Orlando Pirates
The departure of Josef Zinnbauer means yet another change in the hot-seat at Orlando Pirates. In Part 1 of this feature, we look at the club’s coaches since the start of the NSL.
Orlando Pirates are still waiting to make a permanent appointment after the departure of Joe Zinnbauer but whoever arrives to take over in charge of the Buccaneers must realise that he is taking on one of the toughest jobs in South African sport. The Pirates hot seat has been too fiery for many to handle as the eclectic list of past coaches can attest to. KICK OFF’s Mark Gleeson examines all the men who have coached the club since the launch of the National Soccer League in 1985 in Part 1 of this historical feature. 1985 Dave Milton P2 W0 D2 L0 GF4 GA4
Pirates were in relegation danger in September 1984 when the unheralded Milton was appointed to help them out of trouble and guided them to the Mainstay Cup finals that year where they lost to Kaizer Chiefs via a Teenage Dladla penalty. Milton, who had coached previously at Benoni United, departed soon into the 1985 season after a couple of draws as Pirates was torn in two by the split from the National Professional Soccer League, which saw the creation of the National Soccer League. Johannesburg lawyer Leon Hacker was appointed to oversee a committee to try and resolve the split and he brought Sergio dos Santos aboard as coach.
Sergio Dos Santos P16 W3 D6 L7 GF18 GA24
Dos Santos had been Milton’s assistant at Benoni United and went across with Milton to the Buccaneers as assistant coach. Milton had a job offer in Britain to return to, and amid all the turmoil at the club, did not hesitate to depart, leaving Dos Santos to take over. He brought Stuart Lilley out of retirement but with two factions trying to control the club, had to deal with endless instructions on which players to use and which not, and ultimately also death threats.
Phil Setshedi P20 W3 D7 L10 GF13 GA27
Setshedi completed the 1985 season in charge of the Buccaneers, having served previously as captain and caretaker coach. He had returned to the club from Jomo Cosmos in a bid to help them out of their quagmire but found a squad demotivated by the internal wrangling. He asked management to find him players in Malawi and Zambia to try and turn around their precarious situation but there was no money. Pirates went 12 games without a win and were struggling near the foot of the table, finishing in 15th position, which remains their record for a worst-ever season.
1986 Charles Segale P11 W2 D3 L6 GF10 GA21
Segale’s brother Ben was coach of Sundowns, making for an usual pair of siblings coaching in the top flight of South African football at the same time, albeit Sundowns were then perennial strugglers and Pirates coming out of their worst-ever season. Segale’s first game in charge was on a double header opening day extravaganza at Ellis Park where Pirates were handed a 4-1 thumping by Jomo Cosmos. By the time he was due to play Sundowns, brother Ben had been replaced by Screamer Tshabalala and Sundowns thrashed Pirates 4-0.
Frank‘Jingles’Pereira P66 W23 D19 L24 GF89 GA95
The Cape Town City and Chiefs playing legend had been player coach at Benoni in the last days of his career but was a surprise appointment for struggling Pirates, taking time to produce the results. They ended the season in 13th place, a slight improvement on the previous season but again lost 15 games in the league campaign. They were
also knocked out in the Mainstay Cup first round by Pretoria Callies but reinstated when their opponents were found guilty of using a defaulter and made it to the semifinals. This they repeated the next year but again struggled in the league, finishing 11th in the 1987 season.
Johannes ‘Yster’ Khomane P2 W0 D0 L2 GF2 GA7
Seasoned fullback Khomane stepped into the breach as acting coach at the end of the 1987 season but lost both games. He was a long serving member of both the playing staff and then as an assistant coach to many a passing parade of coaches at a time of much turmoil for the Buccaneers
1988 Walter Da Silva P91 W46 D25 L21 GF133 GA87
The eccentric Brazilian, who first came to South Africa in the 1960s from Barcelona to play at Highlands Powerlines and also coached at Moroka Swallows and Chiefs, brought success back to Pirates as he won the Bob Save Super Bowl, beating Chiefs in extra time in the final replay at Ellis Park. They also had a sixth-place finish in the league as the Buccaneers began to return to form and become contenders for silverware. Da Silva might not have been the most convincing of coaches but his second season in charge was even better as Pirates finished second and reached three cup semi-finals.
1990 Dave Roberts P46 W25 D13 L8 GF82 GA40
Formerly at Bloemfontein Celtic, the gruff Liverpudlian had a proven track record in South African football and, although his first game in charge was a 6-1 thrashing by Sundowns in the Top Eight Cup, he had Pirates finish in third spot at the end the season and get into the finals of the JPS Smooth Series, where they narrowly lost to Sundowns. Roberts left at the end of the season to take up a lucrative offer at AmaZulu but did not last long there because the club split into two factions and he ended up on the wrong side of the argument.
1991 Jacob Sephooa P11 W6 D2 L3 GF15 GA11
A former Chiefs player replaces Roberts but there was never a sense of continuity for him although he started the season well but was then replaced after losing 3-0 in the derby to the AmaKhosi at Soccer City at the end of April. Chiefs had also beaten them in the Top Eight Cup quarter-final
Manny Pinheiro P43 W20 D9 L14 GF61 GA50
Pinheiro had no previous coaching experience when Pirates asked the former Lusitano star to take over and within weeks he had them in the Castle Challenge final where they lost to Chiefs. But a loss to Zola Young Stars in the first round of the Bob Save Super Bowl was rare defeat for a top flight club against amateur opposition and a black mark against Pinheiro, whose side finished the 1991 season in fifth place. At the start of the 1992 campaign, Pirates lost their opening three league games, including a 5-0 pasting at home
from Bloemfontein Celtic. Pinheiro was eventually fired after a 2-0 loss at Sundowns at the end of April 1992.
1992 Geoff Hudson P48 W23 D13 L12 GF64 GA43
The Yorkshire-born coach, who played in the English league between 1950-1967, arrived after several years working in east Africa and had taken Uganda’s Nakivubo Villa the previous year to the final of the African Champions Cup. His first league game was a home loss to Wits as Pirates were using Tembisa as their home ground but after that he was unbeaten in the league for the next 15 games. In his second month in charge, Pirates won the Castle Challenge with a 2-1 final success over Sundowns. Hudson left after two months of the 1993 campaign but not before winning the Top Eight Cup with a comefrom-behind victory over Witbank Aces.
1993 Walter Da Silva P24 W11 D7 L6 GF31 GA23
Da Silva was back for a second spell at the club, hoping to resurrect his cup success of 1988 which revived the fortunes of what was then an ailing team. This time Da Silva took them to the semi-final of the BoB Save Super Bowl but they lost to arch rivals Chiefs to miss out on the decider. Pirates finished the league season in fourth position but it was not enough for da Silva to be offered a chance to stay.
1994 Phil Setshedi P5 W2 D2 L1 GF3 GA3
‘Mr Jones’ held fort for Pirates while they search for a coach to replace Da Silva. Setshedi had often come to the club’s rescue as a stand-in and got the club to the Top Eight Cup semi-final but after they lost to Sundowns, a successor was found.
Mike Makaab P68 W41 D17 L10 GF97 GA34
Makaab, who was a builder by trade, never played top flight football and had only coached in amateur football in Durban and at Manning Rangers, but was hired in late March and took the club to their first title in 18 years albeit after a scandalous boardroom decision to give Pirates an extra point after Vaal Professionals failed to produce ID cards for a game with Pirates that had ended 1-1. It ensured they edged Cape Town Spurs to the title as Irvin Khoza flexed his new-found muscle as the emerging strongman of South African football. In 1995, Makaab led the side to the Coca-Cola Cup finals where they lost to Wits University and also into their first foray in African football. They also won their first eight games of the league season. He quit because of his family reasons in August after a long discussion with Khoza. He had three children who he hardly saw and wanted to go back to Durban.
1995 Joe Frickleton P20 W5 D11 L4 GF20 GA15
Veteran Frickleton, a pricky Scotsman but with a sly sense of humour, had been both a championship winning player and coach at Highlands Park and then had further success with Lusitano and Chiefs, before he went off to become the general manager of the Bopsol league. But with Bophuthatswana dissolved after the end of apartheid he was brought on board to steer Pirates through the defence of their league title and in the African Champions Cup. His first five league games in charge were all drawn and the club eventually ended third but Frickleton led them past Gabonese and Ugandan opposition and into the Champions Cup final against ASEC Abidjan. But a 2-2 first leg draw looked a calamity, and he was sacked before the return leg in the Ivory Coast.
Ronald Mkhandawire P1 W1 GF1 GA0
Zambian defender Mkandawire had been assistant coach and was tasked with taking charge of the second leg of the final in Abidjan, with his chairman Khoza on site to look over his shoulder. Jerry Sikhosana’s dramatic against-the-runof-play goal won a first-ever African title for South Africa. Pirates overcame all the odds and expectations for 1-0 win and a 3-2 aggregate triumph in one of the great days of South African football.
1996 Viktor Bondarenko P48 W26 D14 L8 GF72 GA40
The former Russian international had been Mozambique’s coach and qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals in South Africa before losing his job. He joined Pirates and took them to African Super Cup and Top Eight Cup success in his first months in charge and lost one game in the half-season competition as the league switched its timing from a calendar year to an August-May season. The new PSL launched in August 1996 but Bondarenko lasted only 11 league games, though it
was enough time to take Pirates to the BoB Save Super Bowl as they beat Jomo Cosmos in the final.
1996-97 Ronald Mkhandawire P3 W2 D1 L0 GF4 GA0
Mkhandawire was restored to caretaker role after Bondarenko’s departure with a further brief spell in charge and kept up his unbeaten record.
Augusto Palacios P7 W4 D1 L2 GF9 GA8
The Peruvian had been in South Africa for a decade already, first playing at
Witbank W Aces and then coaching the likes of o Free State Stars, Kaizer Chiefs, Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana. But his first fi tenure at Pirates proved short as the supporters s came baying for his blood after a 3-0 home defeat to Hellenic in early 1997 and a Palacios had to flee, deciding his head was w more important than the job and quitting q afterwards.
Ronald Mkhandawire P28 W14 D9 L5 GF 33 GA19
Mkhandawire stretched to 17 games his unbeaten run at Pirates as they finished fi the 1996-97 season in third spot. s Mkhandwire had been accused of o being a little soft on the players and relied on senior members like Gavin Lane, Helman Mkhalele and John Moeti to bring some order to the squad but he still had something of a Midas touch. He was allowed to start as coach for the 1997-98 season and take charge of the Buccaneers’ first three matches in the first ever African Champions League group campaign. Bondarenko was considered for a return by Khoza but the chairman then said his English was good enough.
1997-98 Shaibu Amodu P40 W17 D16 L7 GF60 GA37
The coach of Nigeria’s BCC Lions when they won the African Cup Winners’ Cup in 1990, and who would later go to coach
Nigeria’s national team on multiple occasions, arrived in October 1997 to take charge of Pirates. They finished third again at the end of the season, but failed to advance past the group phase of the Champions League. Amidu did, however, lead the club to the Bob Save Super Bowl final, which was drawn with the replay postponed until after the 1998 World Cup finals … by which time he had departed.
1998-99 Viktor Bondarenko P46 W24 D13 L9 GF92 GA41
Bondarenko was back in charge for the start of the new season and began with the delayed BoB Save Super Bowl final against Sundowns, which Pirates lost on penalties. “Attack, attack, attack” was his famous credo, and Pirates scored 92 goals in league and cup action in the season, but it proved another campaign where the Buccaneers played third fiddle to Sundowns and Chiefs. But they did record their best ever win – 9-0 against Olympics in the first round of the BoB Save Super Bowl before being eliminated by SuperSport United in the next round.