BBK Unplugged Ngcobo omission has Chiefs fans in a state of commotion

Kaizer Chiefs supporters are champing at the bit to see Njabulo Ngcobo drafted into the starting lineup of the team.

In fact they are rowdy about the two Ngcobos, the other being Nkosingiphile, the nippy midfielder who has had a famine of game time under the new regime of Stuart Baxter.

Screams of discontent from the rooftops are mainly about Ngcobo the defender.

The 28-year-old centreback switched sides to Chiefs as one of the new seven signings on the back of a great season for Swallows FC.

Read great to mean a new addition who arrived at Naturena Village with his reputation enhanced by the crown of DStv Premiership defender of the 2020-21 season.

The recognition is a great return for a rookie who turned out in 29 matches out of the 30 match league marathon in his maiden campaign.

His association with Amakhosi got the gold and black faithful spinning on their heads in excitement.

They had been complaining to no end about the frailties of the longserving central defensive pairing of Mulamowandou Mathoho and Daniel Cardoso.

No one is asking for an automatic passport for Ngcobo to be handed a starting berth on a silver platter to depose either one of the two.

One senses that the angst and morose state of some among the fan base is fuelled by a belief that Mathoho and Cardoso’s best years — the former joined Chiefs in 2012 and the latter in 2015 — appear to be behind them.

It is crystal clear that the sentiment shared on the stands is that fine form has avoided them like a plague, leaving the duo far removed from being referred to as the epitome of rock solid.

Questions on Ngcobo’s continued non-selection will continue to cause commotion because there is a great expectation that he could be part of the solution to mollify a rearguard that has perpetually been playing hide and seek with dependability.

There is no guarantee that Ngcobo’s heroics of his debut top-flight season will see him hit the ground running when he is finally drafted into the team.

A case in point is fellow new signing Austin Dube, who did not cover himself in glory when he debuted in the 2-0 defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns last Sunday.

It was a baptism of hellish fire for the Bafana defender and an experience from which he will learn when review videos of his culpability in goals conceded at Loftus come out.

Baxter’s concern about not drafting the Bafana Bafana pair into the heart of the Chiefs defence is not finding favour with the disgruntled lot.

And the coach is a tad disjointed in defence of his decision.

He argues that he never saw Ngcobo play last season.

This assertion would be funny if it were not aligned with absurdism.

It is intentionally ridiculous because, truth be told, of the new Chiefs players, it is only Cole Alexander that Baxter can vouch to have seen in action because they were together in the employ of Odisha FC in the Indian Super League.

The mere fact that he chose to play Dube, formerly with Richards Bay in the second tier Glad Africa Championship, in a match against the reigning champions hits his nonargument for a six and leaves his reasoning with more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

For Pete’s sake, where did the coach see Kgaogelo Sekgota, Phathutshedzo Nange, Sibusiso Mabiliso play last season. I’ll tell you where, nowhere.

He only met them when he went through the gates at Naturena Village.

Like Ngcobo, they have had to make themselves known to him and him to them.

Moreover, his assistant coaches Arthur Zwane and Dillon Sheppard saw a lot of Ngcobo from last season and can give a full appraisal of his abilities that won him the accolade of best defender.

He can glean info from these members of the technical team and they can rattle out a mountain of information about the new players he doesn’t know as well as he does Bernard Parker, Itumeleng Khune, Lebogang Manyama, Cardoso,

Mathoho.

Chiefs are in a rebuilding phase. As Baxter wades his way in his second tenure, it would do him a world of good to embrace the fact that the longsuffering supporters will judge him on the present and not the past.

Nothing but a win against Royal AM (the match was yesterday at the FNB Stadium) will ameliorate those who are champing at the bit to see Ngcobo in action. An unfavourable result will further fuel the fire.

Sentiment is that fine form has avoided them like the plague