Sredojevic will do well, he knows club culture

Coach Milutin Sredojevic comes back to Orlando Pirates a lot more experienced now compared to his first stint 10 years ago. The good thing is that he knows the culture of the club and that of South African football, and in that, there won’t be a need for him to adapt – he will hit the ground running.

We have seen coaches coming and going and we have also seen players underperforming under previous coaches. What needs to happen now is for the club’s management to give the coach all the support he needs.

At the moment we still don’t know if Harold Legodi will remain part of Pirates’ technical team. The most important thing is to beef up the technical team. If they can get people like Tebogo Moloi and Rhulani Mokena, it would be a good acquisition by the club.

They need someone with the qualities Mokoena possesses.

Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza has said the club would release certain players before the start of the season.

Looking on from a distance and from a point of having being part of the club and understanding the culture, I would say the majority of the senior players in the club, no names mentioned, of course, need to released.

Why? For the simple reason that they have achieved a lot with the club and I don’t think they can help Pirates move to another level.

They need to go to other clubs and get a new challenge and help other clubs. It would be fair for the players and the club. This is not a new phenomenon, it happens all over the world.

Think of John Terry at Chelsea and Andrea Pirlo at Juventus. Pirates themselves have previously released the likes of Rooi Mahamutsa, Sifiso Myeni and a host of other players who had done extremely well for the club. I would not be surprised if I saw big-name players being shown the door because they no longer have the capabilities to take the team to greater heights.

The immediate mandate for the coach is to build the team and instill confidence in the players. The first priority will be to target a top eight finish at the end of the season.

They also need to make at least the quarterfinals of the Telkom Knockout.

However, the most important thing is for him to build confidence in his team, which in return would see the team producing quality football.

From a general point of view, looking at the type of players our country has, the job of instilling confidence in them should not be a difficult task for a coach.

It is just a matter of dealing

with players individually and understanding their personalities. I say this because you find players who are good but have their lifestyles interfering with their football.

And as a coach, make sure you deal with ill-discipline. That is part of your job, and I have no doubt Sredojevic can deal with that if he gets all the support.

The MTN8 is coming up this weekend, and to be fair, I don’t think we should be expecting too much from the teams.

These are the players who are coming from pre-season, so I am expecting that the quality of football won’t be as high or as great as we would like it to be.

I am however hoping for some excitement, whereby some of the teams will be parading their new players and new coaches.