Owner’s brutal approach not helping club
We always assume Chippa United as our second home, but club boss Chippa Mpengesi has turned out to be a monster who spits in our faces as supporters.
Mpengesi has broken the record, firing five coaches in one premiership season, and the abruptness of the announcements was brutal.
Teboho Moloi’s side were arguably just as exciting and would likely have picked up some silverware had he been given a fair chance with the reins at Chippa.
Moloi took over the reins in September 2017 and had an impressive run that saw the team climbing to second position on the Absa Premiership table at one stage.
However, later, when his under-par performances emerged, it was rumoured the former Bucs player-turnedgaffer had lost the notoriously volatile dressing room, a development as fatal as Caesar losing the respect of the Senate.
“Et tu, Terry?” Mpengesi’s rash judgement has earned him a big reputation.
His brutal approach is defined by random acts of a hard-to-please tyrant.
Marking the fleeting employment of a team coach is no more insane than the sacking of Joel Masutha this past week.
The reaction to what many see as another capricious sacking by an indulgent, arrogant boss has been bordering on open revolt.
Mpengesi refuses to listen to constructive criticism from his supporters, rather gloating about owning the club while the club’s demise seems inevitable with his current approach.
He’s been impulsively making decisions and now free agent Clinton Larsen is to take over the reins as coach without proper introspection to find the cause of the team’s decline.
All under Chippa’s sun are guided by the controversial owner who sits aloft and manipulates the team for his amusement.
However, I’m truly impressed by the new acquisi- tions of Morgan Mammila as club CEO and Larson as coach.
Yet their success will be limited while Mpengesi is still surrounded with mediocre people.
I think Chippa needs restructuring to clean up mediocrity in this club, including chief operating officer Lukhanyo Mzinzi, and recruit top quality players to pursue team ambitions.
The club needs an urgent turnaround strategy to move forward and change is pivotal. Wandile Mtana (Mawawa)
Uitenhage
We all thought that Chippa United was coming to our city as the saviours of Bay football.
We all had a good feeling that this was going to be the team that utilised our local talent, and offered chances and a possible future for our local lads.
This was not true.
The boss of the club is a maverick, half a dozen of this and half a dozen of that.
No wonder the club is in the relegation zone. It is possibly the worst coaching job ever because of the owner, who is trigger-happy.
We need a team that is representative of our region and invests our resources in them.
We have to cut our losses and move on from this madness. It’s a circus with no clear direction.
I don’t see a future for our kids in this team.
I am sure the money spent on keeping this team in the Bay could be utilised better by working on acquiring our own franchise to give our boys in Port Elizabeth a real chance.
Get the wheel in motion, get passionate football people in to oversee the project.
Use local lads with a few experienced players.
Ajax Cape Town did this successfully years ago.
We cannot continue in this vein with no tangible returns for our investment.
Chippa United fooled us all into believing that they would fast-track our own boys.
No more. We need a united team that is representative of our region with people in charge who have no personal agendas.
If not, we will remain in the wilderness, a major city with no team in the PSL. Sad. Let’s get the ball rolling. Football is dying in the region and we need to be honest about this.
There is no time for fingerpointing – time to roll up our sleeves, and do this together for the sake of our boys and future generations.
They deserve a decent chance to make it in football. Feizal Nicholas
Port Elizabeth