They don’t want to work hard

Being tasked with leading Golden Arrows out of a potential sticky situation at the tail-end of last season didn’t scare Vusumuzi Vilakazi and Mabhudi Khenyeza one bit. Mission accomplished! Chairlady Mato Madlala continued showing faith in the, in coaching terms, young duo, who have done exceptionally well thus far after weathering a storm of negative results in the first few games of the season. These are two of the club’s former players who understand the Abafana Bes’thende ethos, culture, playing style better than most, and it’s evident in the way the team is knocking the ball around. But in this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Masebe Qina, Vilakazi credits the improvement to the team’s growing confidence levels. Talking of confidence, Kanu, as the exstriker is affectionately known, also reveals the conversation he had with Pule Mmodi, who seemingly started the campaign quite low on morale after his failed move to Kaizer Chiefs.

Masebe Qina: Coach Kanu, how’s the journey as Golden Arrows co-coach been? Vusumuzi Vilakazi: Well, everything has been fine, although it is not as smooth as abantu becabanga (people think). It’s a very huge responsibility that we’ve been given, so as much as I might be happy with it and enjoying the journey, it also has the challenges that come with it. I’ll need to be strong and man up in some instances and understand that things can never be the same all the time, and sometimes kuzoba mnandi (it will be all nice) and sometimes it won’t. I must be mentally prepared to face all the challenges that come with the job. For example, at the beginning of the season, things didn’t go as planned for the team, after we lost the first two games despite havi ng done well in the last six games of the previous season. It’s a journey that’s going to have its ups and down s in terms of happiness.

MQ: What are some of those challenges? VV: The major ch allenge is the results. As much as we might have hopes to do well as coaches, we won’t win everything. There are games that we’ll win, there are games that are going to be lost and we’ll draw other games. That’s football. So, the challenge is that when things are not going well for the team, panic buttons will be pressed either by you as a person (coach) or even the supporters or anyone following the club. But I think one thing that I must always commend, irrespective of all the challenges, is having the back-up and full support from the chairlady (Mato Madlala), who’s always ensuring that she supports us in everything we do. That’s what made things easier and gave us co mfort. But we are not here to be in a comfort zone, we are here to make an impact as young coaches in the set-up. We want to win things and make a name for ourselves. It’s going to be a journey with ups and downs.

MQ: Your co-coach, Mabhudi Khenyeza, is also an Abafana Bes’thende legend…

VV: I’ve spoken to different people about this new trend of co-coaching and explained to them how I see it. If you remember well, Masebe, this co-coaching thing started with (Mamelodi) Sundowns. Having said that, I still felt that theirs was not a true reflection of cothink coaching, and I the true reflection of co-coaching is this one of ours at Golden Arrows and I will explain why I say so. Here I’m talking about someone I played with and also someone I shared an apartment with. I am talking about umuntu (someone) I coached. When we were in the NFD (National First Division, now called Motsepe Foundation Championship), I was an assistant to Shaun Bartlett and the late Bheka Phakathi, and Mabhudi was playing. That’s why I say it’s the true reflection of co-coaching because the understanding between the two of us goes beyond just planning for a game. When I joined Arrows, I think Mabhudi had not been with the club for

long and I know all about his struggles and he also knows about my struggles. We are where we are today, but our understanding of each other goes way beyond just being cocoaches and that’s why I say ours is the true reflection of cocoaching. You must also know that we understand the culture of the club very well and what it is that is required as we’ve been in the set-up and the structure for too long.

MQ: What’s your playing philosophy?

VV: Ngiyacabanga ukuthi (I think that) there is nothing we want to change and maybe there might be something that we may want to add to the Arrows style as people who understand how the team should play. Obviously, the performances have been fluctuating in recent times because of the different coaches that have been part of the set-up, but we are trying to go back to the identity of Arrows, the way we’ve always known the team to play from when we were also playing. I’m saying this aware of the fact that football is evolving and maybe back in the day we relied too much on talent and nowadays it isn’t only about the talent, but players need to also work very hard. Football has changed. For example, nowadays there aren’t any playmakers… we last had one with Doctor Khumalo. Nowadays, one cannot only be a playmaker and then relax when he doesn’t have the ball because maybe he is not capable of defending. We are trying to strike the balance in terms of making sure that the players we produce in the two aspects of the game – defence and offensive play – can master that way of playing. It is not easy, it’s very difficult because South African footballers don’t want to work hard, irrespective of how talented they are. We also don’t want the current generation of players to be as limited as we were, we want them to go way beyond where we reached. We want them to improve from wherever we had shortfalls so that they can excel. So, that’s the philosophy that we have, to say let’s focus on football principles and once we do that, we can then be ready to compete for championships and anything. We want our players to grow as footballers.

MQ: How were you received by the players when you were first appointed as interim coaches in April, with the team not doing well at the time?

VV:

Okokuqala nje (First and foremost), we were happy about the initiative that was taken by the chairlady to elevate us. We had been in the set-up for long, and that’s an honest fact. In football, what is needed the most is the understanding between the coach and the boss because if the understanding is common, that makes for a good working relationship going forward. But if there are differences in opinions and ways of doing things, the relationship doesn’t last. With her elevating us, we appreciated the opportunity given and we knew that we would use it efficiently. We knew that the response from the players wouldn’t be difficult because when you look at our current squad, about 90% of the players come from the (DStv) Diski (Challenge team) and I coached them. I won two championships with the very same players that are now with the first team, so it wasn’t a challenge because they are my boys and I know them. They know what I want and I know their shortfalls and their strong points. That made things easy for us and we didn’t have a challenge in how we were received by the players.

“I still felt that theirs was not a true reflection of co-coaching.”

“I don’t remember even one of the previous coaches having a mandate.”

MQ: After a slow start to the season, you guys have picked up form and are in the top half of the log. What led to the turnaround?

VV: We knew from the beginning of the season already that the results from the first four games were not a true reflection of the performances of our team. We had had a great pre-season and I don’t even remember us losing any of our friendly matches. It was just a matter of us having to turn the corner and we needed to have the confidence because without the confidence in football, you can’t do anything. Losing against Richards Bay FC, the first game we played, we were terrible. And I think that maybe psychologically we thought that because they were a new team in the league, umakoti (the bride), it was going

to be easy. It was a great lesson for us. But the game against Sekhukhune (United), which we lost 1-0 away, we didn’t deserve to lose. We had the opportunities to score and win the game, especially in the second half… four or five goalscoring opportunities. But it goes back to my point about the confidence. The confidence was not there and we struggled to convert our chances into goals. At least a draw would have been a better result for us, but that is now water under the bridge. We just needed one win to turn the corner and it happened against AmaZulu FC and we knew that ziyakhala ke manje, washo u (it’s happening now, to borrow from) Ngizwe Mchunu.

MQ: Pule Mmodi scored in four games in succession and you mentioned earlier in the season that it was difficult to deal with him psychologically after he failed to make the move he was looking for in the transfer window.

VV: Well, even now I still don’t think it’s his best form. What I can say about his situation is that I did mention when the season started that people need to understand that we are dealing with human beings here. So, when someone has that hope of going somewhere, only for something to disturb that from happening, surely that is going to affect him as a human being. That is why he started very slow and he was down. But what I said to Pule from the first training session we had on our return, because I knew what was happening in his mind already then, was for him to perform. But Pule knows very well that the team doesn’t have a problem with him wanting to go somewhere, but Pule has a contract with us and if he wants to go, whoever that wants him must buy him. We are willing as a club to let him go wherever he is wanted, we will release him, but obviously there will have to be talks with that team. That didn’t happen, although there were talks that (Kaizer) Chiefs wanted Pule and this and that, but there was no offer that was made to Golden Arrows. My words of encouragement to Pule were, “Pule, now that the move didn’t happen, it isn’t the end of the world, you can still make the move at a later stage.” I told him that it can only happen when he makes sure that he is in the right

state of mind. By that, I meant that he would need to perform in order to get a chance for another move in his career. Crying over what didn’t happen won’t help and what will help is for him to perform so that whoever wants him can come forward because the team is willing to allow him to move on. I’m happy that he is a grown-up and a very respectful boy and he took my advice. He was the first one to admit that he needed to work very hard for things to happen for him. Slowly but surely, he is getting there with his performances, and the hard work and willingness to improve is there to see and he’s been scoring goals. The goals are bringing back his confidence and we are still to see the best of Pule, who will be scoring braces and hattricks because he is a quality player. The possibility of him leaving? That is so much possible, and that dream can still happen for him.

MQ: Before we let you go, what’s the mandate?

VV: There is no mandate, outhi yam (my friend). The only thing that is there is full support from the chairlady in terms of making sure that we can achieve what we want to achieve for the club. I’ve been with Golden Arrows for years, it’s my 19th year now, and I don’t remember even one of the previous coaches having a mandate given to him by the club. People have always been working freely to just make sure that the team is happy and in a position of getting the results. So, there’s no specific mandate, but we as the technical team and players have given ourselves a mandate that we want to achieve more.

MQ: Coach VV, mandate or no mandate, may it be a fruitful season for your exciting team.

VV: Siyabonga (Thanks), outhi yam.