Second not good enough
COACH PULLS NO PUNCHES WHEN ASKED ABOUT THE SEASON He insists he will get it right at Chiefs ahead of the next campaign.
An awkward yet relatable question was posed to Kaizer Chiefs coach Steve Komphela after his team’s unlikely 1-0 win over newly crowned Absa Premiership champions Bidvest Wits on Saturday: “do you feel you have done enough to deserve to keep your position?”
Komphela responded: “I must be careful. In response to the last part of the question, I could fire myself. The question says‚ do you think you deserve to stay on?
“Any response to that question will have direct implications and reference. One has to be very smart in their response. I don’t think at any stage when you’re at Chiefs‚ coming up second is good enough.”
Komphela has had an awkward two-season stay at Amakhosi as he has not been able to guide the side to any trophy and calls for his head have been heard in some sections of the team’s supporters.
The 49-year-old mentor is aware that his tenure has not been great and said there can be no excuses for it.
“I cannot bring any excuses. I just have to accept the status quo and try to rectify it. Looking deep into all four tournaments of the season … in the MTN8 we lost at Cape Town City where one counter-attacking move led to a goal and it was done,” he explained.
“If you look at the Telkom Knockout, we played Free State Stars in Durban on a rainy day where we played beautiful football and Thela Ngobeni (Stars goalkeeper) was the Man-of-theMatch‚ and we missed out on penalties.
“Then you come to the Nedbank Cup against SuperSport where in extra time we missed a penalty and it denied us a spot in the semifinals.
“In the Absa Premiership we gave away 18 points in eight matches by losing matches and drawing matches in the last minute in a manner that we will never understand.
“Those are the things that‚ when looked at in a more objective manner‚ you try to say‚ ‘But listen‚ we can do better than this, our people deserve better’,” he added.
Komphela however remains insistent he can turn things around next season. “We will go back and do our audit and come back again and compete next season. This league is extremely difficult.”