Madida, Mugeyi may have missed boat

BEING a caretaker has proved to be one of the greatest launching pads for a coaching career in South African football.

A team doing badly would remove the head coach and instal his assistant on a caretaker basis, hoping that results would change immediately.

Perhaps an unintended positive aspect of this approach is that it appears to have buried the cowardice of previous years when clubs would appoint a so-called technical director to oversee selection instead of just firing the head coach.

Anointing an assistant who in many cases has tons of experience can work miracles.

Pitso Mosimane was one of the first beneficiaries of this when, at the turn of the century, he took over SuperSport United from the bumbling Bruce Grobbelaar.

A side that were teetering on the brink of relegation finished second that year, and that marked the birth of Mosimane as a head coach.

Another example is Allan Freese, who will attempt to win his third trophy in two seasons this weekend when Platinum Stars face SuperSport United in the Telkom Knockout final.

It's something Freese could never have dreamed of had Stars, instead of promoting him after Cavin Johnson left, opted to hire someone else.

Johnson benefited from the trust clubs have lately in assistant coaches, because he was elevated to the Stars top post following the departure of his then boss, Owen da Gama.

With this background, it is disappointing that Wilfred Mugeyi could not become the latest addition to the number of head coaches in the Absa Premiership as AmaZulu have now removed him from his acting capacity and hired Steve Barker.

Mugeyi did pretty little to revive Usuthu's fortunes because they are still winning less. He will see this as a missed opportunity to ascend to the throne, to cease being the man in the background and be the main man.

Over at Moroka Swallows Fani Madida is also in danger of forcing the club's management to look elsewhere.

He was assistant to Zeca Marques and, more than a month later, the results are not forthcoming, with the Birds' latest capitulation at home to the University of Pretoria last weekend not too dissimilar to the collapse that forced Marques to quit.

Swallows now find themselves in the relegation zone and as a tough trip to Maritzburg United awaits them tonight, you can only feel pity for them.

But you'll have to pity Madida even more given that he, too, could miss an opportunity to join the head coaches' rank, having for years served as assistant at Kaizer Chiefs, AmaZulu and Swallows.

This would be disastrous to efforts to get more former players, not least black South Africans, into the head coaches' frame (Steve Komphela at Maritzburg United and Mosimane at Sundowns have for too long been two examples of former Bafana players making it in the domestic coaching world).

A caretaker who has made the most of his chance this season has been Roger Sikhakhane at Chippa United.

How he hasn't been confirmed as head coach is beyond mysterious. Then again, he coaches Chippa, where any coach there is regarded as a caretaker anyway.