- Kaizer Chiefs’ trophy drought has stretched to beyond nine years after their shock Nedbank Cup elimination at the hands of a lower league outfit.
- Interim coach Cavin Johnson is optimistic that the club will rise again, but failed to answer how they will do that.
- Stuart Baxter, the last coach to win a trophy with the club, says one of the contributing factors in the dry spell is a lack of clarity on direction – which he claims to have seen first-hand in his second spell.
- For more sports news, go to the News24 Sport front page.
“We will rise.”
Kaizer Chiefs interim coach Cavin Johnson muttered these words on Thursday morning. At first, it sounded like a question, but then he repeated it with more venom to emphasise the point as if to convince himself, too.
“We will rise!”
The country’s most successful club, in terms of the number of trophies won, has fallen on such hard times that the pits they languish in are now something of a home for them.
Chiefs – the team that had never gone two seasons without a trophy – have stretched the club’s trophy drought to beyond nine years after being eliminated by first division side Milford FC in the first round of the Nedbank Cup.
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So, when Chiefs takes on Moroka Swallows at FNB Stadium on Saturday night – it won’t just be the Soweto derby but a glimpse into the club’s future if they don’t arrest the downward spiral they are on.
The Dube Birds used to soar high in SA football. Their history is filled with impressive feats, including becoming the first club to register as a public company and the first to get a sponsor.
That was in the 70s.
Now, Swallows are a shadow of their former selves. The club was relegated all the way to the fourth tier of SA football. They found their way back to professional football not because of what they did on the pitch but their owner’s wallet.
Swallows will also be led by an interim coach after Steve Komphela left the club following a turbulent three months in which the management’s impasse with their players over unpaid salaries led to them failing to honour their last two fixtures in 2023.
Chiefs are still somewhat stable.
They recently got a new sponsor in betting platform SuperSportBet. Despite their drought, they are still a more attractive brand than Mamelodi Sundowns – the most dominant force in the country this past decade.
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The last coach to bring silverware at Chiefs, and victoriously go toe-to-toe with Sundowns, revealed what went wrong at the club.
In explaining the difference in his first spell – where he won two league titles, the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup – and his second spell – which he didn’t even finish, sacked before the end of the season – coach Stuart Baxter gave a glimpse into what put Chiefs in this position.
“I’ve got no desire to criticise other people because that is the nature of football. People do things in different ways. They have their opinions, and I don’t want to come across as being the one telling everybody that they’re wrong and Stuart Baxter is the only one who knows what he is doing,” he started.
“If you look at the years that we were successful there, certain things fell into place. When I came in, obviously everyone was desperate for success. The club had gone this way and that way. It felt like the players were better than they had been producing. Because of the lack of success before, when I came in, I was allowed to go in and to try and bring together the group. The players being good players, they accepted that willingly.”
That was between 2012 and 2015. Baxter left after giving Chiefs their fourth league title in the PSL-era. He was replaced by Komphela who had to rebuild the club, with Baxter’s success coming with an experienced core.
Stuart Baxter, who gave Chiefs their last trophy in 2015, says things were clearer in his first spell, but when he returned during the drought that clarity wasn’t there. (Photo by Richard Huggard/Gallo Images)
The foundation of that team was rocked when the club reached an impasse with players like Itumeleng Khune, Tefu Mashamaite and Mandla Masango over their contract renewals. Mashamaite and Masango ended up leaving Naturena, while Khune belatedly renewed his contract after looking set to be on the way out.
The club didn’t buy quality like they did with Baxter, largely bringing players with potential with Komphela needing to bring in fresh blood. He did that, and the club lost two finals – first to Ajax Cape Town in the MTN8 and then Sundowns in the Telkom Knockout, both coming in Komphela’s first season.
The regress under Komphela dramatically changed Chiefs. Before he took over the club, so-called small teams brought their A-game against Amakhosi because they were the benchmark. Under Komphela, they stopped fearing Chiefs, going toe-to-toe with the side and managing to floor them.
That and a depleting squad quality hurt the club. At some point teams like Cape Town City, SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits had better squads.
The team never recovered, slipping further and further down. While management were patient with Komphela, only sacking him on his third season when the situation was untenable, the coaching job then became a revolving door, with the club making seven coaching changes in six years. Baxter was among those called up to try and change things.
“Me personally, I don’t think that I had changed at all when I returned for my second spell,” he said.
“When I came to the club, I was hungry. I knew the club, so I thought that I would hit the ground running. I knew a lot of the players and knew everyone at the club. I just didn’t think that there was the same clarity. That’s all. There wasn’t the same clarity on how we were going to achieve what we all wanted to achieve.
“People tried. But we just didn’t have that clarity, who was doing what. It took me a long time to understand what was going on. We would have got it right, no doubt, because the will is there from everybody. Everybody wants one thing, to win. But the problem is that when you aren’t successful, everyone thinks that they have the answer.
“When I came in the first time, they basically said go on then – give us the answer and we will all do what we can in our departments to support that goal. I am not criticising what has happened, but in general that is what happens at a big club when they aren’t achieving.”
Chiefs’ lack of clarity is evident in the coaching appointments they have made, done in the hope that they can do something rather than because of a sound vision. When Johnson was asked why he believes Chiefs will rise, he didn’t give an answer that showed plan and structure.
“I believe that we will rise because as a country, we were out of democracy for more than 60 years. We have democracy for 30 years now. We rose. Khosi will rise again. I am starting to sound like a politician now,” Johnson said, mocking himself.
With no financial strength to compete in the transfer market, Chiefs’ scouting has been weakened rather than strengthened to enable them to unearth gems and polish them to shine for Amakhosi.
In Baxter’s first spell, there was clarity in playing style, direction and what everyone needed to do. There was also quality and proven winners. Now, that isn’t the case – which has resulted in the club struggling even when they have made good signings, like they did this season. Most of those signings come with promise but have never won the league.
“Sir Alex [Fergsuon] said that when he came at the club, the Manchester United shirt weighed heavily on the players. And I am guessing that the Kaizer Chiefs shirt, at times, weighs heavily on the players,” said Baxter.
“Some players are perhaps not good enough to carry it. Some players are depressed, and others are not believing, their confidence is down…Whatever the reason, the Kaizer Chiefs shirt is weighing heavily at the moment. Sir Alex spoke about the journey that he was on.
“So, at some point [when the team was winning] he said that when we put on that shirt it was like we were invincible. You get that belief. After the first year at Chiefs, we didn’t think we could lose. We didn’t contemplate losing going into games. If we were 1-0 down, we didn’t panic because we said to ourselves that no matter what, we will score. Sundowns have got that right now.
“The bad news is that it doesn’t take long to lose it. So, when the cracks appear, unless the club does good work, the cracks will appear. That’s what happened at Manchester United. The cracks appeared. They made the wrong decisions and the cracks got bigger.”
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The cracks at Chiefs are gigantic, and it’s not clear how they will get themselves out of this. It’s been telling that during this trying time, the club’s leadership has been conspicuous in their silence and lack of visibility.
That’s the other challenge that club has – a lack of sound leadership that inspires confidence and rallies everyone to believe in them.
Since chair Kaizer Motaung retreated from the spotlight, its been up to his children to lead the side – with Jessica and Kaizer Junior seemingly running the ship after years with Bobby in the spotlight.
Jessica and Kaizer talk a good game, like they did when they calmed angry supporters who marched to the club’s base. But their words, promising to overhaul the club, have not been followed by meaningful action.
The club needs to have a better sense of direction, improve the appointment of coaches, bring in quality players and change the culture that is strangling the side.
“Chiefs are a massive brand. We gave the supporters something to get behind in my first spell,” said Baxter.
“Everybody at the club was aligned with that. I didn’t feel like there was any resistance to anything that we did. We got on and made it happen. I got a lot of credit, but the credit should also go to everyone who was at the club at the time because they moved their egos to the side – players and staff – and got on with the work. That’s what builds a culture, tactical clarity and no ego.”