I will come out of this stronger, says Hunt
KAIZER Chiefs coach Gavin Hunt has admitted that this season has been “the most testing for me personally”.
The vastly experienced Hunt has endured a roller-coaster first season at Chiefs, with Amakhosi languishing in 10th place in the DStv Premiership.
They are, however, on the brink of qualifying for the Champions League semi-finals for the first time after thrashing Simba SC 4-0 at FNB Stadium on Saturday evening.
Amakhosi travel to Tanzania for the second leg quarter-final this coming week.
However, Chiefs’ disappointing league form has taken an immense toll on the 56-year-old Hunt, with the supporters of the club even marching to the Naturena offices to voice their displeasure at how the club is run ahead of the first-leg tie on Friday.
“This has been the most testing (season) for me personally. It has taken a lot of patience, a lot of endeavour, a lot of work.
“I know I will come out of this stronger. I am not a coach that speaks a lot, that gloats. I let the record speak for itself. But I know next season I will be stronger, that’s for sure,” Hunt said.
The former Bidvest Wits mentor finally released some of the immense pressure that he’s been under with a rare smile after Colombian striker Leonardo Castro banged in Chiefs’ fourth goal in the 63rd minute on Saturday.
“Sometimes things do work out, you know – that’s why I laughed,” Hunt explained.
“Ten or 15 seconds before that (fourth goal), I said what we need to do, the things we work on and where we need to be without the ball, and then we turned the ball over and we were in the right position, so the goal came.
“So that’s why I laughed because that was pretty much (what we wanted). You don’t get that much in football but it was, from an organisational point of view, out of position.
“I knew when we turned it over that we would get a situation like that, and it worked out.”
Hunt was at a loss, though, to explain the contrasting form of his team domestically and on the continent, only saying that perhaps the style of football in the Champions League is better suited to his players.
“It is a much slower game, a much more predictable game. I have always said that the players run faster than the ball in the PSL,” he said.
“But in the Champions League it’s much slower and maybe it suits us a bit better. The group of players that we have here are a little bit more methodical and a bit more direct.”