The mere fact that when Samir Nurkovic, James Kotei, Kyrean Baccus and Lazarous Kambole (okay, maybe we can leave out Kambole) were announced everyone ran to Google to ask for search help on they are means they are not the material one expects at a big club like Chiefs.
Chiefs are a big team with unprecedented success in the local game. They have been known as trend setters since their inception 50 years ago.
They have been known to attract the best talent. Almost every player in the local league wanted to do well so that Amakhosi can notice him and swoop for him. But with the exception of Khama Billiat and Lebo Manyama in the past few years the bar in terms of the kind of player signed by Chiefs has been lowered quite amazingly. The likes of Ryan Moon, Edmore Chirambandare and Gustavo Paez should never have been associated with such a big brand. But right now on their CV’s they have Chiefs’ name as one of the teams they played for.
Unknowns have come and made it big at Chiefs previously. When Knowledge Musona joined from Zimbabwe as a youngster, not many knew him and believed he would scale the heights he did. But still, most have failed as they found that just putting that famous gold and black jersey adds tons of weight on your shoulders.
As Pollen Ndlanya recently told me, we need to give the new players a chance and see what they can give on the field although based on what they have done in the past, they are not much better than Paez. What is also worrying is that all these players, again with the exception of Kambole, came as free agents after they contracts were not renewed wherever they were. It is worrying if you are a Khosi fan.
