BBK Unplugged
Orlando Pirates run the risk of being renamed Orlando Perpetual
● Step back for a second and look at the numbers.
Matches played: 17 in the Absa Premiership and one in the Nedbank
Cup. Matches won: 10. Matches drawn: 5. Defeats suffered: 3. Goals scored: 25. Goals conceded: 15. Coach: Josef Zinnbauer. Club: Orlando Pirates.
Not too shabby from the son of
Bavarian town Schwandorf won’t you say, especially considering that Zinnbauer started off on the back foot.
The German arrived at Pirates 13 matches into the season, four months into the 2019-20 season. When he got aboard the Sea Robbers’ ship, Pirates were stationed sixth on the log standings with 17 points collected from 13 games.
The spirited start of 23 points from a possible 30 in the first 10 games of his reign as Bucs boss was second only to that of Roy Barreto in the Premier Soccer League era.
A run of a half-a-dozen victories saw the collective chest of the Ghost swell. It whetted their appetite as they saw it as gigantic steps towards the gates of league glory. The bubble was burst by that defeat to Kaizer Chiefs.
Then came Covid-19, the crazy disease which Ben Motshwari was the first professional footballer to contract. Thankfully, he recovered fully.
But things weren’t quite the same with Bucs in the bio-bubble.
“It is not easy to work with the team in the bubble, it’s not an excuse, but it’s so. The recovery days are important for the players and then you have to be careful with the work. The muscles are not easy when you have tough sessions.
“But we get in now. We work on the turnaround and we all do our best. I cannot fault the players for a bad game and not working, no. At the moment we don't have the luck and feeling for the final pass or shot. But this is the situation now for us. We have to work with this problem and get through this.”
Work on it they did. Gabadinho
Mhango finished joint top scorer with Peter Shalulile for the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot award. Bucs finished third, booking themselves a berth in the Caf
The start of 23 points from 30 was second only to Roy Barreto’s in the Premier Soccer League era
Confederation Cup.
Crucially, though, the trophy famine continues. “Josef has done a good job there, they’re coming around, playing good and entertaining football,” cooed then Bidvest Wits coach Gavin Hunt.
Therein lies the rub. Pirates have been perpetually coming around.
They run the risk of being renamed Orlando Perpetual.
The 3-3 Nedbank Cup last-32 game, which Wits went on to win on penalties, brought the best and worst of Pirates in one match. On their day, they are scintillating going forward. But the sickness of switching off at crucial stages, coupled with the failure to protect a lead and closing off the game continues to undermine their efforts.
That is paralysing their progress. Certainly the high turnover of coaches too. A club of this magnitude should have stability in that crucial department.
Management can point to situations spiralling out of control. They can say they were blindsided by Milutin “Micho” Sredejovic suddenly taking his suitcase to head back to Serbia. Why? To visit his gravely sick mother. It was all a ruse, an elaborate sob story by the man who had made Bucs bridesmaids for two successive season.
His pregnant elephant declarations twice delivered stillborn dreams of league titles. In his third season, he dumped Pirates through a shock resignation. Sick mother? What sick mother? It subsequently emerged that the bugger relinquished his position because he was lured by the dollars of Egyptian giants Zamalek. The tabloids also told a tale of an alleged sexual assault of a cleaner at a Jozi hotel in August 2019.
But the maverick club president of the White Knights, Mortada Mansour, dumped Micho after only 137 days in charge of the team. You know those stickers on taxis: what goes around comes around?
Twitter: @bbkunplugged99