Former Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp has opened up about his struggles in his second spell with the club between 2018 and 2010.
Former Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp has opened up about his struggles in his second spell with the club between 2018 and 2010.
In December 2018, the experienced coach made a return to the Soweto giants as he replaced Italian mentor Giovanni Solinas who had an underwhelming short stint in Naturena.
Having previously led Amakhosi to success after winning the SAA Supa 8 and Absa Cup in his first spell between 2005 to 2007, the German tactician had hoped to bring back the glory days to Naturena although in the end it wasn’t to be after missing out in the 2019 Nedbank Cup final and after losing the 2019/20 season league title on the final day.
Speaking to the Siya crew, the well-travelled coach discussed some of the challenges he faced at Amakhosi.
“You come in, in December 2018 and you go up to the end of the season. There’s a huge number of players, even though there’s nothing to discuss, they have contracts for the next season. They have a contract, it doesn’t matter. It was (Siphelele) Ntshangase, it was (Dumisani) Zuma, it was (Bernard) Parker, and it was whoever. They had contracts and one had to respect that and you have to try and manoeuvre around, and you try to find some two or three additions. That was the situation,” he said.
“It was not like the contract had finished for this one and that one like it is sometimes the case at some teams where you can take a different direction. No! That was not the question. The question for me was what was there and what I had to deal with. That is what I had to put in place. I was really talking to the management just to release some players and just to find on loan moments for some players to open positions. But it was impossible. If you are at Chiefs, nobody wants to leave, they want to stay. They know it’s a safe place and they know it’s a fantastic environment. That’s what I had to accept going into the season 2019/20, I tried to accept what was there and tried to manoeuvre with two or three additional players like Samir (Nurkovic) and (Kearyn) Baccus to try and find the right direction,” said Middendorp.
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