- Kaizer Chiefs have suffered a trophy drought of more than nine years after suffering a shock Nedbank Cup exit at the hands of a lower-league side.
- Interim manager Cabin Johnson is optimistic the club will rise again, but declined to say how that will happen.
- Stuart Baxter, the last coach to win a trophy with the club, said one of the factors in the dry spell was a lack of clarity of direction, which he claimed he saw first-hand in his second spell. are doing.
- For more sports news, visit the News24 Sport front page.
“We will rise.”
Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Cavin Johnson tweeted these words on Thursday morning. He sounded questioning at first, but then he repeated himself, emphasizing his point with even more venom, as if to convince himself.
“We will rise!”
The most successful club in the country in terms of the number of trophies won has fallen on such difficult times that the hole they languish in now feels like home to them.
Chiefs have not won a trophy for the past two seasons, but after losing to First Division side Milford FC in the first round of the Nedbank Cup, the club's trophy winning period has now exceeded nine years.
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So when Chiefs take on Morooka Swallows at FNB Stadium on Saturday night, it will be more than just a Soweto derby, it will be a glimpse into the club's future unless they break the downward spiral they are stuck in. .
The Dube Birds were once highly regarded in SA football circles. Its history is full of impressive achievements, including being the first club to register as a publicly traded company and the first to have a sponsor.
That was in the 70's.
Now, there is no trace of the Swallows as they once were. The club was relegated to the fourth tier of SA football. They found their way back to professional football not because of their performance on the pitch, but because of their owners' wallets.
Swallows also appointed interim coach after Steve Kompela left the club following a tumultuous three months in which the management team was unable to play the final two games of 2023 due to an impasse with the players over unpaid wages. will be led.
The Chiefs still have some stability.
They recently acquired a new sponsor for their betting platform SuperSportBet. Despite the drought, they are still a more attractive brand than Mamelodi Sundowns, the country's most dominant force for the past decade.
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The coach, who last led Chiefs to a silver medal and victory over Sundowns, revealed what went wrong at the club.
When explaining the difference between his first period, where he won two league titles, MTN8 and Nedbank Cup, and his second period, which he couldn't even finish and was sacked before the end of the season, coach Stuart Baxter said: It gave a glimpse of something like this. What led the Chiefs to this position?
“I don't want to criticize anyone at all, that's the nature of football. People do things differently. They have their own opinions and I don't want to be seen as someone who tells everyone that I am. 'I don't want to.' That's wrong and the only one who knows what he's doing is Stuart Baxter,'' he began.
“If you look at the years we had success there, certain things fell into place. When I came in, obviously everyone was desperate for success. We were going over here and there. The players felt like they were better than us.”
It was between 2012 and 2015. Baxter left after leading Chiefs to their fourth league title in the PSL. He was replaced by Kompela, who had to rebuild the club, and Baxter's success was due to an experienced core of players.
The club's impasse over contract renewals for players such as Itumeleng Khune, Tehu Mashamite and Mandla Masango has shaken the team's foundations. Mashamite and Masango ended up leaving Naturena, but Kuhn belatedly renewed his contract after facing the prospect of leaving.
The club didn't buy quality like they did with Baxter, bringing in mainly players with potential, but Kompela needed to bring in fresh blood. He did that and the club lost twice in the final. They lost, first to Ajax Cape Town in MTN8 and then to Sundowns in Telkom Knockout, both in Kompela's first season.
The regression under Komphela changed the Chiefs dramatically. Before he took over the club, the so-called small side had an A match against Amakhossi as its benchmark. Under Komphela, they stopped fearing the Chiefs, went head-to-head with the team, and managed to beat them.
That and the decline in team quality took a toll on the club. At one point, teams like Cape Town City, SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits had better teams.
The team never recovered and continued to fall down the standings. Management was patient with Kompela, only sacking him in his third season when the situation became untenable, but the coaching job became a revolving door after that, with the club undergoing seven managerial changes in six years. went. Baxter was one of those called to change the situation.
“Personally, I don't think I had changed at all when I came back for my second stay,” he said.
“When I came to the club, I was hungry. I knew the club and wanted to give it my all. I knew a lot of the players, I knew everyone at the club. “I never thought there would be a thing.'' We all weren't equally clear about how to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish.
“People tried, but we had no clarity on who was doing what. It took us a long time to figure out what was going on. There was no doubt that I We all got it right, because everyone's will is there.'' Everyone wants one thing: to win, but the problem is, when you're not successful, who cares? I think everyone has the answer.
“When I first came in, they basically said, well, keep going, give us an answer, and we're all going to do everything we can in our departments to support that goal. I'm not criticizing what happened, but that's generally what happens in big clubs when you don't achieve what you achieved.''
The Chiefs' lack of clarity is evident in the coaching appointments they have made, which are made out of an expectation that something can be done rather than because of a sound vision. Johnson was asked why he believes the Chiefs will emerge, but he offered no plan or structure.
“I believe we will rise up, because as a country we have been away from democracy for over 60 years. We have had democracy for over 30 years. We have risen up,” Kosi said. I’ll rise again. I’m starting to sound like a politician now,” Johnson said, mocking himself.
Without the financial strength to compete in the transfer market, Chiefs' scouting has been weakened rather than strengthened to unearth gems and shine for Amakhossi.
In Baxter's first spell, the style of play, direction and what everyone needed to do was clear. There were also winners with high quality and proven track records. That's not the case now. As a result, the club has struggled even when it has signed good players, as it did this season. Most of these contracts were promised, but they never won a league.
“Sir Alex [Fergsuon] He said that when he came to the club, Manchester United shirts were weighing heavily on the players. And I think the Kaizer Chiefs uniform weighs heavily on the players at times,” Baxter said.
“Some of the players are probably not good enough to carry it on their backs. Some players are down, some are unbelieving, some are losing confidence… Whatever the reason, at the moment Kaiser… The Chiefs shirt is weighing heavily. Sir Alex talks about his journey so far. He's been with it.
“So at some point [when the team was winning] He said he felt invincible when he wore that shirt. I understand that belief. After his first year with the Chiefs, we didn't think we could lose. We didn't think about losing going into the match. Even though we lost 0-1, we didn't panic because we told ourselves, “We'll get the points no matter what.'' Sundowns are now doing just that.
“The bad news is it doesn't take that long to lose it. So when the cracks show up, the cracks will show up unless the club does a good job. That's what happened with Manchester United. A rift appeared. They made the decision that they had done the wrong thing, and the rift grew even larger. ”
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The rift for the Chiefs is huge, and it's unclear how they'll get out of it. It has been reported that the club's leadership has been marked by silence and lack of visibility during this trying period.
That's another problem the club has: the lack of healthy leadership that inspires confidence and makes everyone believe.
Since Kaiser Motown chairman stepped away from the spotlight, it has fallen to his children to lead the team, with Jessica and Kaiser Jr. running the ship after years in the spotlight alongside Bobby. It seems so.
Jessica and Kaiser discussed good matches, such as when they placated angry supporters who marched to the club's home base. But their words promising reform at the club have not been accompanied by meaningful action.
The club needs to have better direction, improve their coaching appointments, bring in quality players and change the culture that is strangling the team.
“Chiefs are a huge brand. We were able to give something to our supporters in the first period,” Baxter said.
“Everyone at the club was on board with it. There was no resistance to what we did. We went with it and made it happen. I get a lot of credit, but Credit should also go to everyone who contributed. “They were at the club at the time because they put their egos aside, players and staff, and went about their business. It was about the culture, the tactical clarity, the And build something without ego.”