Something is terribly amiss at Chiefs

Something is going terribly amiss in Naturena! When Kaizer Motaung once arrogantly remarked Amakhosi was too big a club for a local coach, to an extent, he could be forgiven. Looking at the quality of coaches he had managed to bring to his club, some of whom went on to become SA National Team coaches, one could come to a conclusion that Motaung knew characteristics of a perfect coach who could fit like a hand to glove at Chiefs, and more importantly in SA football. Think Ted Dumitru, Jeff Burtler, Paul Dolezar and Muhsin Ertugral, who all came to the club little known to many, but proved to be exactly what the club needed. Their understanding and embracing of the traits of SA-born players were pivotal in their successes. Compare the quality of those few mentors with the quality of Ernst Middendorp, Vladimir Vermezovic … and now Stuart Baxter. There is no denying there’s been a flagrant evaporation of that distinct technical intellect in Naturena. Something is going terribly amiss in those fancy Headquarters.

MaximalFootball.com received with utter shock news that following the departure of Vermezovic last week, the club was looking to procure the services of former Bafana Bafana Head Coach, Stuart Baxter – arguably the worst coach to lead the SA National team. Bafana Bafana dished some of the worst brand of football when the nomadic English-cum-Scottish coach tried in vain to qualify SA for the 2006 Fifa World Cup. Our on-form creative players like Jabu Pule (Mahlangu), the late Gift Leremi, Scara Ngobese, etc. were seen to be too short, too fancy, too frail, which all rendered them useless to the National team with only sporadic call-ups and very little game time. The likes Lungisani Ndlela became regular features in the National team for they could fit into the aerial game that had been imposed on our National team. From defenders to midfielders, balls had to be played to our strikers’ heads. The team was void of creativity and innovation.

Since his departure from Bafana Bafana, the 58-year old mentor took charge of Japanese outfit, Vissel Kobe where he had a very brief unsuccessful spell before he joined Helsingborg IF.  He later resigned from Helsingborg IF. He assumed the role of Finland Head Coach in 2008 when the country was ranked 33rd on the Fifa World Rankings and left them in 86th position two years later.

Having done such an appraisable job in bringing coaches that contributed positively, not only to Kaizer Chiefs, but to the game at large in South Africa, the Kaizer Chiefs Managing Director would have been expected to realise that it is NOT each and every Tom, Dick and Harry that could be brought to coach in SA. Not because those coaches are useless coaches, but because they would not fit into the SA football environment. Baxter proved this when he took over Bafana Bafana; Middendorp did the same, and there are many other cases to this effect.

The fact of the matter is that our football in this country is in the doldrums. Football development is almost non-existent and football philosophies, which contradict with the qualities of SA born players, are largely to blame for our lack of identity as a footballing nation. While there are no Coaching regulations to give direction to our football, you would at least expect the so-called big clubs who have been around for decades and have thrived on the raw qualities of SA players, to promote the philosophies that harness and promote our ‘Africanness’. No more can our football have team talks where players are told to "knock the ball long," "don't mess around with the ball," "kick him off the park," and "climb into the opposition." And when players dwell on the ball the coach admonishes them for demonstrating "monkey tricks," and "playing in the circus." This is the kind of mentality that Baxter brought to Bafana Bafana when he was in charge and there’s no doubt it is the very same mentality he will take to Naturena should he given a contract.

In an interview with Uefa.com, asked about Coaching Trends around the world, Baxter responded, “What has been interesting for me has been working in countries that are almost opposite. Like in the Scandanavia … very, very well organised society. (The challenge there is to) increase logical thinking and try to make people think more creative. And the physique … big, strong (and) lack of mobility, maybe. So you work with those challenges and then maybe you go to Japan and South Africa where the mobility is not a problem. The creativity is not a problem in South Africa. That has been the most challenging thing for me, but also the most rewarding when you solve it.”

He never managed to solve those challenges in SA a few years ago and how does he find it “interesting working in countries that are almost opposite”? What is his philosophy actually? Does he have one? Having failed again in Japan, which he compares to South Africa, there’s nothing to support the illusion that he could be the missing link at Chiefs, or at any club in SA football.

If one reads Prof. L S Jeevanantham’s highly informative article, ‘Reactive Identification’ – (http://goo.gl/QS7tW), one will learn that there is the “necessary evidence that is scientific and incontrovertible: the football philosophy and the subsequent processes that emanate from it must be rooted in the environment, the physiology, the psychology, the sociology and culture of the people who play the game. Yes, we must appreciate and embrace our African football mentality and style. If it is not, it will only lead to disastrous football consequences for the nation.” Unfortunately, everything and anything that comes from Europe is still epitomized by a colonized African mind and as a nation we have not reached the stage of Moving Against those people and processes that have contributed towards our decline as a football-playing nation.

Has Motaung stopped consulting from those who helped him bring some of the best coaches to SA? Or has he now delegated that responsibility to somebody with no knowledge of the concept of specificity in football? Or was it by accident Motaung had some coaches who did consider the nature of SA players in Kaizer Chiefs’ context and were successful, and unfortunately (Motaung) did not learn from those “good accidents”?

Baxter is another international reject and is lucky to find work as an 'adviser' - a good example of 'mechanical coach', which SA football cannot afford anymore. But if this is the new direction Kaizer Chiefs is headed, then perhaps Motaung was right: there’s no local coach who can coach Kaizer Chiefs. Despite their shortcomings, they cannot compete with Baxter for a coaching position in South Africa.

By Editor

Story: http://goo.gl/p9O8c

Email: editor@maximalfootball.com