ERNST’S FATE SEALED BY WITS LOSS
Hunt became the frontrunner for the Chiefs top job when he beat Middendorp that day
SUPERSPORT commentator Baba Mthethwa gave the moment that might have cost Ernst Middendorp the league title and his job a great description in his native SeSotho: “Wa tsamaya Johannes” (Johannes is leaving).
On Monday afternoon, August 31, the German tactician took a strained, lonely walk in stoppage time towards one of the empty tunnels at FNB Stadium as if his world had just crumbled into pieces.
Kaizer Chiefs were incredibly seconds away from losing their grip on the summit of the Premiership standings. Bidvest Wits striker Bienvenu Eva Nga had just scored a late winner that looked to hand over the top spot to Mamelodi Sundowns who were squaring off with relegation-threatened Baroka FC later in the day.
But Sundowns didn’t grab the opportunities to go to the top, although they pipped Chiefs on the final day of the season for the title. Instead, it was Baroka who ended Middendorp’s title dream.
Baroka incredibly defeated Sundowns that night at the Dobsonville Stadium but just as Chiefs thought they got off the hook ahead of the last days of the season, Bakgaga crushed their dream on the final day as they held Amakhosi to a 1-1 draw that awarded the league title to Sundowns.
But it was not the instructions of coach Dylan Kerr, the goals from Ananias Gebhardt and Manuel Kambala against Sundowns and Chiefs or Ayanda Dlamini and Elvis Chipezeze’s time wasting antics against the championship hopefuls that were responsible for Amakhosi’s downfall.
In fact, if you believe there are superstitions in football, then Chiefs and Middendorp lost the title at the hands of the man that is highly expected to sit on the home dugout at the FNB Stadium, Amakhosi’s home ground, next season.
Everything on that fateful Monday was just not going Chiefs’ way. They played, they put in a proper performance, knocking the ball around, but when they needed a goal their best player this season – Samir Nurkovic – missed a sitter.
But as Eva Nga’s 95-minute strike forced Middendorp to that walk of dejection, Wits coach Gavin Hunt had sent though his application to be the Germans successor to Chiefs’ management without sending an email, text message or phone call. He didn’t say a word.
In fact, Hunt is a technical genius, considering that he applied for Middendorp’s job on the pitch. During the season, he refuted the claims that Chiefs were keen on his services and requested that Middendorp be respected considering he was then on course to win the Premiership title.
When Chiefs lost out on the league and showed Middendorp the door they said: “When the league restarted post-lockdown, things changed, and we looked a totally different side in our last eight league matches,” Chiefs’ el supremo Kaizer Motaung said in the statement.
“We witnessed some heartstopping performances and we were overtaken on the log in the last game of the season, which truly broke our hearts. We have to take responsibility – we can’t wait and allow this situation to continue.”
But after that damning statement from Chiefs on one of their reasons to immediately release Middendorp, who had a year to run on his contract, chances that the German was going to be retained even if he delivered the championship are nigh on impossible.
With Chiefs saying they’ll announce Middendorp’s replacement later this month, petitions, suggestions and cries from Amakhosi’s faithful to have Hunt as their commander in chief next season have gained momentum.
The 56-year-old, who’s won four league titles in his coaching career that has spanned over two decades, is currently unemployed after Wits sold their status ahead of the new season. But, Hunt has denied any talks between him and Chiefs.
But, if the rumour mill is correct, Hunt and Chiefs are said to be at an advanced stage in their negotiations, then Middendorp’s fate, superstitiously, was decided by his successor on that fateful Monday last month.