I’d love to get the full story

Masebe Qina: Festival, how’s the Christmas break been for you and how does it feel to be back at it with Swallows FC?

Thabo Matlaba: Thanks for asking me about the Christmas break because it was all good and everything went well as planned and I had a wonderful time. As you know, Christmas is a time for families to be together and I was at home with siblings, cousins and all the relatives that were there and we all had a good time. It was really nice and I had a good time up until it was time to go back to work, and I came back to begin training with Swallows.

MQ: Besides being back in training, you’re also part of the DStv Compact Cup.

TM:

The thing about me is that during the off-season or Christmas break, I don’t just sit and do nothing. I take a mini-break of four or five days just to relax a little bit, then I start training on my own throughout the break. It is very important for me to keep fit and that is why when I returned to training with the team, everything was fine and I didn’t have any complications, and I got ready for the DStv Compact Cup. To be honest, the DStv Compact Cup is all about the fans that have selected us to be part of the competition. It isn’t about us but the fans that have selected us and we had to make sure that we make them happy. Ours as players is to make sure that we entertain the fans. Everyone wanted to see how all the players from different clubs would perform when mixed together as part of each of the four teams. We had to show our appreciation to the fans and to send a message to them that they didn’t make any mistake by selecting us to be part of the competition.

MQ: Also selected as part of the Warriors FC squad are your former Orlando Pirates teammates Happy Jele and Thembinkosi Lorch.

TM:

I was so happy to see Jele and Lorch when I arrived in Durban. I mean, those are the guys I played with and kudala sayilwela leya (we had been fighting for that) team (Pirates) ngesikhathi ngisese laphaya (when I was still there) and we used to produce good performances. I felt like I was still playing for Pirates again by just being in the same space as those guys and it felt so good.

MQ: Let’s talk about Swallows, who’re languishing in 14th place on the DStv Premiership log. What’s happening?

TM: To be honest, it hurts me to see the team down there on the log, but I have always been encouraging the guys that we should not press the panic button just yet as we were still in the first round of the season. I told the guys that we can still change things around in the second round, although it hurts to be down there and knowing that we haven’t performed as expected so far in our games this season. We still have a chance to change things around in the second round and lead the team to the Top Eight and it is up to us to make sure that we succeed in doing so.

MQ: Paint us a picture of working with coach Brandon Truter, who’s since parted ways with the club.

TM: It was a good experience to work with coach Truter as he’s a very good guy and a very good coach. He’s a good motivator who always made sure that we had everything that we needed to help us in training, and we enjoyed his training sessions. Unfortunately, we didn’t have that luck to win games under him and some of us, including myself, didn’t perform the way we wanted because when you are a player, you must be consistent with your performances. We’d perform in one game and in the next game we wouldn’t do well, and that was not enough for the coach and players. As a team, you

rectify those things

Like any member of the current Swallows FC squad, Thabo Matlaba is disappointed at how the team’s DStv Premiership campaign has gone so far, though the experienced player is confident that things could still change for the better in the remaining matches of the season. The Dube Birds went to the break in 14th place on the standings after winning only two matches from 18 and the Tembisa-born man by improving your performances and that’s what we have been working on in order to change what’s not been working for us to improve our results in the second round. But working with him was a wonderful experience.

MQ: Why do you think the team struggled under his guidance?

TM:

It is always about our performances as individual players and that’s something we should be honest about as players. If we are not performing and not scoring goals, there’s no way that we’ll get the results and that’s the reality of football. We did not get the desired results because we’ve not been scoring goals and we drew and lost games instead of winning them. But the coach did try by all means to work on our combinations in training in an attempt to change the situation and for us to win games, but unfortunately, blames their disappointing season on their failure to score enough goals, while they have also been conceding more than they did in 2020/21. Speaking to Soccer Laduma’s Masebe Qina, Matlaba opens up about the team’s challenges. “Festival”, as the 34-year-old fullback is known in football circles, talks openly on why he thinks things didn’t work out well for the team under coach Brandon Truter. He also has a message for veteran defender Vuyo Mere after his unceremonious exit from the Birds. it wasn’t to be. For what happened, you can blame the players or the coach, but it’s one of those things that we all learn from and we move forward.

MQ: What was your reaction to his departure? TM:

We were all sad to see the coach leave. Seeing him leave and knowing that it was because of the performances of the team, it was not nice. Coaches are always the first ones to lose their jobs when the results are not coming for a team and I’ve always felt that that’s sad. We tried to help the coach by trying to win games, but we could not do that because, like I said, we were not scoring goals and one other thing is that we’ve been conceding a lot of goals this season as compared to last season. We were trying and it was painful to see him leave because he’s a good coach, but unfortunately, football is all about business and if the results are not coming, someone has to leave.

MQ: In came coach Dylan Kerr… TM: We’ve been getting the results here and there under the new coach and he’s a very good coach and a humble guy. All that he did on his arrival at the club was to motivate us and he’s confident about our chances of getting to the Top Eight. The coach said he wasn’t going to change a lot of things and all that he said we should do was to change our mindset and work harder. He motivated us by saying that we are one of the best teams in the PSL and, as a result, we have no reason for not getting to the Top Eight. Even on our return from the break, the coach has been working hard with us to make sure that we win our first game as part of our plan to move closer to the Top Eight.

MQ: How supportive has chairman David Mogashoa and the rest of the management been to the team under these trying times?

TM:

To be honest, the support has been fantastic. The support has always been there even when coach Truter was still here and they gave him a lot of support in trying to help him to turn things around. The coach was given a chance, but we could not help him by getting the results on the field. The chairman and the president (Panyaza Lesufi) are giving us their full support and they are confident in us that we’ll change things around for the team in the second round. The aim for all of us is to finish in the Top Eight and we are all confident of succeeding in achieving that.

MQ: How did it feel seeing your former teammate and one of the legends of the game, Vuyo Mere, leave the club recently?

TM:

Vuyo is one of the experienced guys who has been in the game for a very long time and is a good leader. I grew up watching the likes of Vuyo Mere playing football and he’s one of the disciplined guys I know. Seeing him leave was sad and we didn’t know why because the way I understand it, it was an internal matter between him and the club. What I know is that he got suspended and he never came back, and we didn’t know what was happening. Even now, we don’t know what happened and I would love to get the full story one day as to why Vuyo left. Maybe one day Vuyo will tell the story of why he left through the media or somewhere, but as players, he didn’t tell us anything. It was sad to see him leave because he was playing a big role in the progress of this team even if he is 37 years old. He was performing in every game and was always disciplined. Vuyo gave his all for the team and that’s why I say it was sad to see

him leave.

MQ: You should get yourself a copy of last week’s Soccer Laduma as Mere did an interview with us and discussed all things pertaining to his departure. Do you have any message for him as he’s getting ready for his new journey with TS Galaxy? TM: Vuyo, my brother, I know you are a fighter and a survivor and you’re a good leader. My message to you is that you must keep on pushing and keep on working hard. Masebe, what I can tell you about Vuyo is that he is a very good guy and I’ve learned a lot from him because he’s been long enough in this game and knows about it all. I’m appealing to him to keep on playing the big role of encouraging the younger ones at TS Galaxy and showing them the way like he did here at Swallows. Lastly, I’d like to speak to Swallows supporters, and I promise them that in the last 12 games, we are going to make sure that we do well so that we can finish in the Top Eight at least, like we did last season. That’s my promise to them and we are working hard to make sure that we achieve that target, which we have agreed on with our coach.