Benni McCarthy
In Part 2 of our exclusive interview, AmaZulu coach Benni McCarthy candidly chats to KICK OFF’s Chad Kelly-Klate about his stay at the club so far, his ugly departure from Cape Town City and what he hopes to achieve with Usuthu.
In Part 2 of our interview with the AmaZulu coach, where he reveals his future plans for the side and the role of the stalwart members of his squad.
KICK OFF: AmaZulu is not a ‘small’ club, if you guys can get the support of the Durban people then you can compete with the big guns on the pitch and in the stands? Benni McCarthy:
Yeah, when the fans come back, this is one of the most passionate cities in South Africa, where people are football crazy. In my opinion there’s still a lot of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs fans in Durban, and I want to change that because AmaZulu must be the club that people want to support. There’s a massive fan base here that’s dying to have a local team that can compete with the Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns. So I want to use the brand of football that we play and the success we can have on the field by winning games, and people want to be associated with a team that has that winning mentality – if we can continue doing that, when the fans are allowed back at games, I think we’re going to be pleasantly surprised at the amount of fans coming to watch AmaZulu, because these people are so passionate and they are just waiting for their sleeping giant club to be awoken, and who better to wake the dragon than the dragon himself? The
B-Mac man!
And this free rein also included you getting to assemble your own technical team that you would like to work with?
I love working with people that have no agendas; I love working with people that are honest, loyal, trustworthy and respectful; I love working with people that are hardworking and that want to be better than they were yesterday, and that’s my philosophy. That’s how I look at things. The people that I brought in – Mr B, Basil [ Vasili] Manousakis, my assistant coach is one of the humblest souls you can get. He’s extremely hard working, he wants to become the best assistant coach and one day become a head coach himself. I’m all for that and I would be glad to see him succeed and become a head coach in the near future, because he’s got the capacity. But he’s a loyal guy and that’s all you can ask for – people that you can trust and will sing the same song that you sing to the players, so there’s no coach wanting to take the limelight, we’re here for the same cause. When the team wins and there’s success at the club, we all win, and that’s the kind of people I want to work with.
Then there’s Moeneeb Josephs...
I’ve worked with every single staff member that I’ve brought in. Moeneeb was a goalkeeper that I played with in the Bafana Bafana national team and at club level at Orlando Pirates, and he’s one of my best friends. But the passion that runs through his veins is the same passion that I share, and his expertise of being one of the best
goalkeepers this country has produced, now that he’s retired, why would I want to let that go to waste? Yeah, maybe he doesn’t have the qualifications that’s required yet or that people say, ‘He’s only in the job because his friend is the coach’, but you see the vast improvement of my goalkeepers that I have at the club. They’re standing their own ground in the league and the performances they put in week in, week out is because they work with a top goalkeeper coach that was a top goalkeeper in his days. He can give them live experiences of his time at the top of the game, at a top club where we were invincible by winning titles, and that’s working well.
And why Siyabonga Nomvethe?
Bhele, I brought in because I think he’s a person that has a wealth of knowledge and players can benefit from that. We were teammates, we were competitors, and we were playing in the same position, so yeah, and there was never animosity between us, we became really good friends in our playing days. We had that [understanding] that whoever of the two of us was playing, we support and help each other to do the best that we can for the national team, and it worked, and many times we ended up playing together because they saw that this partnership was just really, really good. So, I thought if I can bring him in, you educate him a little bit on how the coaching scene works, and he’s falling into this job very nicely and quickly – everyday he’s becoming a better coach. He’s very much involved and he’s talking to players, and that’s what you want. When he talks to players, it’s the same stuff we talk in the dressing room or office, when we sit and discuss about tactics and players’ performance and how we’re going to get the best out of players, and when the whole technical team talks to the players, they preach these things. So, it’s all people I can trust, respect and that’s loyal to the cause and philosophy that the head coach is instilling in the team, and I couldn’t be more thankful for the president of AmaZulu [Sandile Zungu] for allowing me to bring these good people and honest coaches into this journey that we’re embarking on.
Just more on coach Basil – you found him at Cape Town City hey?
Yeah, I found him in administration. He was working in admin and I thought, ‘you can’t have an administration guy know more football than a coach’. My conversations with him have always been so positive, enduring and warming – because the knowledge he has of the game and where he’s been in his
“I KNOW IT’S TOUGH IF YOU ARE GUIDING YOUNG PLAYERS AND THEY ARE NOW TAKING YOUR PLACE IN THE TEAM.”
journey, he was just someone I could see myself work with for a very long time. He’s really a genuine, honest person with the same values as I have as a human being, and when the opportunity arose when I could bring in any assistant of my choice, I chose the guy that I was having great conversations with and how I saw him grow from a very timid assistant coach at Cape Town City who battled to even speak to the players, to now telling me, ‘No, Coachy. I’ve got this my man’. That’s all you can wish for in a coach – that quick learning and understanding capacity, so he’s helping me immensely.
Was it easy to lure him away from City?
To be honest, it wasn’t difficult. The contract negotiations stalled a little bit and took longer than I expected, but it was probably one of the easiest decisions he made because he was joining a guy who believed in him when nobody else did, to become a coach – and a damn good one for that matter. The respect I had for him, the trust I instilled in him at Cape Town City, he wanted to have that feeling back. He wanted to feel part of something when you build it, he’s part of a family and something that’s being built and can be incredible. At City, unfortunately he was made to feel like the outcast because he was my assistant, so the new coach felt a bit threatened by the fact that he was my number-two and now he’s having to keep him on as well, so he didn’t give him the respect he deserved, and he wasn’t treated the way he should have been treated for everything he did for the club. So, it was easy for him to leave Cape Town and everything he knows there, to join his friend that believes in him and thinks he can become an excellent head coach one day. Hopefully one day that happens because he’s got all the knowledge and attributes to make a brilliant head coach.
You’ve had a taste of success in your previous job, so where do you see this AmaZulu side going with what you have at your disposal at the moment?
Listen, I think, with the backing of the president and the board at AmaZulu, if we manage things correctly and bring in players that suit the philosophy that we require, then I think this club will achieve a lot of good things and we should be able to achieve goals way faster than anyone expects from us. But that can only happen if the parties are on board and understand that the way forward is to work together and to achieve things together, instead of working against each other. So, if I get the backing of the president with the players I want to bring in and strengthen and improve the team, then AmaZulu is in for a really, really exciting time. Because now you’ve got a coach with a clear vision for how to transform a football teams into one of the best football-playing teams, and a president that backs that coach all the way, then I can only say, and I quote – not that I’m quoting Mamelodi Sundowns but – ‘ The sky is the limit!’
How do you view the presence of the likes of Siphiwe Tshabalala, Tshepo Masilela and other senior guys in as far as your plans for taking the club forward?
I’m saying it’s about giving back [for them]. I think players like Shabba, Lehlohonolo Majoro, Masilela, Amigo Memela, Shaka Mthembu, Bongi Ntuli, Augustine Mulenga, Makhehlene Makhaula – these are experienced players who’ve played in the league and made names for themselves, and they are in the best positions to give great advice to the young players on starting their journey and how to behave as a professional player, the work ethic that is required and expected of them, the mindset you need to have every day at training, at home or at match days. These players have plenty to give back and as long as they are there for the younger players, giving guidance and knowing that one day these young players will get better and take their places, but they shouldn’t be worried about that because those are the kind of senior players I want to have in my team. So far, I’ve had very good experiences and a good response from these players, and they’ve taken these roles up very well. I know it’s tough if you are guiding young players and they are now taking your place in the team, but I want players to be happy for those youngsters because they know that one day the end is coming to us all. So, what better way to finish off than knowing that you’ve given off what you learnt and achieved through the years as a top professional player playing at the highest level for such a long time – you can retire gracefully and peacefully, with your head help up high because you’ve imparted the knowledge to a young player that can go on and have the same or even better career.
What are your short-term ambitions for this season? Is CAF club competitions a realistic target for AmaZulu?
Listen, that wouldn’t be out of the question. That would be a fantastic bonus for the club if we are able to pull ourselves all the way to the top and we get into the CAF positions. But it’s not going to be easy because I’m sure there are a lot of clubs that also think they can knock Sundowns off their perch, and we’re one of those teams who want to strive and work hard to improve and then compete with the likes of Sundowns, and hopefully one day overthrow them from the top spot and as the big spenders. So, that is an ambition of ours, but the biggest thing is just to stabilise the club, give the club a good identity and get a good feeling, keep the club in a respectable position in the league. Then from next season onwards, the way we want to recruit players and the players we want to bring in, now you can look to challenge for top four places, that’s every possibility we want to give ourselves. But for now, we just take it game by game, and when we do play, we want to give our best and everything we have for the fans that watch us at home, and we want to entertain the football lovers with good football but also for the club, it’s about winning football.
“THE BIGGEST THING IS JUST TO STABILISE THE CLUB, GIVE THE CLUB A GOOD IDENTITY AND GET A GOOD FEELING.”