Tinkler quits SuperSport

Michaelson Gumede and Jonty Mark

Eric Tinkler resigned yesterday as head coach of SuperSport United, admitting that he hadn’t been able to get a “committed” reaction from his players to their current struggles.

“I have been in discussion with club management about the poor performance of the team for a while now,” said Tinkler in a statement released by SuperSport. “In reflecting on the last few games, I have not been satisfied with the response out on the pitch.

“I believe we can turn things around but the only way of getting out of our current position is to have fully committed and unified response from the players, and I haven’t been able to get that from them, so it seems best for all parties that we part ways.”

Tinkler joined SuperSport from Cape Town City at the start of this season and got off to a terrific start, winning the MTN8 and reaching the Caf Confederatoon Cup final, where Matsatsantsa lost to TP Mazembe.

Since then it has fallen apart, with SuperSport winning just three of their last 19 matches in all competitions, leaving them dangerously close the relegation zone.

SuperSport face Maritzburg United today at the Lucas Moripe Stadium, with the club confirming assistant coach Kaitano Tembo will take over until the end of the season in a caretaker capacity.

United, in contrast to SuperSport, are in fine nick, and went into this weekend’s fixtures in the top four of the Absa Premiership.

Tinkler, ironically now, said he believes what sets United coach Fadlu Davids apart from him and Matsatsantsa is Davids has been with the team for a while as an understudy and a full time coach.

“We didn’t have a pre-season or an opportunity to work on how we would like to play the game. We are having a fix here, fix there situation and that is why you don’t see the consistent performance from my team,” said Tinkler