. Lucky Khunou, Rustenburg, Meriting

The team that took Chiefs out of the Nedbank Cup was beaten 6-1 by Stellies and you ask yourself: what was so difficult for Chiefs to score against a team that is in the relegation zone in the Motsepe Foundation Championship? On another note, I noticed that our Editor publishes a few letters, not more than seven. Please tell us, Mr Editor, is the paper shrinking and therefore no space for our letters in our favourite paper? We need to know.