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KAIZER CHIEFS have fired coach Ernst Middendorp and his assistant, Shaun Bartlett, after their sensational collapse in the race for the South African Premiership title at the weekend.
Club chairman, Kaizer Motaung, confirmed the decision to axe the two coaches.
“We deliberated and considered many aspects related to the team, including our way of playing, our performances and the results before coming to the decision,” Motaung told the club’s website.
“We truly believed and hoped that our 50th anniversary year would be better, and it indeed looked promising. The decision taken is part of a strategy to have the team win trophies again and to make our supporters happy because they deserve better.
“After giving the coach and the technical team the ammunition required to compete in the new season, there were some improvements, and this was evident during the first seven months of this 2019/2020 season.
“However, when the league restarted post-lockdown, things changed, and we looked a totally different side in our last eight league matches.
“We witnessed some heart-stopping performances and we were overtaken on the log in the last game of the season, which truly broke our hearts. We have to take responsibility — we can’t wait and allow this situation to continue.
“We would like to once again thank both gentlemen for their service to Kaizer Chiefs over the last 21 months.’’
Middendorp’s stubbornness, inflexibility, poor man-management and insecurity, which led to fights with senior players — and at Chiefs he naturally took charge of more big-name stars than at Maritzburg United, Free State Stars or Bloemfontein Celtic — derailed the train.
Indications from within Naturena were that Middendorp was fighting with senior players during the bio-bubble, in the crucial death part of the season.
Middendorp’s angry body language and foul mood — picking fights with journalists in Facebook messages, accusing his own media staff of being in cahoots with the press when they asked tough questions, and refusing to attend the post-match press conference after Chiefs’ 1-0 loss to Bidvest Wits — seemed enough of a give away.
Itumeleng Khune was not even on the bench for the first six matches of the bubble and no-one at Chiefs would explain why.
Willard Katsande was regularly substituted off after making a single error in a match.
Middendorp had well-publicised spats with Leonardo Castro and Khama Billiat in 2018-19, and both wanted to leave the club in the off-season.
The coach fought with Billiat and his Football Association over the player turning out for Zimbabwe this season.
The best attacker in the PSL on form, Billiat’s bizarre three-week “rest” after Christmas turned into six weeks, and he came back rusty more than refreshed.
He scored two crucial goals in Chiefs’ last two matches — just his second and third strikes of the season — but he was a shadow of the force he is capable of being.
Amongst this man-management weaknesses, Middendorp’s selections in the bubble, even in the context of the need for rotation, were strange.
Khune and Akpeyi should have been the international stars pushing each other at keeper.
As Akpeyi conceded nine goals in five games, Khune should have been recalled earlier.
Instead it took a concussion to Akpeyi for it to happen.
Ramahlwe Mphahlele’s return to the starting line-up having played just three matches all season to be skinned by young Bloemfontein Celtic left-back Sifiso Ngobeni in a 3-1 defeat was costly.
Fielding 17-year-old Keletso Sifama on the wing in the 1-0 defeat against Mamelodi Sundowns was unfair on the youngster. — Sports Reporter/Timesive
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