Players’ welfare key – Comitis
City boss quick to reward his squad
You are likely to hear that Cape Town City boss John Comitis’s gamble on young coach Benni McCarthy has paid off following their MTN8 triumph against SuperSport United at the Moses Mabhida Stadium at the weekend.
But there’s certainly more to the club than just appointing a coach and Comitis should be commended for looking after the players.
Comitis has always maintained that the players’ welfare is of utmost importance and, true to his word, he’s all along been rewarding the best performers with longterm contracts.
Defender Taariq Fielies, who missed the final because of suspension, penned a fiveyear deal recently, so did leftback Edmilson Dove and midfielder Mpho Matsi, who both put pen to paper on fouryear deals at the Citizens.
Comitis admitted McCarthy, who is 40 and in charge for the first time as head coach, was a big gamble when he joined last year, but the chairman did not put a blind eye on the happenings behind the scenes.
“Listen, we have a lot of talent in this country and people have to give them a chance,” said Comitis. “We keep on bringing coaches from outside the country and you have this merry-go-round with coaches going from one club to the next. It’s a breath of fresh air with Benni.
“Yes, we did take a gamble, but it was a very calculated one. We had a great support system around him, so there was every reason for him to succeed. Look, we also plan our signings. We are not scared to spend money, but we spend correctly I hope, and obviously we make mistakes from time to time.
“But the most important thing is to have a balanced team. It’s not always about having a lot of good players, but [more] about having the right players in the right positions,” Comitis continued.