I’m yet to find the right place
Tshepang Mailwane: Mayanga, you were recently dismissed at TS Sporting, not long after your appointment in January this year. From your experience so far, do you feel coaches are given enough time in South Africa to implement their ideas and to build teams?
Benson Mhlongo:
For me, it’s part of the game. If you don’t get results, they have to change so that they can get results. The game is all about relegation and promotion and winning trophies. If you can’t give them results and they want to change, it’s up to them. I believe the person who is in charge of a team has a right to ask questions whenever he wants because that’s his investment. If the club gets relegated, he is the one who loses everything. Our job is to implement what he wants. If you can’t implement what he wants, he has to find someone else to implement what he wants. Mine is to keep on coaching and to find a place where they see things the way you do. Like Pitso (Mosimane)… Pitso finally got to a place where they saw things the same way. (Mamelodi) Sundowns stopped buying as many players as they used to and they focused on the same squad for a few years, and it paid off. If the chairman of a team wants results, we cannot say he is wrong. That’s what he wants and that’s why he bought the team. If he is not satisfied about what is happening, there is nothing we can do. All I am saying is that these things do happen, but we have to persevere. One day you will find a comfortable home where your thoughts and the chairman’s thoughts will be the same.
TM: When you started coaching, did you go in with the mentality of knowing that chairmen have the right to question and make changes when they feel necessary?
BM:
It’s not about knowing. It’s logic. It’s like a newsroom. They will direct what news they want to have on the front page. That’s the direction they want to take. So, when you join that company, you have to understand the direction that they want to take. Football, though, is different. The scouting department is the one which directs what type of players must be brought into the team to play a certain style. I know that because I spent time with Wits. Wits was a team that played with crosses. That’s where you found that Manqoba Ngwenya struggled at first, until it changed and the likes of Gert Schalkwyk, Reagan Noble and I were introduced – ball players. That’s when everybody was able to see Ngwenya’s skill because he was surrounded by players who could play the ball. If that did not happen, “Shakes” was going to be swallowed by the system. When you coach and find different personnel in certain positions, it becomes disjointed and you don’t get enough time to explain that because you are now in a position where you need to get results. While you are trying to make players understand, the results are not coming and then it makes it difficult for the owner to be patient because the team is going down. That’s why I’m not bitter (about leaving Sporting). Sometimes people don’t understand that personnel make it harder for coaches to implement what they want.
TM: Interesting… Go on.
BM: At Stellenbosch FC, the coach (Steve Barker) has been with those players from the First Division up to the topflight. He is the one who assembled the team. So, sometimes coaches are lucky to find an owner who will give you the privilege of assembling your own team. But because of the other elements of money being involved, where coaches sign players because they also want to get money, it does not make it easy for chairmen to trust. Are you assembling a team to win or are you making money? So, the system is corrupt…
About three months after his return to TS Sporting was confirmed, Benson Mhlongo parted ways with the GladAfrica C hampionship side for a second time. It was the second job he vacated this season, after he was dismissed at Black Leopards as assistant coach to Floyd Mogale towards the end of 2021, a reminder to the former Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns star that coaching is not for the faint-hearted. Now, as he waits for the next job in what has been a bumpy journey, the 41-year-old will have a chance to reflect and make a decision on what type of working environments he wants to be in going forward. In this interview, Mhlongo tells Soccer Laduma’s Tshepang Mailwane that he is not bitter about being dismissed at Sporting, why chairmen have the right to question coaches and reveals how he once
played Y usuf Maart against Bucs’ wishes!
TM: Does that really happen in football, where coaches make money from signing players?
BM:
Yes, it does. You will find that certain players always travel with certain coaches. For me, when you join a team, you must look at the material there first and see what you have and if you can make it work. Only then you beef up where it’s needed. But if I have five players I travel with, it means every time I go to a club, whoever plays in that position will be out of the equation, even if he is a good player. Before, they used to scout players according to their ability. It’s important to start with a team from scratch. For me, it’s difficult not to teach players the right things to do in their positions. Why? Because football has taken me around the world and I want to impart the same knowledge to players I coach. Results-based (football) is difficult for me. For me, it starts with a player playing football in a proper way and then results will come on their own. I started with TS Sporting (first stint in 2018), I had my own pre-season and we were number one for three months, until they brought a coach (Sammy Troughton as technical director) who believed in running football and long balls. That’s when I asked to be excused because I saw myself as an obstacle. I excused myself so that the new coach could implement what he wanted. They moved to number 13. I’ve been playing football of combinations all my life. I believe and understand combination football. So, whoever employs me must understand what type of football I’m going to play. I won’t say it was difficult for me to coach, but I’m yet to find the right place to implement and give my experience to the upcoming generation. I’m hopeful that one day I will find a place where I can implement all my experience to the generation coming up.
TM: Do you think there are places like that
for you in South African football, seeing club bosses aren’t always patient? BM:
I can put the blame on our past generation and the coaches who developed us because they are the ones who are closer to the chairmen. You find that most of the chairmen are still new to football. The responsibility lies with the coaches who developed us, to sit down with the chairmen and try to explain how this game is being played and where the game is at right now because it keeps evolving. For example, we are now in an era where things are done digitally. Rest is more important than training because of climate change. Recovery is more important. So, when you go to the boardroom to compensate for the time you don’t spend on the field, they feel that you are talking more and giving more rest to players. It’s a barrier because football has evolved. Things are evolving and we don’t want to adjust. I think that’s where we find it difficult. For example, I can’t expect my child to walk to the shop to get something. They now order from the phone. Times are changing and we have to adjust and make use of what’s around us and still implement and teach the right way and get positive results.
TM: What would you make of your coaching career up to now?
BM:
Results speak for themselves. I remember when I was at (Orlando) Pirates, we were going to play against (Kaizer) Chiefs and there were games that Yusuf Maart was not playing. I was in and out of the Diski Challenge because I was also assistant coach in the first team. When I went back to the Diski Challenge, I found that Yusuf Maart was no longer playing. When I asked why he was not playing, they said he was misbehaving and whatnot. The boy’s form was down, and he told me his confidence was down because he was in and out of the team. So, for the Chiefs game, they told me not to play Yusuf because he was out of form. I went to Yusuf and told him to be ready and I said it does not matter if he plays well or not, I just wanted to see the Yusuf I knew who could pass the ball and strike it. In the second half, I put him on. That young man came back to me and said,“Coach, thank you for believing in me and I promise I will never doubt myself.”He is the captain of Sekhukhune (United) today and he is in the national team. Most of the boys I coached are in the GladAfrica Championship and they are doing well. During 2015, when I was at Polokwane City, I used to travel to Mbombela United. After training, I would travel to Mbombela to coach.
TM: Every day? BM:
Every day. I am not joking! If you can get hold of Siyethemba (Sithebe), the one who is going to Chiefs, he will tell you. When I see players progressing, and I see Siyethemba not spending more than four touches on the ball, it shows that the little I have imparted is working.
TM: So, you’d say you are happy with how it’s gone? BM:
I think everyone I have worked under, or worked with, can explain it better. Because when I die, I don’t need anyone to talk at my funeral. I have put that in my Will. I don’t want anyone to talk.
TM: Really? Why? BM:
What is it you want to say at my funeral that you can’t say when I am still alive?
TM: Well, true. So, what’s next for Benson? BM:
I am waiting to find a home that will embrace me and give me an opportunity to impart my knowledge to the next generation. To me, it does not matter when I join a team. As long as I have coachable players, then I can work. If you don’t have coachable players, it becomes difficult. I will keep on pushing until it works out. The one thing I must leave you with is my quote. My quote is: ‘Know where you are, know where you are going, then you will know what to do.’
“When I die, I don’t need anyone to talk at my funeral. I have put that in my Will.”