Sorry, guys, no sympathies for you because you are your own worst enemies.
Sorry, guys, no sympathies for you because you are your own worst enemies.
This is my brief message to my friends in the coaching fraternity who, because of the new multi- million rand sponsorship for the Premiership league, are now being rudely kicked about like rag balls by club owners.
Call me a heartless bastard if you will. The fact is that I am not heartless.
Would this, for example, suggest that I don't care whether a gentleman like Mzala (Boebie Solomons), as a family man, has to put bread on the table or not? You must be wondering.
I guess you could be asking yourself if I have forgotten that Khabo Zondo is my Ekurhuleni homeboy.
My response to all this is that for now my ears are stuffed with cotton wool and I am also wearing blinkers.
But allow me to elaborate.
Look, the majority of South African coaches in most cases behave childishly. They are not at all prepared to look at their jobs in unison because some believe they are born to be above others.
South African coaches seem to behave as if they are too well connected to be worried about ever going hungry. One once boasted to me about that.
In case you were not aware, there is a clique out there that specialises in bad-mouthing others.
I mean those who "run with the rabbits and hunt with the hounds".
These are coaches who, when others are struggling with results - probably because of a lack of technical support from the club, injuries to key players or because some players tell their club bosses who to hire - would be discussing deals as possible substitutes.
If that's not being heartless, then I don't know what heartless means.
How many times have coaches like Ted Dumitru and Shakes Mashaba invited their colleagues to some pep talks to discuss matters of common interest, only to be snubbed? We are talking from as early as after the 1994 World Cup finals in the US.
At times those who attended would use the opportunity to try to ridicule the initiators of such sessions, as some of us would witness.
Bafana Bafana are a joke lately because their players can't trap and pass the ball properly. Naturally Safa are blamed when the culprits are out there disguised as TV studio "experts" also adding their five cents' worth in fuelling the blame game.
That strikers fumble first touches can never be blamed on the globe-trotting Safa hierarchy alone. I blame the very same "experts" because some of those players were at one stage or another handled by them.
But really who gives these clowns the licence to lambast their colleagues on TV?
Much as I concede that they are not all hot-heads, please convince me as to why I should sympathise with such self-destructive characters.
Rather than do serious introspection and look at how they can club together for the good of the game, our coaches prefer to go asunder.
Matters are even worse if you are a foreigner. You get ostracised.
And this is not far-fetched.
Check with those who heard the utterances by Santos' Botswana coach, David Bright, on TV.
Bright clearly stated that he had planned well to beat Bucs (indeed, they beat them 2-1) as he wanted to do it for his country and "secondly" for Santos.
Bright's comment sounded rather stupid but it also told a story of a man not appreciated by his fellow coaches.
Tell me why these gentlemen are so timid when clubs treat them like door-mats?
What is this "amicably parted ways" nonsense from them when they should be calling a spade a spade? If you are fired, you are fired, that's it.
Unshackle these content slaves if you so wish, but please count me out.
Local coaches can be their own worst enemies
Sorry, guys, no sympathies for you because you are your own worst enemies.
Sorry, guys, no sympathies for you because you are your own worst enemies.
This is my brief message to my friends in the coaching fraternity who, because of the new multi- million rand sponsorship for the Premiership league, are now being rudely kicked about like rag balls by club owners.
Call me a heartless bastard if you will. The fact is that I am not heartless.
Would this, for example, suggest that I don't care whether a gentleman like Mzala (Boebie Solomons), as a family man, has to put bread on the table or not? You must be wondering.
I guess you could be asking yourself if I have forgotten that Khabo Zondo is my Ekurhuleni homeboy.
My response to all this is that for now my ears are stuffed with cotton wool and I am also wearing blinkers.
But allow me to elaborate.
Look, the majority of South African coaches in most cases behave childishly. They are not at all prepared to look at their jobs in unison because some believe they are born to be above others.
South African coaches seem to behave as if they are too well connected to be worried about ever going hungry. One once boasted to me about that.
In case you were not aware, there is a clique out there that specialises in bad-mouthing others.
I mean those who "run with the rabbits and hunt with the hounds".
These are coaches who, when others are struggling with results - probably because of a lack of technical support from the club, injuries to key players or because some players tell their club bosses who to hire - would be discussing deals as possible substitutes.
If that's not being heartless, then I don't know what heartless means.
How many times have coaches like Ted Dumitru and Shakes Mashaba invited their colleagues to some pep talks to discuss matters of common interest, only to be snubbed? We are talking from as early as after the 1994 World Cup finals in the US.
At times those who attended would use the opportunity to try to ridicule the initiators of such sessions, as some of us would witness.
Bafana Bafana are a joke lately because their players can't trap and pass the ball properly. Naturally Safa are blamed when the culprits are out there disguised as TV studio "experts" also adding their five cents' worth in fuelling the blame game.
That strikers fumble first touches can never be blamed on the globe-trotting Safa hierarchy alone. I blame the very same "experts" because some of those players were at one stage or another handled by them.
But really who gives these clowns the licence to lambast their colleagues on TV?
Much as I concede that they are not all hot-heads, please convince me as to why I should sympathise with such self-destructive characters.
Rather than do serious introspection and look at how they can club together for the good of the game, our coaches prefer to go asunder.
Matters are even worse if you are a foreigner. You get ostracised.
And this is not far-fetched.
Check with those who heard the utterances by Santos' Botswana coach, David Bright, on TV.
Bright clearly stated that he had planned well to beat Bucs (indeed, they beat them 2-1) as he wanted to do it for his country and "secondly" for Santos.
Bright's comment sounded rather stupid but it also told a story of a man not appreciated by his fellow coaches.
Tell me why these gentlemen are so timid when clubs treat them like door-mats?
What is this "amicably parted ways" nonsense from them when they should be calling a spade a spade? If you are fired, you are fired, that's it.
Unshackle these content slaves if you so wish, but please count me out.