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Absent leadership is Pirates' downfall

Unhappy times... Orlando Pirates supporters are having it tough as their beloved club flounders.

Orlando Pirates supporters are looking forward to today's Soweto derby with a high level of despondency. In fact, to say they are looking forward to this match is somewhat inaccurate, but somehow they feel obliged to pay attention to the match because of tradition and historical rivalry with the opponent, Kaizer Chiefs. 
The Soweto derby is the biggest soccer match in South Africa, and one of the biggest on the continent. Though the encounter this afternoon is an exhibition match under the guise of the Carling Black Label Cup, when  Pirates and Chiefs meet there are no friendly pleasantries exchanged. The derby is a fight for bragging rights, and very little else matters.

For Pirates, the overwhelming sadness enveloping their supporters is not so much from the bad season they had, playing the worst football ever by the club's standards.  Yes, it was bad and ended with Pirates finishing outisde the top 8 for the first time in the 17 years of the SA premier league. In the lost cause that the 2016/17 season was for the Sea Robbers, the team also lost two league matches by six goals to Pretoria giants, SuperSport United and Mamelodi Sundowns.

But above that the club's followers are in pain over the management's lack of effort to address them over the embarassment fans experienced in the past season. The club had so many opportunities to apologise and commisserate with the fans, while also explaining with clarity the plans the club has to change the mess of 2016/17. This is the buy-in the fans needed to feel consoled by the structure that matter: the management.

However, going forward to today's game and beyond the Pirates supporters do not feel like anything has been resolved. If anything, judging by secondary information garnered from the media, it does not appear the crisis is over. Apart from uncertainty over the future of coach Kjell Jonevret, who was appointed only in February, there are several crucial areas still in limbo.
Jonevret sure does not look the part but then if he is the coach Pirates want in the new season, then let the management make that clear. Now, with rumours that former Bucs coach Milutin Sredojevic is on his way back, the mystery deepens. Lest we forget, Sredojevic left Pirates in 2006, after a short stint, purely because the management failed to protect him when the players openly undermined his authority.

Captaincy is another position in limbo at Pirates. The team was rudderless during matches last season because the club stuck out with Oupa Manyisa, who was a shadow of his former self as a player. Before his appointment as captain, his leadership qualities were unknown to the general public because we never saw them even when he was playing his best football. He was a reluctant captain and it's a mystery how and why he was chosen to lead in the first place.

The examples above point to one factor that's responsible for structural problems at Orlando Pirates: leadership. This is of poor quality at all levels, and yet right at the top sits a man respected for football brains. It's time Irvin Khoza, Orlando Pirates chairman, appoints suitable candidates in all rungs of leadership at the club.

As it things stand, clubs like SuperSport United and Bidvest Wits are doing well because of leadership quality. Compare what Pirates have to the solid structures at these two so-called small clubs: it's chalk and cheese.

Will Pirates enjoy better days in the season? I don't foresee that, despite what happens in the preseason derby match today.     

Comments

  1. Unknown30 July 2017 at 00:06

    iPieRats ayisafani Tumo

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tumo Mokone2 August 2017 at 17:40

      The management has always been messy Tlaks; nothing new. they are exposed now because the resources of so-called smaller clubs have improved

      Delete

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