If it doesn’t inspire you…
On the Nedbank Cup final between Chippa and TTM
This is football. Chippa United are in a cup final, but they are fighting relegation – it’s a funny game. I think that is where the management comes in, where if you look at the season, you look at the games and the possible points and you calculate from the beginning of the season and see how many points are needed to avoid relegation. Maybe the roles would be reversed where they wouldn’t be fighting relegation but they would be out of the cup final. Anyways, it’s a bittersweet story for them. I think they have the upper hand over Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila FC and, with the experience that Chippa United have in the PSL and as a club, I think they will win the cup and I think it will be tight as to whether they will survive relegation, which will go down to the last day and determine who is going down or if they will stay up in the PSL (DStv Premiership).
On Am aZulu’s rich vein of form this season
Ja, look, the first thing that they did right this season was getting Benni (McCarthy) there. Benni on his own is an influence on any young soccer player. Then you have his technical team that is strong as well, where you have (Siyabonga)
Nomvethe and Moeneeb (Josephs) there. And then you have a guy that knows football very well in Vasili Manousakis, who is Benni’s assistant coach. So, the technical team alone brings a lot of influence and a lot of positive energy. Don’t forget that if it wasn’t for their new owner, Sandile Zungu, AmaZulu FC wouldn’t be where they are at the moment, so I think with them refreshing the whole club this season, that is something AmaZulu needed years ago. Sandile Zungu is a guy that is behind his team, but he is a powerful man who obviously wants the best for the club and he has gone out and got the best in terms of his technical team. You also have to mention the players. I think Benni knows exactly what he wants, he uses the players properly and to the best of their ability, whether they are young or experienced, and he’s just got them to believe in themselves. And when you play for Benni, someone that we all looked up to growing up, whose record speaks for himself and who has been a favourite in South Africa for many years, that is an inspiration on its own and if it doesn’t inspire you, then nothing else would. I know about working with former players while I was at Ajax Amsterdam… I mean, we had Patrick Kluivert, Denis Bergkamp. These guys took the strikers, and you would listen and absorb every little piece of information that they gave you and you would just try to replicate whatever they had done and whatever they instructed you to do. So, if you don’t feel the presence and you don’t see it as extra motivation, then I don’t know what would motivate these players. To be honest with you, a lot of people have started supporting AmaZulu and if you are a Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates or Mamelodi Sundowns fan, your second team would be AmaZulu. Nowadays, it looks like some of the faithful supporters from some clubs … I won’t mention names … have turned to AmaZulu and it looks like they just love the football that AmaZulu play.
On who will win the DStv Prem iership title
AmaZulu’s chances of winning the league are certainly there, although it’s a touch-and-go situation that they have to take game by game because Sundowns do have a few games in hand. But anything can happen. I think it will be a real fairy tale if AmaZulu do win the league, but it’s not going to come easy. There are a lot of tough games to come. For Sundowns as well, I think it’s going to be a tight one that goes down to the wire and I would like to see the last game determining the champions. Sundowns has a powerful team. I think, realistically, if you put it on paper, they have three teams that they can form from their one squad that can compete in the PSL. For me, they have depth in the squad, they have done well and I think with the three coaches, it is a recipe for success. They are all different. I’ve worked with two of them in Manqoba Mngqithi and Steve Komphela. I haven’t worked with Rhulani Mokwena, but they all seem to think on the same page. They all have their heads together and, as a team, you can see the work of Sundowns’ technical team just by the way they’ve been winning games and shuffling their players around, using them for different competitions.
On local coaches
I mean, that’s also down to local coaches if you include Golden Arrows as well, who have Mandla Ncikazi. This is ultimately what you want to see, our local coaches taking and winning leagues and being in the top three all the time, instead of us going out and looking for foreign coaches when we have capable coaches in South Africa. It just shows now that the league is wide open for the three teams. But Sundowns are the team with the best squad, and I think that they’ve got it right and every player that is currently there is a player who deserves to be playing in the team. It’s a bit of a change where we usually see the likes of Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs competing for the league, but you are only as good as your last season, so we cannot go and say that Chiefs and Pirates should be on top. Yes, there is an expectation because they are huge clubs, but every club goes through a dip. If you look at Manchester United, they’ve gone through the same thing where they have changed coaches many times, but we have seen the so-called smaller teams put their hands up and show that they can compete with the big boys.