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By Sibongiseni Gumbi

Football Writer


This is Benni’s time to go and reflect and change his attitude

Benni McCarthy got his first taste of what he should get used to if he is to be in the Premier Soccer League.


This is the ugly side of our game that we have become used to and surprisingly still find amusing. From what is being whispered, McCarthy was lucky in that he was at Cape Town City who have an owner who is a little more patient than others. He would have been fired a long time ago had he been at a Chippa United. He got his first taste of what he should get used to if he is to be in the Premier Soccer League - where club owners are known to be trigger happy and do not hesitate when…

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This is the ugly side of our game that we have become used to and surprisingly still find amusing.

From what is being whispered, McCarthy was lucky in that he was at Cape Town City who have an owner who is a little more patient than others. He would have been fired a long time ago had he been at a Chippa United.

He got his first taste of what he should get used to if he is to be in the Premier Soccer League – where club owners are known to be trigger happy and do not hesitate when they have to fire a coach.

In the little time he has spent at City, he has proven to be a promising coach, someone who could go on and achieve even greater things as a coach as he did as a player. He was even tipped for the Bafana Bafana job.

His biggest asset was his ability to understand the players within the two years he spent at Orlando Pirates in his last playing years coming in handy in reintroducing him to the local way of things, how the players react to different coaching styles.

But that was also a little bit detrimental for him because he seemed to have a blurry view of the line between still being a player and being a coach. He sometimes forgot that he was the elder in the team, someone who has to reign in anyone who goes wayward. His quick temper didn’t help at all.

He has a long time of coaching ahead of him and I believe he will eventually be at Bafana. But he must use this break he has to reflect on what he has done right and got wrong in his first stint as a coach. He also needs to take his job a little more seriously next time. I know football is about entertainment at the end of it all, but as a coach, to him, football is a job and he needs to understand that.

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