Kadodia: Why we made the changes

“Players respond to you or they don’t.”

Excuse the analogy, but Farook Kadodia is like that owner of the little corner shop that operates from the same street as the big retail giants. Season after season, he keeps on pushing despite the odds being stacked against him and his Maritzburg United, what with the bigger clubs always looking to nick some of their standout players away. The club boss has accepted this as an inevitable reality and a nightmare that plays itself over and over again. Obviously such a business model is bound to have dire consequences, and he is always left to pick up the pieces and rebuild the team. In this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Celine Abrahams, Kadodia is typically frank about the challenges facing the Team of Choice, while explaining the reasoning behind some of his recent coaching changes.

Celine Abrahams: Chairman, let’s shoot for the stars right from the beginning. Why did you get rid of Muhsin Ertugral after only five games in charge?

Farouk Kadodia:

The reality is that we wanted a new coach to come in after Fadlu (Davids) to bring a change into the team. We wanted to see the players respond better to the plans, to see better results coming forth, but that never came. We had five games, including a cup game, all resulting in defeats, so this allowed us the platform to talk to the coach to discuss this and work it out because this was not what we had hired him for. That’s where he had to understand that we have a huge task on our hands and we need positive results. When we parted with Fadlu in December, we had a dilemma on our hands on whether we should bring in someone new from abroad, but that was a challenge, so we looked at who else was available and Muhsin’s name was a frontrunner because of his experience here. But, anyway, that is all history and that is behind us now.

CA: Following his appointment, you sounded really confident that he would change the club’s fortunes after Fadlu’s tenure. Why do you think things didn’t go according to plan?

FK:

You know, in football players respond to you or they don’t. Yes, we had faith that he would come in and do the job and that’s why we hired him. Maybe this wasn’t meant to be for us. I can’t pinpoint the exact reasons why things didn’t go accordingly, but we just have to move on and wish him the best with his career because we have a team that needs all of our attention. It didn’t work out between us and that’s a decision we have to live with.

CA: Some critics had their reservations about his appointment in the first place.

FK:

No, I wouldn’t say it was a mistake. We had thought about his appointment thoroughly and we took a lot into consideration knowing all of these facts. Like I said, we had faith that he could come in and make a difference – unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way and time isn’t on our side now. We were going to give him the time to get everything in order, but like I said, time is something that isn’t on our side and we need to get things going as soon as possible. We just need to get back to where we rightfully belong as far as our playing style was in the previous season. That is my target for the club and our new coach Eric Tinkler knows about that as well. The (remaining) games are getting shorter

and we need to get results. We have tough games ahead, but have to steer this ship in the right path.

CA: Tell us how Tinkler’s move to the club came about and why you think he’s the right man for the job at this stage of the season.

FK: We are giving our full support to Eric and the boys. Let me tell you… when you are fighting relegation, you need someone whom the players are going to respond to and someone whom they are willing to play for. Their energy needs to be right. You are dealing with a team that is in a negative space because the results aren’t coming in and the energy that you receive is subdued and it is not positive at all. So all that we as the management hope is that we get a coach that can turn that around and knows how to relate to the players. It’s more about the mental mindsets of our players at the moment and I think Eric has the knack to do that compared to what we had in the past. All we can do is to give our support and help as much as we can to lift our club up. He is not new to challenges and this is probably one that is going to give him a bit of a headache, but he is up for it. He wouldn’t have accepted it if he wasn’t, so that just shows me that he is ready for this challenge. CA: Are you happy with the squad you have at the moment? FK: Yes, we are satisfied with the players that we have currently. There were some inclusions that were made by our previous coach and hopefully they will be able to fit into the system that Eric is going to be using. We have quality players, no doubt about that. It is just a matter of getting the players to a point where they believe in themselves again and helping them to build up their confidence, which I strongly believe the coach will be able to do in the coming weeks.

CA: Moving on, let’s talk about the lack of positive results under Fadlu.

FK:

When we looked back at the first round and analysed what had taken place, obviously the club was disappointed with the performances and that you can expect. The results that we had at that point were not what we wanted because we had plans in place that we wanted to achieve. It was a difficult situation to be in, especially coming from the previous season where the club excelled with good results, good finishing on the log table and reaching the final of the Nedbank Cup. Obviously, the expectations were much higher going into the new season.

CA: Unfortunately, reality betrayed expectation…

FK:

I think the first factor was that we had success with a very young coach in Fadlu Davids and a lot of young players came in who were gunning to shine. I also think the kind of media coverage that the team had, in light of the success that the team had, kind of brought about a bit of pressure and that could have played a role this time around. When you have a situation like that, you need to know how to deal with that kind of pressure. Everyone’s expectations of the guys were higher and, yes, that pressure came in and it took a while to sink in as to how to deal with the situation at hand, especially after all the glory. Personally, I wasn’t adding to that pressure on the guys, but I would chat with them and, of course, the coach, who was the principal of the team. I would basically meet the coach on a regular basis to try and see exactly where the issues were, (whether there were) any players that weren’t responding well, and then what we discussed in those meetings the coach would have to go and apply to his plans. But up until December, things were still not going according to plan.

CA: Do you think letting your key players go was a contributing factor in throwing your plans into disarray?

FK:

You know, that’s something that you don’t have much control over. When opportunities come and players see that there are better options out there for them, then who are we to hold them back? Yes, it is a serious con-