Gavin Hunt

Can Kaizer Chiefs coach turn things around at Naturena and how should he go about doing this?

Former Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United player Daine Klate believes that Gavin Hunt’s decision to join Kaizer Chiefs was not ill-informed or made in haste. Having won four league titles, the Telkom Knockout and an MTN8 trophy over two separate spells with Hunt at SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits, Klate understands the Chiefs coach well.

“I think it was always going to be a little difficult,” he says. “Gavin comes from a different environment ... Chiefs have a different culture to the teams that he became accustomed to.

“[Bidvest] Wits and SuperSport [United] had a similar type of way of doing things, and Chiefs have their own way of doing things. It was always going to be a challenge, but one I feel he was ready for.

“I think he’s done everything that needed to be done in South African football, and what was left was to join one of the big three.

“Chiefs are actually lucky to have him, I would say, in the situation they find themselves in. If, for example, they brought a foreign coach in on the back of losing a league title ... you can see the players are not really psychologically [recovered from] losing the league with 30 minutes to go after leading the whole season.

“When I watch Chiefs play, you can see the players [are struggling] psychologically, but they will come good. I know Gavin as a patient guy and that’s what you need in such a situation. The club also understands [the slow start to the season] because of not being able to make any signings now, and those types of things.”

Effects of not winning the league

Having taken the mantle from Ernst Middendorp, who led the club to Nedbank Cup runners-up in 2019 and league runnersup in 2020, was always going to prove a tall ask given the psychological battering the players have endured in both those instances of coming within minutes of ending their five-year trophy drought.

“CHIEFS ARE ACTUALLY LUCKY TO HAVE HIM.”

Gavin Hunt’s appointment as successor to Ernst Middendorp was widely celebrated among Kaizer Chiefs fans but that enthusiasm was quickly subdued by a poor start to the 2020/21 season. Faced with an unprecedented two-window transfer ban, the 56-year-old has forgone the proverbial ‘honeymoon phase’ and immediately found the going considerably tough. KICK OFF’s Chad KellyKlate looks at what lies ahead for the veteran coach.

Farouk Khan, a former Chiefs assistant coach and head of youth development, believes Hunt has been handed a raw deal when considering the club’s decline over the years, as well as the compounding expectations and pressures of the job.

“The biggest challenge is that Gavin has inherited a lot of what was bound to happen in the future,” Khan explains.

“The challenge Gavin has is, does he have the time to build a team that is able to compete similarly to what we’re witnessing at Mamelodi Sundowns? It’s going to be very difficult.

“We saw what Stuart Baxter did, he built short-term success, and everybody sang his praises, but generally that success wasn’t going to have too long a lifespan. The thing with that short-term success is that there was no continuity, and they couldn’t ensure that success lasted over the next decade.”

Many may feel that Hunt perhaps lacks the empathy and consideration for players because he has often, at first glance, portrayed a firmness about him that could make him somewhat aloof, as former Hunt protegee Siyabonga Nkosi recalls during his time at SuperSport back in 2009/10.

“What I noticed while working under him, he’s a coach who likes everyone to be on the same level [in terms of humility and work ethic] and he doesn’t like egos in his team,” adds Nkosi.

“He likes players who are coachable in his own way so I would assume that he might feel a little uncomfortable when that is threatened, but it’s manageable.

“I remember in my case that he had to spark anger out of me to be able to get the best out of me and be able to [do well]. We had a very heated altercation, which lasted maybe an hour where we were arguing about football, and it ended with him saying, ‘Ag, play how you want’ and I was like, ‘You don’t know football’ and whatever.

“At the end of the day, I think I played about 12-15 games consecutively under him and we were good, but he had to spark that reaction out of me. He’s a type of coach that’s very tricky to understand and work with. If you don’t get to the same level of understanding with one another, then it becomes very difficult.”

“HE DOESN’T LIKE EGOS IN HIS TEAM.”