Solinas finally shown the door
CLUB’S PATIENCE RUNS OUT; MABEDI ALSO GONE
Kaizer Chiefs fired their coach Giovanni Solinas and his assistant Patrick Mabedi yesterday afternoon, ending weeks of speculation regarding the Italian’s stay at the Naturena club.
Amakhosi confirmed the latest news through their official Twitter page late yesterday.
“Kaizer Chiefs and coach Giovanni Solinas have mutually agreed to an amicable termination of his contract with immediate effect,” the club said. Solinas’ future has been a subject of speculation for the past few weeks after the Chiefs supporters voiced their dissatisfaction with how things were going since he took over in August.
The club however hadn’t clarified what will happen with the team in the interim as they also released Solinas’ assistant Patrick Mabedi who had been with the club for close to two years, having been brought in as former coach Steve Komphela’s second-in-command.
“Assistant coach Patrick Mabedi’s contract has also been terminated. We would like to express our gratitude to him for all the efforts during his time at Kaizer Chiefs and wish him well (in his future),” read the tweet.
It was unclear why Mabedi had also been fired but speculation was rife that the new coach had asked to come with his own support staff and the former Chiefs defender had to be released.
A number of coaches have been rumoured to be on the club’s wanted list to replace Solinas including Mamelodi Sundowns assistant coach Manqoba Mngqithi but Frenchman Patrice Cateron looks to be the favourite. Cateron was the preferred choice for Chiefs but they lost out on him when Egyptian giants Al-Ahly poached him with a big money offer. He has since been released by them.
In 22 games – including cup and league games – under Solinas, Chiefs won eight, drew seven and lost seven. But what soured Solinas’ stay at Naturena was his inability to avoid consecutive defeats to their arch-rivals Orlando Pirates who won 2-1 in a league and cup game in late October and early November.
Solinas was a surprise hiring by Chiefs and Kaizer Motaung admitted in an interview earlier this season that the Italian had not been their preferred candidate but was the only one available to start immediately when they were conducting interviews.
The Saturday Citizen understands that Chiefs will also conduct a massive overhaul of the playing staff in January when the transfer window opens and new players will be brought in.