Coaches I’ve worked with: My teammates were fed up with me

I know a lot of you couldn’t wait for the remainder of the story about coach Phillipe Troussier. As I mentioned last week, it was owing to John “Dungi” Moeti’s passing that I couldn’t finish the story because I couldn’t not pay tribute to the fallen hero, legend, friend and former teammate and opponent. Back to the story… I was voted Man of the Match and that clearly means I was outstanding in the game. It was only after my retirement that I started to see these things differently because when they happened, they affected me in a completely different way than they do now. A number of foreign coaches at Kaizer Chiefs had a different way of getting the best out of me. I know there is someone at the club who probably whispered into their ear, “If you want to get the best out of that one, just mess up with his brains and you will see what he is capable of.” I’m saying this because this incident, looking back, the team may have used the fact that we arrived late for our lunch as a way of prompting a response from me. Like I said, I wasn’t the only one who arrived late, but as I told the story, I was the only one who had to bear the brunt. Out of four players who overslept because they were tired from all the traveling, the coach just focused on me and the other guys ‘didn’t do anything wrong’. It is so nice for me to look back at this and I hope people will read and understand what I’m saying for what it is. I’m not having a go at anyone but just marvelling at the fact that people have different ways to provoke a response. Every similar case I can think of always brought the best out of me, which means whatever the coaches did really delivered the results. Once again, back then none of this made sense, but the more I think about it now, the more I realise it was not a coincidence at all. I’m also only sharing this information to give you insight into life behind the scenes in the professional ranks, so that in case someone else out there is going through the same thing, they know how to handle it better than I did. Once again, this is not about Chiefs, the coach or anyone else for that matter, and it is also not meant to bring the club’s name into disrepute or revealing secrets – no, I’m just letting people know what happened. If you look at it and analyse the story, as I told it, you will notice that it was a way of setting fire under my feet to get me going. To me, it was a case of, “When he’s mad, the opposition suffers to the team’s benefit.”

A very similar situation happened with the late Jeff Butler – may his soul rest in peace. We were playing Bloemfontein Celtic in the semifinals in Durban. Celtic were leading 1-0 and I was playing as a right winger, got the ball and the situation didn’t allow for me to play an immediate cross to Shane McGregor or Fani Madida. Their left back had me covered, so I didn’t want to waste the cross and decided to eliminate him before crossing the ball. Fortunately, I beat him with ‘show-me-your-number’ twice, before unleashing the cross. By that time, my teammates were fed up with me because they felt I was showboating, but I couldn’t believe their reaction. I mean, what do I do when the defender has got me covered? I had to use my skill to get past him and that’s exactly what I did. So, when you have your teammates having a go at you for trying to help the team, it hits differently. This happened a few minutes before the interval. As we walked into the dressing room, it was so hot and everyone rushed for the sink to put water on themselves and take off the shirts. We waited for the coach to address us and for over five minutes, coach Jeff was on my case telling me how I should be playing for the team’s benefit rather than to the gallery. That this game isn’t about individuals but a collective. He also told me if I’m bringing Soweto tricks to the team, he was going to have a problem with me because we are now messing up with his game plan. All he wants is for people to stick to basics and do things simple. The man was shouting and screaming at me all the time. I’m sure if the supporters listened, they would have heard him from the top seats of the stadium, the way he was so mad at me. He went on and on until I felt so fed up. I stood up and went to the bathroom to change, take a shower and allow the coach to substitute me and bring in someone who would do what he wanted and play better than me. Wellington Manyathi, Ace Khuse and Marks Maponyane came pleading with me not to worry about the coach shouting at me and just focus on the game.

All of the Board of Directors were present and it took Bobby Motaung’s intervention, when he found me in the shower and told me not to do that to the team and the supporters. He told me to go back there and show the coach and everyone who I was. I could hear the referee’s whistle calling the teams back to the field and Bobby brought my kit and I was kitted and rushed back to the field. The game was just about to restart when I walked into the field and still needing to tie my boots and stuff. The supporters were so happy to see me back and they must have thought I had been substituted. This time around, I was playing from the opposite side of our bench instead of listening to the coach’s insults throughout the first half. My mission for the second half was to show the old man who I really was. Believe it or not, Celtic didn’t touch the ball for some time leading up to our equalising goal. Ten minutes into the second half, I scored the second goal and then in the last 15 minutes I scored the third and I was on fire! We beat Celtic 4-1 and I was also voted Man of the Match and was busy with post-match television interviews. Coach Jeff comes to me and says, “Sonny, this is what I want you to do! This is how I want you to play. When we get to the airport, I want you to buy me a beer from your Man of the Match award winnings”, and I thought to myself, “Look at this b***ard!” after having such a go at me and then he wants me to buy him beer from my R3000 prize money? These are the kinds of things that I reflect on and feel they were done on purpose to get me riled up for the opposition. But I thought they didn’t like me at all, only to realise that this thing of them having a go at me only happened when our backs were against the wall. It was nothing personal but their own way of getting me focused and ensuring that I destroyed the opposition. This is not to say if they didn’t do that I wouldn’t be on top of my game – no, it happened only in matches where they needed something special because it was either a tense cup or Soweto Derby game that needed to be turned on its head.