Nabi dreams of CAF and joy for Chiefs fans

After witnessing wild celebrations from the fans and club bosses alike in the wake of a mere 1-0 league win over Stellenbosch in Cape Town last Friday, Kaizer Chiefs coach Nasreddine Nabi is determined to bring time-hallowed joy.

Nabi's realistic chance to do that is to win the Nedbank Cup, to end the club's decade-long trophy drought. Amakhosi face Chippa United in the Ke Yona Cup's last 16 tie at FNB Stadium on Saturday (6pm).

"It's true that we've noticed the joy that this club brings to millions of its fans across the country... it's incredible; that's why there's no sleep when results are not forthcoming,'' Nabi said at a press conference in Sandton on Thursday. 

"You feel responsible to make millions of people happy. We are working very hard to build a very strong team that will give joy like last Friday consistently. We don't want to play for results that come today and return only after two months."

Nabi also aims to qualify for continental football which would be achieved through finishing in the top three in the league or winning the Nedbank Cup. "My dream for this season is to qualify for CAF competitions...it's not going to be easy but we have the capacity to do it. We will push the same way we will do to win the Nedbank Cup,'' the Chiefs coach said.

The Tunisian coach also emphasised that he understood that their supporters were tired of hearing about the project and that they were still rebuilding, vowing he won't react with emotions as he knows results were crucial amid the rebuilding process as well.

"We understand the expectations of the fans, we understood it before we even came here because this is a very big club and everyone wants to win and somehow they [the supporters] don't want to hear about projects and processes, they just want results,'' Nabi said.

"They have been hearing about projects and rebuilding but myself and the board don't need to react with emotions. Projects and processes don't mean that you don't play for results.

"In each and every game, we need to do everything we can to win even now that we're still building. We believe that the players are starting to be confident and they get the message that we convey as the technical staff. This helps them to deal with pressure of playing for a big club like Chiefs."

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