Former Kaizer Chiefs striker Patrick Mayo has given a vivid explanation as to why he agrees with the club as regards its hiring and firing culture in the past few years.
Since Stuart Baxter left Chiefs in 2015, Amakhosi have had Steve Komphela, Giovanni Solinas, and Ernst Middendorp as head coaches. They recently terminated the contract of Gavin Hunt, who was only appointed at the start of this season.
On the sacking of Hunt, it is the second time Chiefs would fire a coach before the end of the season. In 2018, Solinas did not reach the campaign’s halfway before he was replaced by Middendorp in December of that same year.
Although Chiefs are known for their patience with coaches, but things seem to have changed over the past few years, as the desire to achieve success keeps growing because they have not won any major title since Stuart Baxter’s league and cup double of 2014/15.
“I don’t blame them for changing coaches because I am sure they were under pressure and they want silverware. As the chairman of the board of the club, you need results from the coaches. If they don’t give you results, then you terminate their contracts or you part ways mutually,” Mayo said in an interview.
Chiefs, who are currently outside the top eight, would need to win their last two matches of the season against Golden Arrows and TS Galaxy to end in a respectable position.
“I don’t see any problem with Arthur Zwane and Dillon Sheppard. I am sure both of them have learnt a lot from the coaches they have worked with before, so they can handle the remaining two games,’ Mayo says.
“And Zwane has been doing well with the Chiefs Diski team, so I don’t see any problem with that.”
Patrick Mabedi was appointed interim coach after Chiefs parted ways with Komphela in 2018 and now Arthur Zwane and Dillon Sheppard have been announced as the men to take charge while Hunt’s replacement is being found.
It is easy to see why many are against the sacking culture cultivated by Chiefs in recent years. However, the reason is pretty clear and it’s obvious that they want to remain competitive with their fellow rivals like Mamelodi Sundowns for instance, who have claimed four consecutive PSL titles in a row.