Middendorp’s got something up his sleeves for Chiefs

His almost arrogant demeanor makes him unpopular. He can be sarcastic when it’s not even necessary. A colleague was telling me how a friend of his – who is also a journalist – was left frustrated after an encounter with Middendorp.

He was so frustrated that he went as far as to call him a sadistic d*#khead. Apparently the German mentor had been his usual sarcastic self even though they had won against Cape Town City.

But if you put all that aside, you find that there is a really good coach behind that ugly character. Sometimes I think he portrays this ugly personality to shield himself, but I digress.

What he is doing at Chiefs proves him to be a coach who takes care of the little details and demands that things are either done properly or not done at all.

It is not only the way he eloquently sets out what he wants to do with the team but also what he is achieving. The results are steadily coming. Even players who appeared not too keen on his idea of how they should play are now warming up to him.

I noticed how Siphelele Ntshangase was able to make dashing runs in attack and also quickly track back to defend when they lost the all in their game against Bloemfontein Celtic at the weekend.

Khama Billiat is also getting back to his best and I saw somewhere that one supporter even likened the way he plays lately to that of Liverpool’s Sadio Mane.

It is unfortunate that he has made it so hard for the supporters to be in his corner because of his uncool antics because with everyone’s buy in, he could return Amakhosi to their former glorious days.

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