It's all in Kjell's hands to prove his competence

The nature of coaching appointments is such that it is a risky business, and Kjell Jonevret's arrival at Orlando Pirates should be seen in such light.

Swede Jonevret is admittedly an underachiever of note, someone with just two trophies in a coaching career spanning over two decades. He last won a trophy 12 years ago - and had been unemployed when Irvin Khoza came calling for him to take up arguably the most complex coaching position in the country.

The ball is now in Jonevret's court to prove that he's a risk worth taking. He's not the first foreign coach to arrive in SA with a weak CV.

Stuart Baxter landed at Bafana Bafana more than a decade ago and left without making an impression.

When he returned to join Kaizer Chiefs in May 2012, we were all sceptical, given his previous failure at Bafana. Yet he managed to turn an average Chiefs side into two-time league champions. He has three domestic cups to his name too, including one won within six months of arrival at SuperSport United.

A few months before returning to SA to join SuperSport, Baxter had been deemed not good enough by Turkish side Gençlerbirligi, who fired him merely two games into the season.

The point here is that we should not read too much into Jonevret's thin CV. That he has not won anything since his double with Djurgardens in 2005, and has never coached outside Scandinavia, doesn't mean he will be an automatic flop at Pirates. He deserves to be given a chance.

After all, there have been many others like him, specifically at Pirates. Kosta Papic arrived at the club in 2004 without any solid CV, yet his side, notwithstanding that they didn't win anything that season, thrilled the fans to the extent that they are revered as the most entertaining Bucs team in the PSL's history.

Papic has not been able to replicate that kind of attractive football anywhere else, but no sane Pirates fan would deem his spell at the club as forgettable.

Despite his success as a player, few Pirates fans had heard of Ruud Krol before his arrival at the club in 2008. The Dutchman's first two seasons were barren, with resounding calls for his head, while management stood firm.

Krol will forever be remembered for annexing a first treble for Bucs in 2010/11, proving his detractors wrong after they had similarly dismissed him as a "chancer".

But today, many Pirates fans yearn for his return, although such are the complexities associated with coaching Pirates that wish is highly unlikely to happen given that, even after a haul of three trophies in a single season, he could not secure a contract renewal.

I'm not saying Jonevret will turn into a Krol. If anything, he will be lucky to survive this year. He inherits a dispirited camp suffering the effects of unprecedented heavy beatings and with no likelihood of winning anything this season.

Now, that he has been given a chance, it's up to him to make the most of it and prove his competence - otherwise such a risk might not be worth it in future.