Coach Dladla is swimming against the tide

Coaching in the National First Division is really hard, as Real Kings’ Simo Dladla (left) has found out. If your team does well and you fail to win promotion, clubs come with their big-money offers for players and trying to keep them can be emotionally and psychologically draining.

“What do you do when a club comes and offers your boy R70 000 (a month) and the best you can give him is R20 000? You try and persuade the player to stay but you also feel a little guilty because you may be denying them their biggest pay cheque. It cuts both ways,” said Dladla yesterday.

Fortunately for Dladla his sit- uation at Kings is not like other coaches in the division as he is also the general manager which means he manages the club’s budget and can play around with figures.

“We sometimes make a counter-offer to show them that we appreciate them … that we are willing to bend over backwards for them. Fortunately this time I have not lost any player despite the offers that came,” he said.

Dladla has only lost Brian Hlongwa, who returned to his mother club Orlando Pirates and is happy he was going into their third season in the NFD. The Magic Boys fell short of a promotion play-off position last season after finishing fourth.

“We should have made it,” admits Dladla. “But we made some mistakes towards the end of the season and we are working on rectifying those mistakes. I have asked players who wanted to leave to give me another year as I feel we can get automatic promotion this time.

“We have to be in the Absa Premiership and that is my biggest wish. I have come close and have almost tasted it and now I will get it,” he stated confidently.

The 45-year-old mentor said he also had to decline offers as some Premiership teams have asked him to join their technical teams, including Orlando Pirates, who wanted to bring him into their development structures.